had something very depressing on his mind; and she was planning, now
that he had learned to talk, to ask him what it was at the first
suitable opportunity.

When she had got the clothes off the Billiken, she started to put them
on the Baby; but the Baby behaved as it had never done before. It had
always been a good baby, adapting itself amiably to any schedule its
mother saw fit to adopt. Sara saw at once that animated babies are not
so easy to manage as inanimate ones; for the Baby kicked and cried and
positively refused to be dressed. So Sara, who was really a very young
mother, and had not yet trained herself to be firm and self-willed and
contrary, put the Baby's clothes in her pocket with the yarn and
knitting needles and a ginger-snap she had brought, and set the
stubborn Baby down on the blue plush grass, where it rolled around
quite happily again in its red sash and parasol.

And just at that moment she saw good old Schlorge hurrying down the
path from the Dimplesmithy with the Gunkus at his heels.

Of course they all had to tell Schlorge about it at once, even the
dolls (all except the Brown Teddy-Bear), so that Schlorge looked quite
wild, and scratched his head a good deal before he was finally quite
clear what had happened. Then he turned and looked thoughtfully down
the path they had pointed out to him, and scratched it some more.
Finally he said slowly,

"I tell you what we'll have to do,"--and then, looking about him all
at once very wildly,--"where's the stump--I'll have to tell Sara!
Where's the--"