d and which had led her
to hasten the picnic, arrived two or three days after the adventure in
the brook. The exceedingly practical Meg remarked at the breakfast
table, the first rainy morning, that she didn't care if it did
rain--Shirt was safe in a dry place and the man had had plenty of time
to get his wash dry and take it in off the bush.

"I wonder what he said when he saw the buttons," speculated Dot.

But this was one question that never received an answer, for the
children never saw the man who owned the shirt and they never heard
whether he was pleased to find his mending done or not.

"Maybe he thought the birds did it for him," said Twaddles helpfully
and was delighted when Jud told him that there was a bird called the
tailor bird.

"Then he did it," Twaddles declared, and when Dot pointed out that
they had seen Linda doing the work, Twaddles explained that he meant
the man would think the tailor bird had done it.

It was talk like this between the twins that made Jud say it gave him
a headache if he listened too long.

"We haven't had a rain like this in a long time," said Aunt Polly,
glancing out of the dining-room window at the dripping leaves.

"Not since we lost the raft," Bobby reminded her.

"I wonder if we'll ever find that," said Meg for the fortieth time.

"If I were you," Aunt Polly announced briskly, "I'd think up the
nicest thing to do for a rainy day and have just as much fun as I
could."

"Let's go out in the barn," suggested Twaddles.

"We could see what Jud is doing," Dot chimed in.

"He's mending the corn shelter," said Bobby, who usually knew what was
going on at the farm.

"I think it would be fun to play lighthouse in the barn and take our
lunch and stay all day," Meg declared, having thought of this while
the others were talking.

None of them knew what the lighthouse game might be, but it sounded
new and exciting. Aunt Polly said she didn't see why they couldn't
have a picnic in the barn as well as outdoors and she promised to help
Linda put up a lunch for them.

"Only remember not to bother Jud, if he is busy," she cautioned them.

The four little Blossoms knew how to run "between the drops" and as
soon as their lunch was packed, they kissed Aunt Polly and started for
the barn at breakneck speed. Flushed and breathless and hardly wet at
all, they burst into the barn and told Jud, who was busy on the main
floor, that they were going to have another picnic.

"You do