x. "We don't need a
cover for this box," she said, pulling at the screen Grandfather had
tacked on, "till they get bigger. We'll take it off so you can take
care of them easier. There now!" she added as the screen came off,
"we'll cover them up so," and she laid the soft cloth that had been on
the basket over the little ducks; "now we'll let them be for a while."

"But we didn't feed them, Grandmother," objected Mary Jane.

"To be sure not," laughed Grandmother. "They don't want anything to
eat just yet. Not to-day. All they want is to be warm and cozy."

"Don't they want anything to drink either?" asked Mary Jane.

"No," replied Grandmother, "nothing to drink either. To-morrow you can
fix them a drinking dish and I'll show you about their food, but now,
we'll just let them be. Listen! What's that?"

Grandmother straightened up and counted the rings of her telephone bell.

"Yes, that's our ring. You take this basket back to your grandfather
while I answer it."

But before Mary Jane got out to the chicken house Grandmother was back
at the kitchen steps calling, "Father! Father!" And then as she got
no answer she called to Mary Jane, "Mary Jane! Tell your grandfather
it's long distance and he should come quick!"

Mary Jane hurried in to tell her grandfather the message and then she
waited, wonderingly, till he should come back. Had anything happened?

COUSIN JOHN'S VISIT

But the minute Mary Jane saw her grandfather smile as he came back into
the chicken house, she knew that if something _had_ happened it was a
nice something--for he was smiling a nice sort of a smile.

"Good news for us, Pussy," he said. "Now you're going to have some one
to play with."

"Another Bob?" asked Mary Jane.

"Another fiddlesticks!" laughed Grandfather. "Haven't you enough
animal friends as it is? What would you do with more? No, sir! This
is a real playmate."

"Who is she?" asked Mary Jane.

"_She_!" laughed Grandfather, "is your cousin Margaret's boy John--or
rather, she's your mother's cousin. They live over in Benset, you
know, Pussy. They promised that if you came this summer, they'd let
John come over for a visit so you two could play."

"Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane happily, "how big is he?"

"About as big as you are, I expect," said Grandfather thoughtfully,
"but I can't really say because I haven't seen him for a long time.
But you'll know all about him to-morrow."

After that Grandfathe