gg-hunting is fun!"

So the minute she was through with her apple dumplings, Mary Jane
asked, "And now, please, may I get the eggs?"

"Got you hunting eggs already?" asked Grandfather. "Well, I wonder if
you'll like it as well as your mother used to. Have you your basket?"

"Not yet," said Grandmother. "I mean to let her get it herself.
She'll feel more at home when she begins to find her way around alone.
If you locked the pigs in, she can go anywhere she likes all alone."

"They're locked up fast," Grandfather assured her--much to Mary Jane's
relief.

"Then, Mary Jane," continued Grandmother, "you go out to the barn and
up the little ladder you'll find in the middle of the barn. And in the
loft somewhere, I'm sure you'll see it easily, you'll find a little,
covered basket. It's the very one your mother and your Aunt Cornelia
used to carry egg-hunting. If it's too dusty, bring it here, and I'll
clean it for you. Now run along, Pet," added Grandmother with a kiss
for the up-turned face, "and don't be long. I'll miss my little girl."

Just as Mary Jane opened the screen door to go out, a beautiful big
black and brown dog came running up to the door.

"Well, Bob!" exclaimed Grandmother, "where have you been all morning?
I wanted Mary Jane to get acquainted with you right away and you
weren't anywhere around! Mary Jane, this is Bob, our good dog, and
he's the best creature friend a little girl can make." She stepped out
of the door with Mary Jane and they both sat down on the steps and
talked to Bob. Mary Jane liked him from the first. He had such a
pretty face and such friendly, kind eyes and he looked as though he
would be good to little girls.

"May he go with me to the barn?" she asked.

"Indeed, yes," replied Grandmother. "You just start along and watch
him follow you! He'll go wherever you go from now on. You won't even
have to call him!"

Mary Jane jumped up and, just as Grandmother said, Bob jumped up from
the steps too and together they started off to the barn.

"Can you climb up a ladder?" asked Mary Jane gayly, as she skipped
along by Bob. "I can climb a ladder all by myself! I did it one day
when Mother hung curtains."

But dear me! When Mary Jane saw the steep ladder that went up to the
barn loft she wasn't so sure she could climb a ladder after, all! She
had been thinking of a nice little step-ladder such as her mother had
and this was a steep, narrow ladder made of funny litt