joke, and we went hungry because we wouldn't look for them."

Esther saw the sense of all that; but Angela repeated anxiously,
"Do you think it is safe?"

"Yes, safe enough with Guard to protect us," said Penelope, rather
impatiently. She was dreadfully hungry, and very disappointed and rather
cross. They all got up and looked about them. Guard was at a little
distance from them, sniffing excitedly about a big clump of furze and
blackberry bushes.

"I believe they are there," cried Penelope.

"What, the thieves!" cried Angela, turning pale.

"Don't be silly, Angela," Penelope retorted crossly. "Can't you see you
are frightening Poppy? I meant the baskets. If you are afraid, stay
here, and I will go alone."

Angela looked 'squashed.' "Oh no," she stammered, "I--I will go too."

"We will all go," said Esther promptly. "Come along, children, don't
let's be silly."

They went along hand in hand, trying hard to look unconcerned and brave,
and succeeding fairly well. Guard, seeing them coming, ran back to them
excitedly, then tore back to the bushes again, while they followed as fast
as they could, peered in where he was thrusting his nose, and there, right
in the middle of the furze brake, they saw the two baskets and the can,
quite empty.

They were so hungry, so shocked, so disappointed, and so mortified by the
trick that had been played them, they had hard work to keep back their
tears. Angela and Poppy quite failed to. "I never knew such a horrid old
birthday," sobbed Poppy; "and the patties looked so lovely, and the cake,
and now we've got to wait till we go home."

Esther stood with the baskets in her hands, gazing at them with a troubled
face. "I am glad we have these to take home with us," she said
thoughtfully. "Girls, do you think we had better go straight back and
tell what has happened, or--or shall we say nothing and let Cousin
Charlotte and Anna think we have eaten it all up. Anna would be so
awfully disappointed to think all the meat patties and the sandwiches she
had made, and all the other things, had been eaten by thieves, and--and
very likely we shouldn't be allowed to come out like this any more, and
that would be dreadful."

The consternation on all faces when Esther began was almost ludicrous,
and, indeed, it was no light matter to contemplate hours of hunger in that
hungry air; but the thought of Cousin Charlotte's and Anna's
disappointment, wrath, and alarm made them think o