As Roxy added the camel to the pile of figures in the lower drawer she thought happily that her paper menagerie was now nearly complete.
“Then I’ll cut out clowns and circus-men,” she decided, “and then I can get ready to surprise Grandma,” for Roxy was making a plan to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday, that came in mid-July, by an entertainment in which the “paper circus” was to have a prominent place. Polly had promised to help Roxy with this plan, and no one else was to be in the secret.
For the moment Roxy had nearly forgotten the adventures of the afternoon, but the sound of voices just outside the open windows made her jump up from the table and run toward the door.
“There’s Polly!” she exclaimed. “Oh, I hope it’s just as Dulcie said, and that the Yankee soldier did really escape.”
Polly was on the front porch talking to Roxy’s mother, and as Roxy appeared she saw that Polly was carrying the missing egg basket, and heard her explain that she had found it near a thicket of dogwood as she came up the slope.
CHAPTER IV
SIGNALS
“Dat Yankee sojer took de chicken, an’ de bread, an’ de eggs; an’ I’m right shuh dat some ob dose cakes were tuk!” declared Dulcie, as Mrs. Delfield handed her the basket.
“No, Dulcie! No, he didn’t!” exclaimed Roxy, who with Polly beside her had followed Mrs. Delfield to the open door of the kitchen.
Dulcie shook her head solemnly. “Den you tells me how cum dat basket whar he hides hisse’f? An’ you tells me likewise who did make off wid all my food?” and Dulcie gazed so sternly at Roxy that the little girl began to feel sure that her secret had been discovered.
“Of course the poor fellow must have been half starved,” said Grandma Miller, “but if he had only asked we would have gladly befriended him. I don’t like to think of any soldier slinking into a house in this fashion!”