owed to watch the ducks in peace. So he decided the
easiest way to get rid of David and the others would be to tell them what
they wanted to know.

"I'll show you," he said. "Come on."

He led them out of the dairy into a little cobwebby room, and pointed up
to a square opening.

"I slid through that--see?" he demanded.

"Did it hurt?"

"Course not--I fell on the hay."

The floor was thickly covered with old, dusty hay.

"It's the room where we used to throw down hay to feed the cows,"
explained Jimmie. "They covered it over with loose boards when they put
in the hay three or four years ago. But I suppose you youngsters when
romping around kicked the boards to one side and the hay with it. Sunny,
coasting down the side of the cave, just coasted right on through the
hole and landed down here. Lucky there was hay enough on the floor to
save him a bump."

"But why didn't you come and tell us?" asked David. "Here we've been
looking all over for you. Why didn't you sing out?"

"I was going to," admitted Sunny Boy apologetically. "But when I was
hunting for the way into the barn, I found the ducks. Let's go and tell
Grandma we saw 'em."

It was noon by this time, so the Hatch children went home and Sunny Boy
and Jimmie walked together to the house. It had stopped raining, and the
sun felt warm and delightful.

"Of course you may have a duck," said Grandma, when Sunny Boy told her of
his find. "That foolish old mother duck marched off with her children one
morning and I couldn't for the life of me discover where she had gone.
And Grandpa must board over that hole if you are going to play in the
haymow. Another time you might hurt yourself, falling like that."

"Where's Mother?" asked Sunny Boy, eager to tell her about the morning's
fun.

"I believe she is up in the attic," returned Grandma. "She's been up
there for an hour or so. I wish, lambie, you'd run and find her and say
dinner will be on the table in half an hour."

Sunny climbed the crooked, steep stairs that led to Grandma's attic, and
found Mother bending over an old trunk dragged out to the middle of the
floor.

"Mother," he began as soon as he saw her, "we've been sliding on the hay,
and I found a duck mother, an' Grandma gave me a duck for my own. What
are you doing, Mother?"

Mrs. Horton was sitting on the floor, her lap filled with a bundle of old
letters.

"I've been having a delightful morning, too," she said. "Grandma started
to go over