nd she looked astonished.

"I don't see why you threw it at me," she said resentfully.

"I didn't," Meg explained. "I forgot to hold the rope. Shall I come
down and get it?"

"Twaddles will bring you the rope," said Bobby. "Soon as I put
something in the basket. Let's see, what shall we put in next?"

"There's Poots," Dot suggested, pointing to the cat who had followed
them.

"I don't think she'll like it," objected Meg, but Bobby was eager to
send the cat aloft and he and Twaddles together managed to stuff her
in the basket.

Bobby held her there while Twaddles took one end of the rope in his
hand and scrambled up the ladder to the waiting Meg.

"Where did you put the lunch?" he asked as soon as he reached the
loft.

"I put it away," Meg assured him. "Are you going to help me pull the
basket up, Twaddles?"

Twaddles was eager to help and he forgot the lunch. He stood back of
Meg and they both began to pull. Poots meowed sadly as she felt
herself rising and Bobby and Dot shouted to the pullers to "hurry
up."

"Poots will jump out in a minute," warned Bobby.

Twaddles' foot slipped on the soft hay and he went down, slackening
his hold on the rope as he fell. Meg turned to see what had happened
to him, let the rope sag, and the basket fell a foot or two with
sickening speed.

This was too much for any self-respecting cat and with a wild snarl
Poots leaped clear over the heads of Bobby and Dot. The angry cat
landed on his feet on the barn floor ten feet away, and dashed out
into the rain. Getting his fur coat soaking wet was preferable to
being hoisted about in a basket, he seemed to say.

"What did you do to Poots?" called Jud. "When he went out of that
door, his tail was two feet around!"

"We were only playing with him," Bobby said. "But maybe he didn't like
it much."

"If you have time to play with the cat, you have time to help me,"
declared Jud. "Don't you and Meg want to come and help me see if this
sheller is going to work?"

Bobby and Meg loved to help Jud and they left their game cheerfully,
to go to the corncrib. It was attached to the other end of the barn,
so they didn't have to go out in the rain. Jud wanted to watch the
machinery he had mended and he asked Meg to turn the crank and Bobby
to feed in the ears of corn. They were never allowed to touch the
sheller unless some older person was around, for little fingers could
get easily nipped in the cog wheels. So they were rather proud to