the tail and
carry him back to Madeline."

Up and up, and to and fro, switched the Candy Rabbit on the kite tail.
Of course a bunch of grass, a wad of paper, or even a stone would have
been just as well for the boys to have used as a weight. But they had
happened to see the Candy Rabbit, and had taken him. Boys are sometimes
like that, you know.

How long Herbert, Dick and Arnold might have let the Candy Rabbit sail
about on the end of the kite tail I cannot say, but when the three chums
had been having this fun for about half an hour, all of a sudden
Madeline and her two friends, Mirabell and Dorothy, came running across
the field.

"Oh, Herbert! what do you think?" cried Madeline, when she saw her
brother. "That bad old cat came into our house again, and tried to catch
one of our goldfish!"

"Did he get any?" asked Herbert.

"No, but he almost did. Dorothy came over with her Sawdust Doll just as
the cat was dipping his paw down into the bowl, and what do you think
Dorothy did?" asked Madeline.

"I don't know. What did she do?" asked Herbert.

"I just threw my Sawdust Doll at the cat!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I knew it
couldn't hurt her, 'cause she's stuffed with sawdust."

"Did you hit him?" Dick asked.

"I almost did," answered Dorothy. "Anyhow, I scared him away, and he
didn't get any goldfish."

"That's good," said Arnold.

"I wish I'd been there!" said Dick.

Just then Madeline looked up and saw something dangling on the end of
the kite tail.

"Why, Herbert!" she cried, "what have you there? Oh, you have my Candy
Rabbit on your kite! I was looking all over for him. Where'd you get
him?"

"I found him here in the field where you dropped him," answered her
brother.

"I didn't drop my Candy Rabbit here," went on Madeline. "I wouldn't do
such a thing. I left him in the house, and then I couldn't find him, and
I was coming to ask if you had seen him. I thought maybe Carlo had
carried him off as he carried Dorothy's doll once."

"Well, if you didn't take your Candy Rabbit out and leave him here in
the field, maybe Carlo did," said Herbert. "Anyhow, we didn't hurt him
and you can have him back again. We can tie a bunch of weeds on the kite
tail. They'll be just as good as the Rabbit."

"Oh, the idea of saying my Candy Rabbit is like a bunch of weeds!" cried
Madeline. "Give him right back to me this minute, Herbert!" and she
shook her finger at her brother.

"All right," Herbert answered. "Pull the