answer. "Gail looked
and I looked. She says somebody must have stolen it."

"The tramp!" cried Faith and Cherry in one voice.

"Bet he didn't!" declared Peace, who had stood open-mouthed and silent
during Hope's recital. "I gave him a great big lunch and--and some
matches to make some more with--"

"Yes," said Faith, bitterly grieved over the loss of the cake, "and kept
him hanging around here all the morning, till we thought he never was
going. I suppose he took the cake for his dinner."

"I don't believe it! But he did weed those flower beds beau--ti--fully!"
cried Peace, championing his cause. "And he strung Hope's vines just as
even! And the lawn is all mowed, and there ain't a sprill of grass left
in the onion patch, and the rain barrel is fixed up and the back step is
mended, and--did he stop up the leaks in the hen house? I told him just
where they were."

"Perhaps you told him to pay for his breakfast, too," suggested the
older girl, sarcastically. "We found a half dollar under his cup after
he was gone."

"A sure-enough half dollar?" asked Peace, too astonished to believe her
ears.

"Yes, a sure-enough half dollar!"

"Where is it? I want to see it for myself."

"On the pantry shelf. Gail thought he might have left it there by
mistake and would come back after it. But I don't."

"Maybe he left it to pay for taking the cake," suggested Allee, who had
joined the excited group in the hall.

"He never took the cake," Peace asserted stoutly. "But I don't think he
will ever come back for his money, either. He wouldn't have left it in
the dishes if he hadn't meant it for us. His clothes had pockets in
them, same as any other man's, and if he had any money, he would have
kept it there and not carried it around in his hands. Wish he would come
back, though. I'd ask him about the cake, just to show you he never took
it."

"See here, Peace Greenfield," cried Faith, with sudden suspicion, "do
you know where that cake is?"

"No, I don't! How should I know? But I don't believe that tramp took it.
So there!"

"I don't believe he was even a tramp. Suppose he was a bad man, who had
done something terrible, and the police were after him--"

"Yes, or s'pose he was a prince," Peace broke in, remembering her
conversation with the gray, old man. "He might be one for all we know,
but he didn't look like a bad man."

"Suppose we stop supposing," laughed Hope, "and all hunt for the cake.
Someone may have hid it jus