Chapter 2

The farm was the very nicest place in the whole world. At least that is what the three little girls thought. Everything about it was nice. The rooms were big and cool and low. The wide side porch was a lovely place to eat dinner. The big low attic was splendid for rainy-day play; but the very, very nicest of all the nice things at the farm was Mary White.

Mary was nine years and she had lived on the farm all her life. She knew all the good places to play. She could call every animal on the farm by name. She could make up the most delightful games. What a splendid playmate she was!

First she took the children to the pasture to see the cows. There were three of them, Bonny-Belle, Bess, and Buttercup.

Beside Buttercup was the dearest little calf with long thin legs and a soft tan coat. It was Don, Buttercup's first baby. He was just two months old and very full of life and mischief.

"Is that another cow over there?" said Peggy, pointing to a field beyond the pasture. "Oh, no," said Mary, "That's Big Ben. He is a very wild and cross bull, so he has to have a home all by himself. No one ever goes into his field except Billy. Big Ben seems to hate people. But what he hates most is anything that is red."

The children peeped in at Big Ben, with nice safe-afraid shivers going down their backs. Then Mary said, "Come let's go to the farmyard."

The farmyard was a very busy place. "I never saw so many pets in all my life," said Betty. But Mary knew them all. She showed them Mrs. Speckle with her family of little baby chicks that looked like fluffy, yellow balls bobbing around her.

Next she pointed out Mrs. Black Hen with her larger children. Some of these chickens were losing their feathers. How Mary did laugh when Peggy cried, "See, those poor little chickens are peeling off!"

"Now," said Mary, "I will show you my trained chicken." First she went into the house and came out with two ripe, red cherries still on the stem. Then she called softly, "Come, come, Tom Thumb," and as she finished calling she put the stem of the cherries between her lips.

Out from among the other chickens came a beautiful little white rooster. He looked almost like a toy, he was so tiny. With a glad little crow he flew straight up to Mary's shoulder, where he began to peck at the cherries. He ate very daintily. Sometimes he would stop eating and cuddle down on Mary's shoulder. When the ripe red treat was all eaten he gave another glad crow and flew down.

Betty and Dot and Peggy loved to help feed the chickens. Every morning after breakfast Mrs. White would come out into the yard with a big pan of corn-meal mush and Mary would follow with a smaller pan of bread crumbs. Then both mother and little girl would call, "Chick, chick, chick! Chick, chick, chick! Chick, chick, chick!" as if they were singing the same tune over and over. At this, such a hurry and scurry as there would be!

It seemed as if every fowl on the farm heard the call and was coming. There were big hens and little hens, brown hens, black hens, white hens, and speckled hens. There were fluffy baby chicks and long-legged middle-sized chickens. There were proud roosters with bright combs and gay, glossy feathers. There were stately turkeys with long necks and great fan-like tails. There were ducks with long fat bodies and big flat feet.

Hurry, scurry! Scurry, hurry! "Cluck, cluck." "Peep-peep." "Groo-groo." "Gobble-gobble." "Quack, quack." Such noise and excitement you never heard!

Such table manners you never saw! All were talking at once. Everyone was pecking and pushing and grabbing!

One morning at the farmyard breakfast Mrs. White said, "Where can Brown Betty be? I haven't seen her for two or three weeks. I am afraid she has gone off and hidden her nest somewhere. I wish I knew where, for turkey eggs are scarce this year. If you four children will find her nest I will pay you ten cents for each egg in it."

The little girls were very much excited.

"Just suppose," said Betty, "that we find a nest with six eggs in it. That will be sixty cents. What shall we buy with so much money?"

"Wouldn't it be fun to get Father to take us to the store and let us buy things for a picnic?" said Mary.

"Oh, yes, let's have a picnic," cried Peggy and Betty.

"But first," said wise little Dot, "we must find Brown Betty's nest."

That very day the children began to hunt for the hidden eggs. They climbed up into the barn loft and looked in the hay. Here they found Mrs. Nicker on her nest. When they came near she ruffled up her feathers and gave an angry cluck. "Don't be afraid," laughed Betty; "we are looking for something worth much more than one little hen's egg."

Then hidden down in the hay they came across a mouse's home with four baby mice in it. They looked very small and young and funny. Their tiny eyes were shut tight. "You are cunning little things but you won't buy us a picnic," said Peggy.

In the eaves of the barn they found a swallow's nest, but the baby birds had flown away. Only some pieces of eggshell were left.

All that day and part of the next and the next and the next the children hunted and hunted but no Brown Betty and no turkey eggs could they find.

One bright June morning Mary said, "Let's go into the woods to play."

"Oh, may we?" Betty and Peggy asked their mothers. And little Dot said, "Oh, please may I?" and looked from one mother to the other.

"Yes, let them go," said Mrs. White. "The woods are not far away and there is nothing to harm them there."

So the four little girls started out.

They went down a shady lane and through a meadow. Then they came to the woods and wandered about for a while. At last they stopped by the side of a little brook that flowed merrily on its way.

In a few minutes, shoes and stockings were taken off and the children were wading in the cool, rippling water. It was lots of fun, but the water was very cold. Soon they were glad to dry their feet in the soft grass and put on their shoes and stockings again.

"Let's make a tree playhouse," said Mary; "I'll show you how." So they set to work with Mary as leader. They found a hollow tree with plenty of room in it. Next they gathered all the soft, velvety moss they could find. With this they made a thick green carpet on the floor. Then they made green moss furniture too. They had a bed, a couch, a table, and a chair.

"We should have some one to live in our green, mossy house," said Peggy. "Let's go to the meadow and gather some daisies and make little flower people out of them."

So off the children went. In a little while, back they came with their hands full of flowers.

Peggy was the first one to reach the tree house. She looked in and then began to laugh and call to the others to come quickly.

"We needn't make any flower people for our house," she said. "It's already rented." And sure enough, there on the green moss couch was a fat brown toad. He was winking and blinking and looking much pleased with his new home.

The children sat down to rest and watch Mr. Toad. All of a sudden they heard a queer sound. "Cheep-cheep! Cheep-cheep! Cheep-cheep-cheep!" It seemed to come from the bushes.

"It must be some little birds," said Betty.

"Perhaps it is a mother quail and her babies," said Mary.

Very carefully the four little girls peeped through the leaves and bushes.

Can you guess what they saw?

There, walking about in an open place in the woods, was Brown Betty, and running beside her and talking to her in turkey talk were eight baby turkeys.

How excited the children were! They all wanted to run to the farmhouse with the good news. But at last they drew lots to see who should go.

"I will hold four daisies," said Peggy, "and each of you may take one. The girl who gets the daisy with the longest stem may run ahead. If you leave the longest one in my hand, I will go."

"Yes," said Mary, "and the other children may drive Brown Betty and her brood back to the farmyard."

So they drew the daisies and little Dot had the one with the longest stem. Away she ran as fast as her short legs could carry her.

"Oh, Mrs. White," she cried, as she reached the farmhouse, "we found Brown Betty in the woods, but her eggs have all turned into little turkeys."

While Mrs. White was laughing over Dot's way of telling the news, the other children came up with Brown Betty and her brood.

"Dear, dear," said Mrs. White, "as the eggs have turned into turkeys I will let the money I promised turn into a picnic. Let me see, to-day is Tuesday. Will you be ready to go on Thursday?"

"Indeed we will!" cried the children. "Thank you so much."

On Wednesday morning Mary woke up very, very early.

Then Mary woke Betty and Peggy and little Dot.

They all dressed as quickly as they could and hurried out of doors. The sun was just rising and the sky was a beautiful red and gold. The dew sparkled on the grass, and in the tree tops the birds were just beginning to chirp and call.

"Where are you going, my pretty maids?" laughed Mr. White.

"We're 'going a-milking, sir, she said,'" Mary replied.

Then each little girl took a tin cup and followed Mr. White and Billy to the pasture where Bonny-Belle and Bess stood waiting. Billy let down the bars and the cows came into the barnyard. Mr. White milked Bonny-Belle and Billy milked Bess.

The little girls stood near and watched.

How Mr. White and Billy laughed when little Dot said, "Oh, is that the way you get milk on a farm? We get ours out of bottles."

Before milking time was over each little girl held her cup and had it milked full of fresh, new milk.

At first the children thought they would carry the cups home and drink the milk for breakfast. But they were so hungry they couldn't wait, so they drank it standing in the barnyard, with Bonny-Belle and Bess looking at them with soft, kind eyes.

That afternoon Mary had some work to do and Betty and Peggy went for a walk with their mothers.

Little Dot was tired from her early morning visit to the barnyard. So she took a book of fairy stories and went out into the near-by field. She settled herself cozily under a big maple tree and began to read. After a little while the book slid from her hands. Her head nodded and nodded and then rested on the grass. Her eyes winked and winked and then closed.

She must have slept almost an hour when she woke with a start. Something very soft and moist was moving over her nose and cheeks. It felt almost as if her face were being washed with a sticky cloth.

Dot opened her sleepy blue eyes and looked right into the big brown eyes of Don, Buttercup's baby calf.

"Oh! Oh!" cried the little girl.

"Ma-a-a," replied Don as he frisked away.

"You are a dear little thing," Dot called after him, "but I wish you wouldn't kiss me with your tongue all over my face."

The morning of the picnic was bright and clear. There was great excitement in the kitchen and pantry. Mrs. White and Molly, the maid, were fixing the lunch, but the four little girls couldn't help popping in every few minutes to take a peep. The two other mothers peeped too. What they saw made them wish that they were to be invited to the picnic. But this time only the four little girls who had found Brown Betty were to go.

At last the lunch was packed in four baskets and off the children went.

On their way they found some wild strawberries. They stopped to pick them, and Mary showed the others how to make leaf baskets to hold berries. They gathered broad, flat leaves and fastened them together with little twigs.

Then they went on until at last they came to the loveliest spot you ever saw. It was an open space with trees all around it. Near-by was a little bubbling spring.

The children set their baskets in the shade and began to romp and play. They played "Hide-and-Go-Seek" and a new game which they called "Echo." Can you guess how to play this game?

At last they grew tired and hungry and began to unpack their baskets and to put their lunch on a mossy spot near the brook. Such a feast you never saw! Everything a child likes best came out of those baskets. How the four children did eat and eat and eat! And when they had eaten and eaten and eaten until they could eat no more, there were still some good things left.

"Let's rest a while," said Mary, "and perhaps we'll be hungry again. Shall I tell you a fairy story?"

"Oh, please do," said Betty; and Peggy and Dot echoed together, "Please do."

So Mary told them of a fairy ball where all the little fairies came out of their flower cups and danced by the light of the moon.

"Wouldn't this spot be a lovely place for a fairy ball?" said Peggy, when Mary had finished the story. "I wonder if there are any fairies in this wood."

"I know how we can find out," cried Betty. "We can give the fairies a party."

"But they only come out at night," said Dot, "so we couldn't see them."

"But," replied Betty, "we can make a feast for them; and, if the next morning we find the feast is gone, we shall know the fairies really came."

"Oh, let's do it," cried Dot and Peggy. And Mary said, "If we want the fairies to come we must make a magic ring of flowers." "That will be lots of fun," cried the children.

So for the rest of the afternoon they were very busy indeed.

They went to the meadow and gathered clover blossoms. Then they sat down on the moss and made a magic ring.

When the magic ring was placed around a lovely mossy spot they began to set the table for the feast.

"We'll give them cake and some ripe strawberries," said Betty.

"But fairies eat dewdrops served on rose leaves," said Peggy.

"When they come to a party given by little girls, they eat just what little girls give them. You'll see," said Betty. So the moss table was set with leaf plates, and on each plate were a ripe, red strawberry and a fairy-size piece of cake. When everything was ready the children danced around the magic ring three times to make it more magic. Then they packed their baskets and went home, feeling very tired but very happy and much pleased with the picnic.

That night Betty could not go to sleep for a long, long time. She lay in bed and watched the moonbeams.

"I wonder," she thought, "whether the fairies will come. I wonder whether the man in the moon is looking down at them now. I wonder"--and then she went to sleep and dreamed that she was dancing around and around the magic ring with the man in the moon. All around them fairies were sliding up and down from the tree tops to the mossy ground, on silver moonbeams.

The next day the children went to the woods to see whether the fairies had been there. Betty reached the spot first and cried out joyfully, "They came! They came!" And sure enough, the leaf plates were empty. Every strawberry, every crumb of cake, was gone.

"The fairies really came," said the other little girls as they stood around the magic ring.

"Tweet-tweet-tweet," sang a bird in a tree top; "tweet-tweet-tweet."

He cocked his little head and looked very wise and knowing. But "Tweet-tweet-tweet; tweet-tweet-tweet" was all he said.

One of the things Peggy and Betty and Dot liked best to do was to watch Mrs. White skim the rich cream from the great pans of milk in the dairy. The dairy was down by the brook and the pans of milk were on shelves near the water, so that they were kept fresh and cool.

One very warm day Mary said, "Let's play dairy."

"All right," said Betty.

"All right," echoed Peggy and Dot. "You show us how."

So Mary brought two big pans and two pieces of soap from the kitchen. She filled the pans with water and put a piece of soap in each pan. Then she told the other children to watch the cream rise. She began to shake the soap about in the water, and the suds rose higher and higher.

"It's rather _white_ cream," she said, "but we can play it comes from a cow named Snowball."

"It's splendid cream," cried the three little girls. "May we help make it?"

"I wonder whether Molly will let us use her cream skimmers," said Mary.

Molly heard her name and came to the kitchen door to see what mischief those blessed children were up to now. She saw the pans on a seat built round a big maple tree and the four little girls bobbing about, very busy indeed.

"Molly, will you please let us have the skimmers?" Peggy cried.

"Well," replied Molly, "as it's clean dirt you're making I suppose I must."

So Mary and Betty made the cream rise, and Dot and Peggy skimmed it and poured it into bottles and old cans to "sell."

While they were in the midst of the fun, Red Chief, the proudest rooster in the farmyard, came strutting along.

He put his head on one side and looked at the pans. "Too-ok, too-ok, too-ok. Is it feeding time?" he said. "Too-ok, too-ok, too-ok. I must see; I must see; I must see." With that he flapped his great red wings and flew up on the side of the pan.

Now Red Chief was a heavy rooster and the pan was not very firm. Down tumbled the pan and Red Chief together. The make-believe cream and milk went all over him. Such a wet, cross, disgusted rooster you never saw! "Too-ok, too-ok, too-ok," he croaked, as he shook the soapsuds from his feathers. Then away he marched, scolding to himself about little girls who played silly games.

One afternoon the children were out in the orchard playing "lady." Mary and Betty were the mothers in the game. Peggy and Dot were the children.

Betty had on a long skirt and a fine grown-lady's hat. Mary had a scarf trailing on the ground instead of a long skirt, and she carried her mother's very best umbrella. It was a bright red one that could be used for sun as well as rain. It made Mary feel very grown-up indeed. The two "play" families made their homes under the trees. They paid visits back and forth. They gave tea parties. The children had measles and mumps and were put to bed on the grass with leaf plasters over their faces.

Mary was Mrs. Ray and Dot was her little daughter, Lily.

At last Mrs. Ray sent Lily to the meadow to buy some flowers. Dot danced gaily away. Just as she was gathering the flowers, a bright, blue butterfly lighted near her and then flew a little farther on. He seemed to be inviting her to race with him. So off Dot started.

Her fat little legs seemed to twinkle over the grass, but the butterfly went faster still. Away he flew across the pasture, away over the fence into the next lot. Dot paused only a minute, then she slipped under the wire of the fence and followed. On and on she went. She did not notice where she was going. But the butterfly fluttered far ahead and was soon out of sight.

Then Dot stopped and looked around. She was in a strange field. No living thing was about. Yes, something was moving over in the far corner. It turned around and seemed to sniff the air. Poor little Dot stood almost frozen with fright. It was Big Ben.

Then Dot did the worst thing she could have done. She gave a loud cry and began to run.

Big Ben shook himself and sniffed the air again. Then he began to come toward her in great bounds, with his head down.

Back in the orchard the make-believe Mrs. Ray had begun to wonder why her little girl was staying so long. At last with her scarf across her shoulders and her umbrella over her head she went out to find her daughter.

Mary reached the meadow just as Dot screamed.

For a moment she stood still and looked around. The meadow was empty. Then she knew that little Dot was in the field with Big Ben.

Swift as the wind Mary ran on, closing the umbrella as she went.

Under the fence she crept and ran toward Dot.

Poor little Dot was running and stumbling and crying. Big Ben was bounding nearer and nearer.

"Don't be afraid," Mary called, as she came up to the little girl.

Then Mary did a strange thing. She opened the red umbrella and whirled it around and around. Then she threw it toward Big Ben as far as it would go. It went rolling over the grass, with Big Ben bounding wildly after it.

The red umbrella made him so angry that he forgot all about the little girls.

Mary and Dot crept under the fence to safety.

"O Mother," sobbed Mary, when the children reached home and told the story, "O Mother, your lovely red umbrella is all ruined!"

"But my little girl is safe," said Mrs. White, "and she has saved the life of her little friend." Mrs. White put her arm around Mary and held her tightly, and drew little Dot to her, too, just as Dot's own mother would have done.

I wish you could hear all the things Betty, Peggy, and little Dot did on the farm. It would take a great, big book to hold the story; and this is a little book for little folks.

At last the summer vacation was over. The three little girls and the two mothers had to leave their friends on the farm and go back to the city.

The little girls said good-bye to every living thing on the place--to the little pet rooster, to Red Chief, to the Speckle family, and to Mrs. Black Hen and her children who were now almost grown and had whole suits of clothes on. They said good-bye to Brown Betty and her children. They went to the pasture and said good-bye to Bonny-Belle, Bess, and Buttercup, and to frisky little Don. They even stood at the fence and waved good-bye to bad Big Ben.

Then the two mothers and the three little girls said good-bye to Mrs. White and Billy and Molly and last of all to dear little Mary, who promised to come and visit them at Christmas time.

"Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye!" they called as Mr. White tucked them into the automobile and drove away. "We've had a happy, happy summer!"

When they reached the city, little Dot's father was at the station to meet them. How glad he was to see his little girl again! And how happy Dot was to put her arms around dear Daddy's neck!

"How is Mother?" she said, "and how are Snowball and Fluff and Muff?"

"Everyone is well," said Daddy, "and I have a grand surprise for you."

"What is it, Daddy?" cried little Dot.

Betty and Peggy came near to listen too.

"That's telling," laughed Daddy. "I'd rather show you when we get home."

"May Betty and Peggy go with us?" he asked the two mothers. I think the two mothers must have known the secret. They smiled and said, "Yes, indeed."

So off the three little girls went with Dot's father.

When they reached Dot's house no one was at the door to meet them.

This seemed strange.

At the head of the stairs a strange lady with a cap and apron on was standing and smiling at them. She led them into the front room, still smiling but saying nothing. This made it very exciting.

There in an easy chair was Dot's mother. She was holding something in her arms. At her feet were Snowball and the kittens sound asleep in their basket.

"O, Mother, Mother!" cried little Dot running to her.

"My own little girl!" said Mother. "See, here is a darling new pet for you and Daddy and me."

She held out the bundle in her arms, and it was a dear little baby brother.

"The very best pet in all the world!" said little Dot.

And Betty and Peggy thought so too.

II

But what have Paul and Bob been doing all this time? We will have to go back to the beginning of vacation and see.

The place where they spent the summer was called Fairport. At Fairport there was a wide, smooth, sandy beach. Here the boys went in bathing, built sand forts, and gathered shells.

On one part of the shore the beach was very narrow. Great rocks rose like a fort above it. Paul and Bob liked to play on the rocks. Sometimes they played that they were Indians and sometimes that they were cave men.