These were not their real names. Uncle Pennywait was called that because
he so often said to Hal and Mab:

"Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny!"

Aunt Lollypop was more often called Aunt Lolly, and the reason she had
such a queer name was because she was always telling the children to buy
lollypops with the money Uncle Pennywait gave them. Lollypops, the
children's aunt thought, were the best kind of candy for them, and perhaps
she was right.

Then there was Roly-Poly, the funny little poodle dog, and once when Daddy
Blake took Hal and Mab skating, as you may read in THAT book, Roly slid
under the ice and was lost for a long, long time.

Hal and Mab just loved to go places with Daddy, to learn about the birds,
trees and flowers. They had gone to the circus with him, had gone
coasting, and had hunted birds with a camera to take pictures of them.
There is a book about each one of the different trips Hal and Mab took
with their father. They had many adventures each time they went out, and
they learned many things.

Just before the story I am going to tell you now, Daddy Blake had taken
the children to the woods, telling them about the different kinds of
trees.

Sometimes Roly-Poly went along with Hal and Mab when Daddy started off
with the children. Once Mab had a little cat that got lost up in a tree,
and once her Dickey bird flew away and it was a long time before she found