er work. Aunt Esmerelda was unhappy, and the more
she tried to do her work the more she complained, and every once in a
while she took a long look at Hortense, as if accusing her of her
trouble. The trouble was that Aunt Esmerelda was trying to make cole
slaw and she couldn't find her grater to shred the cabbage. So she was
trying to cut it up with the large butcher knife.

"I 'clare," Aunt Esmerelda grumbled half to herself, but just loud
enough so she knew Hortense would hear, "this yere house is sho' nuff
voodood. First of all this ornery cat gets himself into some mighty
peculiar fixes, inside the sofa and chimney and such likes, then the
grater begins to get all full of knife holes and now I cain't even find
it at all." Hortense squirmed uneasily and wished somebody could help
Aunt Esmerelda get a new grater. But she couldn't tell the cook where
the grater was, or how it got there, or poor old Aunt Esmerelda might
leave and never come back, frightened as she was of spooks and similar
things. But she didn't want a new grater, either, for fear it might
also help the cat free the old grater, for then there would be three of
them to contend with. So she said nothing but just kicked her feet a
bit and stared at the floor.

Just then Mary came in, and she and Aunt Esmerelda began to talk.

Mary said, "You know, the firedogs are missing and Grandmother is very
unhappy about it, because she can't have a fire-place fire on these
chilly evenings. And when I went in the parlor to dust today, the sofa
is gone, too. None of these things ever happened before Hortense came.
I can imagine she might have taken the firedogs, though I can't imagine
why. But she is too little to move that big divan."

By now Hortense felt very uneasy, knowing that both the cook and the
maid were suspicious of her activities. She was wishing desperately
that she wouldn't have to look at them, when luckily Grandfather came
into the kitchen on his way to the barn and asked her if she would like
to go look at the horses with him. So she gladly left the kitchen.

On their way to the barn she finally said, "Grandfather, is Grandmother
awfully unhappy about the firedogs?" At this her Grandfather appeared
surprised, but finally admitted to her that Grandmother surely did miss
her fireplace fire in the evenings when she had tea.

"Well," said Hortense, "I've been trying to think of a plan to rescue
the firedogs and the alligator sofa, but I need your help