“You little girls go up to the top of the hill and sit down on your sleds,” said Dick.  “Or, better still, go into the barn, like the robin in the song, and keep warm.  Then I’ll look for your doll, Margy.”

Then, with the long, wooden rake the man began “combing,” as Vi called it, the snow along the hill.  There was no need to look in the middle, where the sleds slid down, for there the snow was packed hard, and anything, even smaller than a good-sized Japanese doll, could be seen easily.  But Dick raked on each side in the soft snow.

Pretty soon he cried: 

“Hurray!”

“Did you find it?” asked Vi.

“Yes, this time I have it!” replied Dick, and he held up to view Margy’s lost doll.  She had fallen into the soft snow, and was not hurt a bit.

“Oh, I’m so glad!” cried Margy.

After the snow had been brushed off the Japanese doll, Margy hugged her close in her arms.

“I’m never, never, never going to lose you again!” cried the little girl.

“And we’re much obliged to you for finding her,” said Rose to Dick.

“Oh, yes, I forgot.  Mother said I was always to say thank you, and I do!” exclaimed Margy.  “I could give you a kiss, too, if you wanted it,” she went on, “and so could my doll.”

“Well, I’d rather have one from you,” laughed Dick.  “But I haven’t shaved to-day, and my face is rather whiskery.”

“My father’s face is like that lots of times—­I don’t mind,” said Margy, so she kissed Dick and was very happy.

Then, after some more coasting, during which time the dolls were left in the barn, the three little Bunker girls went back to the house.

“Ready for bread and jam?” asked Grandma Ford.  “That was always what I used to want when I came in out of the cold, and I think you want the same.”.

“Yes, please, we do,” said Rose.

“Oh, yes, please!” added Vi.

“I lost my doll,” said Margy, “but Dick raked her up and I did give him a kiss.”

“That was nice!” laughed Grandma Ford.

As she was spreading the bread and jam for Rose, Margy and Vi, in came Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun, leaving, of course, the snow man outside.  And you can easily guess what the boys wanted.

Bread and jam!

That’s just it, and you may go to the head of the class.  I wish I had some bread and jam to give you for guessing right, but I haven’t.

The next day when Daddy Bunker, who had come back from business, and Grandpa Ford went out to the barn to look at one of the horses that had a cold, Russ and Laddie followed.  On the way they passed a small house, or pen, such as chickens are kept in, and from it came a loud: 

“Gobble-obble-obble!”

“What’s that?” asked Mun Bun.  “Is it a hand-organ monkey?”

“Oh, no!” laughed Grandpa Ford.  “That’s our prize turkey, and do you know what he says?”

“Did he say anything?” asked Russ.