d.

"Dig," said he.

"But you can't dig forever; and what are you going to do then?" she
persisted.

"Don't know," said the boy.

"But you _must_ know _something_," declared Dorothy, getting provoked.

"Must I?" he asked, looking up in surprise.

"Of course you must."

"What must I know?"

"What's going to become of you, for one thing," she answered.

"Do _you_ know what's going to become of me?" he asked.

"Not--not 'zactly," she admitted.

"Do you know what's going to become of _you_?" he continued, earnestly.

[Illustration]

"I can't say I do," replied Dorothy, remembering her present
difficulties.

The shaggy man laughed.

"No one knows everything, Dorothy," he said.

"But Button-Bright doesn't seem to know _anything_," she declared. "Do
you, Button-Bright?"

He shook his head, which had pretty curls all over it, and replied with
perfect calmness:

"Don't know."

Never before had Dorothy met with any one who could give her so little
information. The boy was evidently lost, and his people would be sure to
worry about him. He seemed two or three years younger than Dorothy, and
was prettily dressed, as if some one loved him dearly and took much
pains to make him look well. How, then, did he come to be in this lonely
road? she wondered.

Near Button-Bright, on the ground, lay a sailor hat with a gilt anchor
on the band. His sailor trousers were long and wide at the bottom, and
the broad collar of his blouse had gold anchors sewed on its corners.
The boy was still digging at his hole.

"Have you ever been to sea?" asked Dorothy.

"To see what?" answered Button-Bright.

"I mean have you ever been where there's water?"

"Yes," said Button-Bright; "there's a well in our back yard."

"You don't understand," cried Dorothy. "I mean, have you ever been on a
big ship floating on a big ocean?"

"Don't know," said he.

"Then why do you wear sailor clothes?"

"Don't know," he answered, again.

Dorothy was in despair.

"You're just _awful_ stupid, Button-Bright," she said.

"Am I?" he asked.

"Yes, you are."

"Why?" looking up at her with big eyes.

She was going to say: "Don't know," but stopped herself in time.

"That's for you to answer," she replied.

"It's no use asking Button-Bright questions," said the shaggy man, who
had been eating another apple; "but some one ought to take care of the
poor little chap, don't you think? So he'd better come along with us."

Toto had been l