le pieces of wood
nailed on to narrow strips that were fastened to the barn. Not a bit
like any ladder Mary Jane had ever seen before.

"But the basket's up there, Bob," said Mary Jane, glad of some one to
think aloud to, "and my grandmother she wouldn't tell me to go up if I
couldn't, so I guess I'll try."

She put one foot on the ladder and then the other. "Why, it's just
like climbing a gate only it isn't a gate," she announced proudly, "and
I'm way up a'ready!"

It was easy to step from the ladder to the loft because the sides of
the ladder went on up high and she simply held tight to them and
stepped off onto the floor Of the loft.

And _that_ was the funniest place Mary Jane had ever seen! Hay
everywhere, and a pleasant, fragrant smell that pleased Mary Jane even
though she hadn't an idea why. She looked around a minute and then
hunted for the basket.

Over in the corner, under a funny little, cobwebby window she found it,
half hidden by the tossed up hay.

She recognized it at once because of the curious little cover
Grandmother had spoken of. But, dear me, Grandmother would surely have
to clean it before it was used for cobwebs and scraps of hay were all
over the top!

"I wonder if the cover comes off, or just opens like a door," thought
Mary Jane as she bent over it. "I guess I'd better see."

She moved the cover the tiniest bit and found it was fastened to one
side. "It's like a box," she said aloud, "and it opens easy, I know!"

She opened it out and what _do_ you suppose she saw down in the bottom
of that basket? You'd never guess!

Four of the cunningest little gray mice! All snuggled down together
into a little ball of fur--Mary Jane would never have guessed there
were four, they were so tiny, only she saw the four little black noses
and four pairs of beady black eyes.

"You darlingest!" she exclaimed happily, and sat right down in the hay
beside the basket to watch them. She reached her finger in and touched
their silky little backs; she watched them snuggle down tight and
tighter together and she altogether forgot about Bob and egg-hunting
and Grandmother and everything, she was so delighted. But Bob didn't
forget about her, not he.

For a while he waited patiently at the bottom of the ladder. He seemed
to know that she might have to hunt a while for the basket. But as the
minutes went by and she didn't come and didn't come, he grew more and
more restless. He whined, and he