nker. "What have
you lost?"

"Oh, my!" said Laddie, quite as dolefully as Rose had spoken. "I--I
don't see my new stick-pin. It isn't here. I--I just guess I have lost
it, too."

CHAPTER VII

THE SOUP JUGGLER

Rose was almost in tears when she found that her watch was lost. But
although Laddie felt very bad about his missing stick-pin, he would not
cry. Just the same, he did not feel as though he could make a riddle out
of it.

"Now, Rose, and you, Laddie," said Mother Bunker admonishingly, as she
seated them before her in one of the double seats of the Pullman car in
which they had their reservations, "I want to know all about how you
came to forget the watch and the pin--and just where you forgot them?"

Although Mother Bunker was usually very cheerful and patient with the
children, this was a serious matter. Carelessness and inattention were
faults that Mother Bunker was always trying to correct. For those two
faults, as she pointed out so frequently, led often to much trouble, as
in this case. The loss of the wrist watch and the stick-pin could not be
passed over lightly.

Laddie shook his head very sorrowfully. "That _is_ a riddle, Mother," he
said. "I can forget things so easy that I forget how I forget them."

But Rose was thinking very hard, and she broke out with:

"Maybe I never had it there at all!"

"Where?" asked Mrs. Bunker, while the other children stood in the aisle
or knelt on the seat behind to listen at the conference. "Where didn't
you have it?"

"At home, Mother. I--I guess I haven't seen that watch since we were at
Captain Ben's."

"Oh!" shouted Laddie. "That is just it! I left my stick-pin at the
bungalow. I left it sticking in that cushion on the bureau in that room
where Russ and Mun Bun and I slept. Of course I did."

"Are you sure, Laddie?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "I remember that I did not go
into that room to see if anything was left. I should have done so, but
we were in such a hurry."

"My rememberer is all right now," declared Laddie, with conviction.
"That is where I left the pin."

"And you, Rose?" asked their mother.

"I--I don't know for sure," admitted Rose. "I can't remember where I had
the watch last--or when I wore it last. But I do not believe I had it at
all when we came home to Pineville."

"Well, Laddie is positive, and I suspect that you were quite as careless
as he was," Mrs. Bunker said. "You should not be, Rose, for you are
older."

"Oh, Mother