n't there. You must have put it someplace else."

"No, Miss Dolly, I nebber laid a hand on dat cake. I know jes' how
choice you was of it, an' I lef it jes' whar yo' put it."

"But it isn't there, and who would disturb it?"

"Tain't dar! Land o' goodness! Den whar is it?" Maria's black eyes
rolled in dismay. "Somebody's done stole it!"

"Stole it? Nonsense! Nobody would do that. Dot--_ty_!" and Dolly's loud
call brought Dotty flying.

Mrs. Rose followed, and both stood aghast with consternation when Dolly
announced, "The cake is gone!"

"Gone! What do you mean?" and Dotty looked around the shelves in a dazed
sort of way.

"I mean what I say," cried Dolly impatiently. "Our cake is gone, and, as
Maria says, somebody must have stolen it."

"Stolen it! Our cake!" and Dotty gave a wild shriek.

"It can't be stolen," said Mrs. Rose, looking puzzled; "we've never had
anything stolen all the years we've been here."

"Then where is it?" demanded Dolly. "Where can it be?"

"Didn't you take it into the dining-room?" suggested Mrs. Rose, unable
to think of any other solution of the mystery.

"No, indeed; I left it right here till we were ready to start. I had it
in the open window, because the kitchen was so hot, and of course some
tramp has come along and stolen it. Oh, Dotty, what shall we do?"

But Dotty was beyond speech. Her staring eyes gazed at the table where
the cake had been. Vaguely she glanced round the pantry shelves, and
then flew through the kitchen to the dining-room and looked all around
there. But of course she saw no cake, for Dolly had left it in the
pantry.

"Where are the boys?" asked Dolly, suddenly.

"Gone to a motor boat race," said Mrs. Rose. "They went off half an hour
ago. But they wouldn't steal your cake."

"They might do it for a joke," said Dolly.

"No," said Mrs. Rose, decidedly; "they wouldn't do that. They were too
interested in the success of you girls, and they felt about that cake
just as we all did. No, Bob and Bert never stole the cake! Where's
Genie?"

"Upstairs, I think," said Dotty, and going to the foot of the staircase
she called her sister.

Genie came running down and was as greatly disturbed as the other girls
at the disappearance of the cake.

"Of course I never touched it!" she said indignantly. "I wanted my Dotty
and my Dolly to take the prize. Do you s'pose I'd steal their lovely
cake?"

There was no mistaking the little girl's honesty and good faith, an