“Oh, I shell the corn in a sheller,” answered Tom.  “Come on, I’ll show you,” and he took the children to the corn crib where there was a queer machine, turned by a handle on a wheel.  In an iron spout Tom dropped big, yellow ears of corn.  Then he turned the wheel.  There was a grinding noise, and out of one spout ran the yellow kernels of corn in a stream, while from another hole dropped the shelled cob, with nothing left on it.

“That’s how I shell the corn cobs for the chickens,” said the hired man.  “But be careful not to put your hands down the spout where I drop the ears of corn.”

“Why not?” asked Rose, who was catching Vi’s trick of asking questions.

“Because if you do that it might shuck the fingernails off your hand,” answered Tom.  “Keep away from the corn-sheller.”

It was later that same afternoon when Rose, who had been out to the barn with Russ and Laddie, came running back, tears streaming from her eyes.

“Oh, Mother!  Come quick!” she cried, “Come quick!”

“What’s the matter?” asked Mrs. Bunker.

“Oh, it’s my doll!” answered Rose.  “Laddie and Russ are shucking off all her buttons!  Come quick!”

CHAPTER XV

LADDIE’S QUEER RIDE

When Rose, with tears streaming from her eyes, came running to her mother, Mrs. Bunker felt sorry for her little girl; but she was just a little puzzled to understand what was wrong.  “Shucking off all her buttons” certainly sounded queer.

“What is it, Rose?” she asked.  “What are Russ and Laddie doing?”

“They’re shucking all the buttons off my doll.”

“Shucking the buttons off your doll?”

“Yes.  In the corn shucker, where Tom shucks the ears of corn for the chickens.”

Mrs. Bunker didn’t yet quite know what Rose meant, for the mother of the six little children had not been out to the corn crib, and did not know what was there.

“It’s my middle-sized doll,” explained Rose.  “Please come and take her away from Russ and Laddie ’fore they shuck off all her buttons.  Don’t you know—­she’s got yellow shoe buttons on her dress—­rows of ’em down the front and in the back.  It’s my messenger girl doll.”

Mrs. Bunker followed Rose out to the corn crib.  She began to understand what had happened.  Among the many dolls Rose had was one she called her “messenger girl” doll It was about a foot tall, and the doll wore a blue dress, in color something like the suits worn by the telegraph messenger boys in the cities.  To make the doll’s dress more like a uniform, Rose had sewed on the back and front several rows of yellow shoe buttons, which she had cut from old tan shoes at home.  The doll really had on her dress more buttons than she needed, but as some messenger and elevator boys in hotels and apartment houses have the same, I suppose Rose had a right to decorate her doll that way if she liked.