nake, Meg?"

"No," she whispered. "I don't know what it was. But it stared and
stared at me, Jud."

"Well, where did you see it?" demanded Jud briskly. "Let me have a
whack at it with this branch. Where'd you see it, Meg?"

"In the hole in this tree," answered Meg. "I was shaking more dirt off
the fern when I looked up and there it was jiggling at me."

"Where?" asked Jud again, a bit impatiently. "I don't see any hole."

"I'm standing over it," said Meg, "so the thing can't get away."

Meg, you see, was frightened, but not too frightened to be interested
and curious about a strange animal.

"I'm sure it's an animal, 'cause it moves," she told Jud, as she stood
aside to let him look in the hole.

Jud put his hand in the hole--it was an old dead tree and hollow at
the top--and drew out something soft and fluffy.

"Just as I thought," he chuckled. "It's a baby owl."

"Oh, how cunning," cried Meg, coming closer and venturing to put a
finger on the bunch of feathers. "But what a funny face, Jud!"

Indeed the baby owl looked like a very young and foolish monkey as it
sat in Jud's hands and rolled its head and stared aimlessly.

"He's pretty near blind," Jud explained. "In the daytime owls can
hardly see at all. I suspect there's a nest in this old tree. Want to
hold it for me while I feel?"

Meg was certainly not afraid of a baby owl, and she took it tenderly.
Sure enough, Jud knew what he was talking about--he put his arm away
into the tree trunk and brought out two more little owls.

Twaddles and Dot had come up by this time, and they were perfectly
entranced with the queer little birds.

Jud carefully put the baby owls back. Then they planted the fern in
the paper cup, found Bobby, who was trying to fish with a breadcrumb
tied to a string, and told him about the owls, and then they heard the
wagon coming for them.

"Have a good time?" asked Peter, as he helped them all in and the
wagon started its noisy trip home. Peter was eating one of the
sandwiches they had saved for him and looked very contented.

"Such a nice time," said the four little Blossoms.

"Was there any mail?" asked Aunt Polly.

"Just one letter," replied Peter.

But that was a very important letter, as the Blossoms found out when
they were once more at home and Aunt Polly read it to them while
Linda was getting supper.

"Mother's coming!" cried Bobby, meeting Jud on his way to the barn.

"That's fine," said Jud heartily. Then his