hat, of them all, it
was Nealie who most needed comfort just then.

"I don't want it, thank you, dearie," answered Nealie, her anxieties
being too heavy for sugar to alleviate.

"Here is another; and--oh, I say, I have just put my fingers into
something horribly sticky! What can it be?" and Ducky stuffed her fist
in the face of Billykins, for it was so dark that she could not see
where she was thrusting it.

"Look out!" he exclaimed in an offended tone, then suddenly changed to a
shout of joy. "Oh, it is marmalade, and it is all over my mouth! Have
you got any more of it, Nealie?"

"Of course. There was a pot in the grocery box, and I had forgotten
about it, or we would have had it to help out with supper, and then it
would not have been wasted in this fashion," replied Nealie, feeling
that she would like to indulge in a good cry over the ruin which had
come upon them.

"It won't be wasted if only I can find where that pot is. Can you guide
my hand, Ducky, to find it?" asked Don eagerly.

"It seems to be all over me--the marmalade, I mean--but I don't know
where the pot is, and I am most horribly sticky!" cried Ducky, who was a
most fastidious little maiden.

"Where is your fist? I will suck it clean for you," volunteered Don,
with such an air of brotherly self-sacrifice that Nealie burst out
laughing, which was much better for her than the tears she longed to
shed, and which had been smarting under her eyelids only a minute
before.

For a few minutes there was great competition between Don and Billykins
for the privilege of sucking Ducky's fists clean of marmalade, and, the
comical side of the picture presenting itself to the little girl, she
laughed as much as Nealie; then Sylvia joined in, and at length they
were all making the best of things, groping in the dark for lumps of
sugar and dabs of marmalade, until they lighted on some that had
uncomfortably mixed itself up with the pepper, when a chorus of ohs! and
ahs! sounded from the group of explorers, and everyone immediately
decided that they had had enough marmalade for the present.

The cattle had all gone, and the night was entirely silent again, when
Rupert said anxiously: "I wonder where Rockefeller has gone? We shall be
in a pretty bad case if anything happens to the old horse."

"I will go in search of him when morning comes; the worst that could
happen would be that he would stampede with the cattle, and we shall
have the men in charge of the d