shrewdly.

"You might know it was something about him," said Jessica Bright. "This
time it was a case of what was done to him. Tell the lady all over again,
Nora."

"It certainly was funny," dimpled Nora. "You see, Grace, Hippy and Edith
and I were going for a ride, last night, in his new car. We waited and
waited for him and couldn't imagine why he didn't come. About ten o'clock
he came tearing along at a speed that would have made a traffic officer
turn pale. Edith and I were still sitting on the porch. I pretended I was
dreadfully offended until he told me where he had been, then Edith and I
laughed until we almost cried."

"Where had he been?" asked Grace curiously.

The three girls giggled in unison.

"Locked in the cellar," returned Nora mirthfully. "He was all ready to go
for his car when he happened to remember that he wanted a wrench from the
tool chest in the cellar. His father is away this week and there was no
one in the house but the cook. She was all ready to go away for the
evening, too. She didn't know Hippy was in the cellar, so she locked all
the doors, the cellar door included, and went on her way rejoicing. Hippy
said he pounded and shouted and howled and wailed and pounded some more.
Can't you imagine just how funny he must have looked? He couldn't climb
out of the cellar windows, for they are too small and he is too fat, so he
had to stay there until almost ten o'clock. He says he sat on the cellar
steps most of the time and thought of the happy past. At last the cook
came home and when he heard her walking around upstairs he pounded and