on had mingled with the dust till their faces
resembled a cross-roads map.

Dick Harding looked from one grimy face to another with a twinkle in his
eye.

"Suppose we all clean up and go downtown to get some ice-cream. I'll
stand treat. Won't you come, too, Mrs. Morton?"

"I don't think I care to risk the walk in the sun. I fear it will take
some time to make these children presentable."

Dick pulled out his watch. "Perhaps they might meet me at the ice-cream
parlor at four. I certainly need to freshen up myself."

It was so arranged and there was a prompt scattering homeward to get
ready. An hour later, shiny from much soap and water, and very stiff and
starchy as to waists and dresses, they flocked around Dick Harding.

"I can eat two saucers of cream and three pieces of cake and I'm sure I
can depend upon you boys to do as well. We'll limit the ladies to one
saucer and two pieces of cake because they are supposed to be delicate.
Is that right, Chicken Little?"

Dick joked and the children stowed away the dainties industriously. In
the midst of the feast an idea struck Gertie.

"What became of the baby mice?"

Sure enough what had become of them? Nobody seemed to know.

"I guess we just left them up on the chair in the bedroom," said Ernest.

"They weren't big enough to run away," observed Carol.

"Oh, dear, I hope nothing will hurt them--they were so cunning," mourned
Chicken Little. She hunted them up the minute she got home. The tiny
heap of paper was where they had left it, but the mice were gone. Olga
and Mrs. Morton denied having seen them.

Ernest and Jane hunted the room over, but the mice had disappeared.

When they fed Pete that night he seemed droopy and turned up his nose at
his best beloved dainties.

"Has Pete been loose today?" asked Dr. Morton.

"Yes, but I don't think he went out of the front room upstairs," replied
Mrs. Morton.

"Well, I'd be willing to wager Pete knows what became of the baby mice,"
laughed the doctor. "Trim him up with flowers, Chicken, and he'll make a
nice green grave for the dear departed."

A few days later Jane and Gertie were playing paper dolls in one of the
window recesses upstairs and remembering the mice decided to have a doll
funeral. But a funeral required mourning and they couldn't find a scrap
of black paper. While they were rummaging, they came across their find
of old newspapers, which Mrs. Morton had stacked up on a table till Dr.
Morton found