The twins, who had been prevented from telling only by main force, rushed in with Meg and Bobby. There on the table, under the light of the lamp, lay Meg's lost locket!

"Oh, Mother!" shrieked Meg. "Mother! Where did it come from? Who found it? Where was it? And it isn't hurt a bit, is it?"

"Paul Jordan found it," said Dot, with satisfaction. "And Daddy's going to give you the reward to give him. It was in the snow all this time. Paul was digging out the gutter 'longside the road 'cause he thought maybe it might thaw. And he found it."

"How perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Meg, her face bright with pleasure.

"Now I'll put it in the velvet box, and never, never wear it again only when Mother says to. Aren't you glad, Aunt Polly?"

"Yes indeed, darling," answered Aunt Polly, as Meg threw her arms around her.

It was lucky Meg couldn't look forward and see when she would wear the locket the next time, or she would never have been able to eat her good supper so quietly. But she didn't know, and you will have to wait with her till you meet the four little Blossoms in another book.

After the news spread about that Meg's locket had been found and that Paul Jordan had found it for her, the children were more interested than ever in the play and the fair which were to earn money for him and his mother. Poor Paul had been in bed since the finding of the locket, for digging in the snow had been work that was too heavy for him, and his lame leg pained him more than usual. Meg went to see him with Father Blossom and took him the ten dollars reward, which he was very glad to get.

When the Sat.u.r.day afternoon for the fair came, the Blossom house was crowded. The fair tables were arranged in the living-room, and Norah stood at the door to take the tickets. Aunt Polly had printed these, and one of them and ten cents ent.i.tled the holder to "walk in and look around." Another ten cents would ent.i.tle the visitor to a reserved seat for the stuffed animal play.

They had the fair first, because in order to put in the chairs for the audience for the play, it would be necessary to remove the tables. In just exactly an hour and a half from the time the fair opened, every single thing was sold, cake, ice-cream, lemonade, fancy-work-table things, and all.

"Gee!" said Bobby, preparing to help Sam carry out his table, "I wonder how much we made?"

"Oh, ever so much," guessed Dot. "Doctor Maynard bought the pink pincushion, and I didn't know how much change to give him, an' he said never mind, he'd forgotten how arithmetic went. Did you see Miss Mason, Meg?"

"Yes. And she's going to stay for the play. And Mr. Carter, too,"

said Meg. "Maybe we'll feel funny playing with them watching us."

"No such thing!" Bobby was positive about it. "Anyway," he added, weakening, "we'll have on our animal cases."

With much talk and laughter, the room was finally cleared. Mother Blossom had managed to save some ice-cream for the players, and they had this in great state in the kitchen while Sam was putting in the chairs for the audience. Then Aunt Polly came out and swept every child who was to take part into the dining-room, and said they must all get into their costumes.

The living-room was long--it had once been two rooms--and a part of it had been reserved for the stage. Aunt Polly didn't bother with scenery, and yet no one had any difficulty in recognizing the first scene when two of the children jerked back the portiere curtains.

"Well, what do you know about that!" said a surprised father right out loud.

It was the story of the Three Bears they were playing, and there they all were, the Big Bear and the Middle-Sized Bear and the Littlest Bear, with their bowls of porridge and their beds made by putting two chairs together.

"Isn't that great!" said Miss Mason, when the curtain was pulled together again. She was so excited she never noticed she had used slang. "Who was the cunning littlest bear?"

"Dot and Twaddles," Father Blossom informed her proudly. "But wait till you see the next."

"A Day at the Zoo" came next, and Aunt Polly had planned this to give each child a chance to play. There were six animals on the stage--five besides the cinnamon bear that was Dot and Twaddles--a lion, a tiger, a polar bear, a great flapping seal, and a zebra.

Each animal came forward and made a polite little bow, then recited some verses about what he thought of life in the Zoo.

When it came the polar bear's turn, he ambled to the front of the stage with an easy lope that convulsed the audience and started off bravely with this verse, which you may have heard before. Perhaps your mother knew it when she was a little girl:

"I'm a poor little bear, I belong to the show, I stand here and sulk, but it's naughty, I know.

They want me to bow, to behave very nice, But I long to go home and sleep on the ice."

The polar bear, wagging his red flannel tongue, recited very nicely till he came to the last line. Then a big sneeze suddenly shook him.

"Oh, dear!" said part of him, most distinctly.

And another section of him piped up quickly, "Please excuse me!"

The audience clapped and clapped and laughed. They wanted the polar bear to recite again, but he backed off and refused to come out. So they drew the curtains together again and opened them in a few minutes for the lion and the tiger to dance a pretty little waltz for which Aunt Polly played the music. Then the entertainment was over.

The animals, still in their covers, as Meg called them, came down among the audience and received many congratulations on their performance.

"I never enjoyed anything more in my life!" Mr. Carter a.s.sured Bobby, smiling as though something had pleased him very much.

Mother Blossom had asked all the players to stay for supper, and after the guests had gone twelve boys and girls sat down at the big, round table and enjoyed Norah's sandwiches and bouillon and more ice-cream and cake.

"Just like a birthday," said Dot, trying not to show that she was sleepy.

"Better than a birthday," replied Aunt Polly, coming into the room with a box in her hand. "I've counted the money, honeys, because I know you are all eager to know how much you have for poor Mrs. Jordan and her son Paul. Suppose you guess?"

"Ten dollars?" ventured Meg.

"Eleven?" said Bobby.

"Fifteen?" shouted the twins recklessly, guessing from Aunt Polly's face that Meg and Bobby were wrong.

"Twenty-three dollars and fifty cents," said Aunt Polly, shaking the box happily. "I think that is a good deal for twelve little people to make for such an entertainment."

"Isn't that splendid!" sighed Marion Green. "That will pay the rent for their house for more than a month, I guess."

"Maybe they can buy a new house with it," said Twaddles hopefully.

Which made everybody laugh.

THE END