table, for the kitchen was cozy and
warm and no amount of snow from rubber boots and little shoes could
harm the linoleum floor, and began to get them something to eat.

"They must be starved, poor lambs," she said, "It is almost three
o'clock."

You see, the children had been walking ever since half-past eleven
o'clock that morning and had had nothing to eat since their breakfasts.
No wonder they were tired and hungry.

"I don't see how you could walk away out here," said Bob Parkney,
pouring milk into the bowls his mother had put out on the table. "I
did it this forenoon, and I was dead tired when I got home."

"Bob walked to school, because the trolley cars were not running,"
explained Mrs. Parkney. "His father took the light wagon and one of
the horses and went after him right after dinner to save him the walk
home. But the public schools dismissed the pupils early, just as Miss
May did you, and Bob had started before his father got to the school."

"And while I was in the building, asking for Bob, the horse took it
into its head to walk away without me," said Mr. Parkney. "So I had to
walk all the way back home myself."

"How are we to get these children home?" said Mrs. Parkney to her
husband, while Sunny Boy and his six playmates were busy with the
delicious home-made bread and country milk she had given them. "Their
mothers will be wild with anxiety, Robert. Our telephone is out of
order, or we could telephone and let them know and keep the children
here over night."

"Bob and I will take them home in the sleigh," said Mr. Parkney at
once. "It's an old rattletrap affair, and I don't believe it has been
used for years. Still, I reckon Bob and I can make it hold together
for one trip. But, Mother, find out where these little folks live
before they go to sleep. I might leave the wrong child at the wrong
house."

The cold and the long walk had made the children very sleepy. Sunny
Boy could hardly hold his eyes open and Jessie Smiley went to sleep
with her spoon in her hand. When Mrs. Parkney tried to wake her up and
ask her where she lived, Jessie only opened her eyes and smiled and
closed them again.

"My feet are warm now," she murmured.

"I know where she lives," said Sunny Boy to Mrs. Parkney. "I'll tell
Bob. I know where all the children live, don't I, Jimmie?"

Mrs. Parkney said she would have to depend on Sunny Boy, for the others
were so sleepy they almost tumbled over standing up