STORY XIX

THE RATS WHO TOOK THE EGGS

Nothing had happened at the Wibblewobble house in several days, and Jimmie and Lulu and Alice were beginning to feel that it was about time they went off on another picnic, or else tried to find the fairy prince again.  But, one day, just as Jimmie was looking for his baseball and his catching glove, his mamma came out of the pantry, where she had gone to get some dishes to set the table.

“Did any of you children take my eggs?” she asked, and she looked very severely at them.

“What?  Are the eggs gone?” asked Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat.

“Yes,” said Mamma Wibblewobble, “there were just thirteen eggs, and now there are only ten.  Three have been taken, and I hope Lulu and Alice and Jimmie didn’t touch them.”

“Oh, no indeed, mamma,” spoke Alice very quickly, as she finished tying a sky-blue-pink ribbon around her neck.  “I never touched them.”

“Neither did I,” added Lulu.

“Nor me,” said Jimmie.  “I don’t like eggs anyhow.”

“I was saving them to hatch more little ducklings out of,” went on Mamma Wibblewobble, in sorrowful tones.  “Now I shall have to wait.  Oh, it’s such a disappointment to me!”

“Maybe they fell off the shelf,” suggested Jimmie.

“No,” replied his mother.  “If they had fallen from the shelf out of the basket, where I had them, the eggs would have broken, and made a mark on the floor,” and, of course, you know they would, for when an egg breaks on the floor it makes a splish and a splash and a big yellow and white spot that you can’t help but see; now, doesn’t it?  So Mamma Wibblewobble knew the eggs couldn’t have fallen.

“Well,” remarked Aunt Lettie, “it’s very strange.  Perhaps they have been stolen.  You should notify the police.”

“Or tell Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster,” added Jimmie.  “He would crow over it; and if we offered a reward, maybe we would get the eggs back.”

“Well, I’m glad you children didn’t take them, at all events,” said their mother.  “Run along and play now.  Aunt Lettie has made some molasses cookies, with corn meal and raisins on top, and you may have some of them.”

So Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went out to play, but all the while they were thinking of the missing eggs.  It was very strange.  Their mamma and Aunt Lettie hunted all over the duck pen for them, but the eggs couldn’t be found, any more than you can find a penny after you drop it down a crack in the board walk.

Well, when Papa Wibblewobble came home, he was told about the three missing eggs.  He was much surprised, but he said at once: 

“Why, a burglar has taken them; that’s what!  I remember now I heard a suspicious noise last night.  It was some one sneezing.  That was the burglar taking the eggs.  I thought of getting up and going down to catch him, but I was too sleepy, so I stayed in bed.”