"What's the matter out there?" said Mary Jane, pointing out the door to the chicken yard where they had just been; "something's happened."
Grandmother stepped over to the door where Mary Jane was standing and looked out. "Oh!" she exclaimed, for she saw in a minute what Mary Jane meant, "that noise?"
Mary Jane nodded.
"That noise means that an egg has been laid," explained Grandmother, smiling, "and that Mrs. Hen is very proud of it and wants us to know what she has done."
"Oh!" cried Mary Jane happily, "and then you go out and get them in a basket just like mother told me she used to do? May I go now?"
"Better not start before dinner," suggested Grandmother, "because sometimes egg-hunting takes quite a little time. Wait till you get through dinner and then you may hunt all afternoon if you like—egg-hunting is fun!"
So the minute she was through with her apple dumplings, Mary Jane asked, "And now, please, may I get the eggs?"
"Got you hunting eggs already?" asked Grandfather. "Well, I wonder if you'll like it as well as your mother used to. Have you your basket?"
"Not yet," said Grandmother. "I mean to let her get it herself. She'll feel more at home when she begins to find her way around alone. If you locked the pigs in, she can go anywhere she likes all alone."
"They're locked up fast," Grandfather assured her—much to Mary Jane's relief.