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.

"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 anyone 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 someone 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 someone ought to take care of the
poor little chap, don't you think? So he'd better come along with us."

Toto had been looking with great curiosity in the hole which the boy
was digging, and growing more and more excited every minute, perhaps
thinking that Button-Bright was after some wild animal. The little dog
began barking loudly and jumped into the hole himself, where he began
to dig with his tiny paws, making the earth fly in all directions. It
spattered over the