There was only one thing wrong about the birthday celebration and that was that the day was such a very busy, happy one that there was very little time for playing with the new doll cart. Of course Mary Jane and Betty took their dolls out for one airing in the morning soon after breakfast. But what is one little airing when one has a new cart? Nothing at all, Mary Jane thought. All through the luncheon and the ride down town and the play father took them to, which proved to be just the very most interesting kind of a play for little girls to see, Mary Jane kept thinking of her new cart and of the fun she would have on Monday when there was a whole day for Georgiannamore and the doll cart.

So when Monday morning actually came Mary Jane lost no time getting up and doing her share of the morning work. Mary Jane was very particular about her morning work. She didn’t want her mother to have to do the things a six-year-old girl was plenty big enough to do; and then, anyway, she knew it was lots more fun to work when two did the job than for one person to work alone. She picked up all the papers, and emptied the waste baskets, and cleaned the bathroom washstand and the kitchen sink—she liked those jobs the best because they were so scrubby and grown-up and interesting—and put out clean towels and dusted the living-room. Of course this was after the dishes were washed and put away; that was a job with which Alice helped too, before she started for school. So by the time Mary Jane was ready to play Mrs. Merrill was about through too, ready for sewing or baking or whatever she had to do that day.

“I think I’d better help you take down your cart,” suggested Mrs. Merrill, when the last job was finished. “It’s not so easy for one person to take that cart down from the second floor. But it will be no trouble at all for you to take one end and me to take the other and carry it down together. Then you can put Georgiannamore in it before you start down and there’ll be no danger of bouncing her out.”

“But how’ll I get back up, Mother?” asked Mary Jane.

“Ring the bell three short taps and I’ll come down to meet you,” answered Mrs. Merrill. “Don’t try to bring it up alone; it’s far too heavy.”

Mary Jane dressed Georgiannamore in her very best dress, put on the new coat and gloves, tucked her carefully into the cart so she wouldn’t catch cold by being out for a long walk, and then she and Mrs. Merrill carried the cart, oh, so very carefully, down stairs and out to the sidewalk.

Fortunately, that May morning was bright and sunny; the breeze blew warm from the southland instead of cold and blustery from the lake, and it was the very best kind of a morning possible for being out of doors. Mary Jane walked around the block, starting toward the lake, then she went around the block the other way, and of course she went rather slowly because there was so much to see and to show Georgiannamore. Bright colored crocuses were blooming in all the yards where there were houses—and in that particular neighborhood there were many houses as well as apartments—tulips were bursting up through the ground and the lilac buds were swelling their plump green sides nearly to the bursting point.

On the third time around, Mary Jane thought of school—to be sure, it couldn’t be anywhere near time for school to be out, because the morning hadn’t much more than begun, but then it would be fun to go around to the corner where the children crossed the street to go to school. There were so many automobiles whizzing around the streets that a little girl even as old as six couldn’t be allowed to cross streets without a grown person or an older sister along.

She went around the block to the corner where the children would come, after a while, and there, just as she turned to start back home, thinking she’d come here again nearer noon, she heard a commotion. Looking down the half block to the yard around the school house she heard a bell peal out and saw, yes, truly, crowds of children coming out of school! And just as she was about to look around to see if there was a fire or a parade or anything special to cause school to be dismissed early, she heard the whistles blow for noon—the morning was gone! That’s how time flies when a person has a new doll cart!

Mary Jane waited at the corner till Alice and Frances and Betty came along together and they all four walked home.

“You shouldn’t bother to carry your cart clear upstairs every time,” suggested Frances, “when our front porch is so handy. Just run the cart up on the porch, lock the brake and it will be safe as can be till you eat your lunch.”

Alice thought that was a good idea too, so the cart was left there, locked with the brake, and with the understanding that if Mrs. Merrill didn’t approve, the girls would come down and get it at once.

Lunch was ready and waiting, so the cart stayed on the porch while the girls ate and then Mary Jane walked back toward school as far as she was allowed to go.

By the time Mary Jane got back in front of her own apartment, Mrs. Merrill was ready to go and do her marketing and errands and of course Mary Jane and Georgiannamore went along and had a beautiful time—especially when they looked in the windows and saw all the good things to eat. Mary Jane had thought that she knew every sort of good thing a person could possibly want to eat, but she soon found out that she didn’t. For in one of the windows they passed she saw a tray of apples, covered with something slick and brown and carrying in their stem ends a small smooth stick like a butcher’s skewer.

“What are they, Mother?” she exclaimed. “Don’t they look good! And may we buy some?”

Mrs. Merrill went inside the store and Mary Jane, anxiously watching her mother through the window, waited outside with the doll and cart. She saw her mother speak to the salesman, look at the apples and then, oh, joy! saw him pick out four fine ones under Mrs. Merrill’s direction and put them in a paper bag.

“He says they are called Taffy Apples,” explained Mrs. Merrill when she came out, “and that all the girls and boys like them very much. So I didn’t bother to consult you,” she added with a twinkle in her eye. “I bought some for you four girls to eat after school—just on a chance that you might like them.”

The bag was carefully tucked in under the folds of Georgiannamore’s robe and the walking and shopping were resumed, but all the time, Mary Jane kept her eye on the hump made by the bag of apples and kept wishing that time for school to be out would hurry up and come. Some good fairy must have heard the wishes too, for the afternoon hurried by almost as fast as the morning and first thing Mary Jane knew they were all through the errands and were going down the street toward the school, ready to meet Alice.

“Do you like ‘Taffy Apples’?” Mary Jane asked Betty as soon as she came out of the school yard.

“Like ’em—u-um!” replied Betty expressively.

“Well,” continued Mary Jane slowly, so the surprise wouldn’t be over too soon, “I’ve got one in there,” pointing to the cart.

Betty eyed the hump Mary Jane pointed out and smiled knowingly.

“It looks like more than one,” she suggested hopefully.

“It is more than one,” answered Mary Jane delightedly; “it’s four—all for us.”

“Can we eat ’em now?” demanded Betty.

“Better wait till we get home,” suggested Mrs. Merrill; “that won’t be more than five minutes and then there won’t be any danger of stumbling and running a stick into your throats.”

The two little girls didn’t loiter much after that. They skipped along briskly and soon were ahead of Mrs. Merrill and Alice and Frances.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Betty, as they turned into her own yard, “let’s put the cart up on the porch while I get my doll and then when we get through eating our apples we’ll be all ready to go walking.”

She picked up the front end and Mary Jane took the handle end and they set the cart up at the end of the porch and went into the house. Fortunately Mary Jane took Georgiannamore along with her into the house; if she hadn’t—but then, that’s getting ahead of the story.

The little girls had no more than gone inside before Mrs. Merrill, Alice and Frances turned the corner and strolled along toward the Holden house.

“Funny where those girls have gone,” said Frances, looking at the empty porch.

“They’ve hid our Taffy Apples somewhere, I just know they have!” said Alice. “Frances, we ought to be smart enough to find them so quickly they won’t try teasing again.”

“I don’t believe they’ve hidden the apples,” said Frances thoughtfully, “because Betty would be so hungry she wouldn’t bother with teasing till after she was through eating. Maybe they’ve gone into the house to get Betty’s doll and cart.”

“But why would they bother to take Mary Jane’s cart indoors if Betty was just going in for her doll?” asked Alice.

Before Frances or Mrs. Merrill could suggest an answer, the two little girls themselves came out of the front door, turned to look at the porch and then stood there, as though fastened to the floor—they were that surprised.

“Why—why—” said Mary Jane, “I left it right here!”

“Well, nobody ever stole anything before,” said Betty. “Maybe the boys just hid it!”

“No, they didn’t,” replied Frances, “because they haven’t come home from school yet. They stopped to see Jimmie’s new chicken house and they won’t be home for an hour.”

“What’s the trouble?” asked Mrs. Holden, who, hearing voices, came to the front door to invite folks in for a visit.

“Trouble enough, Mother,” said Frances, worriedly. “Mary Jane left her brand new doll cart on our porch and it’s gone!”

“And we just went in to get my doll,” explained Betty, getting very excited. “We just went in a little minute and then we were going to eat the taffy apples and now they’re gone too—oh, dear!”

At that minute, yes, things really do happen this way sometimes, who should go by the house but the big friendly policeman who always stood at the street corner nearest the school to guard the children from swiftly moving autos. Betty spied him and ran down the walk to speak to him.

“So the cart’s gone, is it?” he said as he and Betty came up toward the house. “Well, if you’ll let me use your ’phone, I’ll tell them down at the station just what kind of a cart it is and maybe we can get a trace of it—anyway, we can try.”

Mrs. Holden went indoors with him and the others stood around on the porch hardly knowing what to do. Losing her cart was a real calamity to poor Mary Jane—she very well knew that her father couldn’t afford to get her another one and she had hard work, awfully hard work, to keep back the tears that came to her eyes and to swallow the lump that filled her throat. She didn’t want to be a crybaby, but—and the lump got bigger and bigger—

Mrs. Merrill noticed that Mary Jane was trying so very hard to be brave so she did her best to help.

“Wasn’t it lucky that officer came by just then!” she said cheerfully. “I can’t for the life of me see why anybody would be mean enough to steal a little girl’s doll cart and I keep thinking we’ll find it somewhere. Come on, Mary Jane, let’s sit down on this settee here till Mrs. Holden comes out. Then perhaps some of you girls will be good enough to go up to the candy shop with me and get some more taffy apples—I suppose those went with the cart!”

Mary Jane stepped over toward her mother, who had already seated herself on the settee at the end of the porch. But before she sat down she just happened to look down toward the ground. The Holden porch had no railing around the side and as Mary Jane was always a little timid about falling she kept a close watch on the end of the porch every time she went near it. She glanced down at the ground and then—her face changed! The sorrowful look vanished and smiles spread like sunshine over her face.

“Look!” she exclaimed, as she pointed to the ground. “Look there!”