she wanted to "dress up" or
look especially nice. And to keep the sun from spotting her face with
freckles, she wore sunbonnets made of the same goods as her dresses.

Twinkle's best chum was a little boy called Chubbins, who was the only
child of the tired-faced school-teacher. Chubbins was about as old as
Twinkle; but he wasn't so tall and slender for his age as she was, being
short and rather fat. The hair on his little round head was cut close,
and he usually wore a shirt-waist and "knickers," with a wide straw hat
on the back of his head. Chubbins's face was very solemn. He never said
many words when grown folks were around, but he could talk fast enough
when he and Twinkle were playing together alone.

Well, one Saturday the school had a picnic, and Twinkle and Chubbins
both went. On the Dakota prairies there are no shade-trees at all, and
very little water except what they they get by boring deep holes in the
ground; so you may wonder where the people could possibly have a picnic.
But about three miles from the town a little stream of water (which they
called a "river," but we would call only a brook) ran slow and muddy
across the prairie; and where the road crossed it a flat bridge had been
built. If you climbed down the banks of the river you would find a nice
shady place under the wooden bridge; and so here it was that the picnics
were held.

All the village went to the picnic, and they started bright and early in
the morning, with horses and farm-wagons, and baskets full of good
things to eat, and soon arrived at the bridge.

There was room enough in its shade for all to be comfortable; so they
unhitched the horses and carried the baskets to the river bank, and
began to laugh and be as merry as they could.

Twinkle and Chubbins, however, didn't care much for the shade of the
bridge. This was a strange place to them, so they decided to explore it
and see if it was any different from any other part of the prairie.
Without telling anybody where they were going, they took hold of hands
and trotted across the bridge and away into the plains on the other
side.

The ground here wasn't flat, but had long rolls to it, like big waves on
the ocean, so that as soon as the little girl and boy had climbed over
the top of the first wave, or hill, those by the river lost sight of
them.

They saw nothing but grass in the first hollow, but there was another
hill just beyond, so they kept going, and climbed over that t