r her.

"Yes," added Katy, "she wants some sumach leaves, too. You boys can just
go off by yourselves. I bet we have the most fun."

Carol had pillowed his curly head on a bag of nuts and was deaf to the
other boy's urging to "Come Along." He was fast asleep before they were
fairly out of sight.

Alice said they'd leave him as a guard for the nuts and wraps. She set
off with the little girls in the opposite direction from that taken by
the boys.

"Wouldn't it be fun if we could find the cave?" exclaimed Chicken
Little, who had been studying over the glorious possibility for several
minutes.

"Why, yes, you might find an Aladdin's lamp there," replied Alice
teasingly.

Jane was not to be discouraged. "We might find something. Let's play we
do anyway. What'd you like to find, Katy?"

Katy considered.

"I'd like to find all those silver spoons and watches the burglars stole
from the Jones' and Gassetts' last month. Then we'd get the twenty-five
dollars reward and I could buy a lot of things."

Alice laughed.

"Those things are probably up in Chicago in some pawn shop long before
this, Katy. It's only in stories that burglars hide things in caves."

"Well, they might," insisted Katy.

"Yes, the moon might be made of green cheese--but it isn't," returned
Alice.

"Well, anyway, we can play we find the things," said Chicken Little.

Gertie surprised them all by saying: "I'd like to find a weenty teenty
bear cub."

"Gertie Halford, whatever would you do with a bear cub? You'd be scared
to death of it." Katy looked at her sister in scornful amazement.

"I'd like to find those stock certificates Father lost," said Alice.
"Perhaps we'll find them tied round your bear's neck, Gertie."

This absurdity made the children laugh as they toiled through the
underbrush, which was getting dense, planning merrily. They wandered and
explored for about half an hour up and down the bank, finding nothing
but a few haw-berries, some sumach leaves, and a pocket full of acorns
which Gertie was taking back to Carol to carve into dishes, for her.
Carol was an expert with his knife.

Chicken Little had a big scratch on her arm from a thorn bush, and Katy
a long tear in her blue gingham dress, which greatly annoyed her.

"Let's go back to Carol--this isn't any fun," she complained.

But Alice had just spied something that interested her.

"I bet I know what we can find that you'll all like," she said. "Wild
grapes! I see a b