"I wonder if the cover comes off, or just opens like a door," thought
Mary Jane as she bent over it. "I guess I'd better see."

She moved the cover the tiniest bit and found it was fastened to one
side. "It's like a box," she said aloud, "and it opens easy, I know!"

She opened it out and what _do_ you suppose she saw down in the bottom
of that basket? You'd never guess!

Four of the cunningest little gray mice! All snuggled down together
into a little ball of fur--Mary Jane would never have guessed there
were four, they were so tiny, only she saw the four little black noses
and four pairs of beady black eyes.

"You darlingest!" she exclaimed happily, and sat right down in the hay
beside the basket to watch them. She reached her finger in and touched
their silky little backs; she watched them snuggle down tight and
tighter together and she altogether forgot about Bob and egg-hunting
and Grandmother and everything, she was so delighted. But Bob didn't
forget about her, not he.

For a while he waited patiently at the bottom of the ladder. He seemed
to know that she might have to hunt a while for the basket. But as the
minutes went by and she didn't come and didn't come, he grew more and
more restless. He whined, and he walked around the barn and he looked
out the door. Then he came back to the foot of the ladder and put his
front feet on the highest step he could reach.

But still there was no sign of Mary Jane coming down. And for her