"Where have you been?" asked Nan. "And how did you get out?"

"We crawled out from under the hay when it fell on us," explained
Flossie. "Then Freddie says let's play hide and coop and we climbed up
the little ladder and went up in the haymow and then we slid out of the
little window and got outside the barn and then we just hid an' waited
to see what you'd do." By this time Flossie was out of breath, having
said all this without pause.

"But you didn't come after us," said Freddie, "and so we came to see
where you were. And we fooled you, didn't we? We fooled you bad."

"I should say you did!" cried Bert. "We were digging the hay away. I
thought you'd be away down underneath."

"We were," went on Flossie. "But we wiggled out, an' you didn't see us
wiggle."

"No," agreed Nan, "we didn't see you. But, oh, I'm so glad you are all
right!" she cried, and she hugged Flossie in her arms. "You aren't hurt,
are you?"

"No, but I was tickled," said Flossie. "The hay did tickle me in my
nose, and I wanted to sneeze."

"But I wouldn't let her!" explained Freddie. "I held my hand over her
nose so she couldn't sneeze."

"I tried hard so I wouldn't," said Flossie, "and Freddie helped me. It