It was easy to step from the ladder to the loft because the sides of the ladder went on up high and she simply held tight to them and stepped off onto the floor Of the loft.
And that was the funniest place Mary Jane had ever seen! Hay everywhere, and a pleasant, fragrant smell that pleased Mary Jane even though she hadn't an idea why. She looked around a minute and then hunted for the basket.
Over in the corner, under a funny little, cobwebby window she found it, half hidden by the tossed up hay.
She recognized it at once because of the curious little cover Grandmother had spoken of. But, dear me, Grandmother would surely have to clean it before it was used for cobwebs and scraps of hay were all over the top!
"I wonder if the cover comes off, or just opens like a door," thought Mary Jane as she bent over it. "I guess I'd better see."
She moved the cover the tiniest bit and found it was fastened to one side. "It's like a box," she said aloud, "and it opens easy, I know!"
She opened it out and what do you suppose she saw down in the bottom of that basket? You'd never guess!
Four of the cunningest little gray mice! All snuggled down together into a little ball of fur—Mary Jane would never have guessed there were four, they were so tiny, only she saw the four little black noses and four pairs of beady black eyes.
"You darlingest!" she exclaimed happily, and sat right down in the hay beside the basket to watch them. She reached her finger in and touched their silky little backs; she watched them snuggle down tight and tighter together and she altogether forgot about Bob and egg-hunting and Grandmother and everything, she was so delighted. But Bob didn't forget about her, not he.
For a while he waited patiently at the bottom of the ladder. He seemed to know that she might have to hunt a while for the basket. But as the minutes went by and she didn't come and didn't come, he grew more and more restless. He whined, and he walked around the barn and he looked out the door. Then he came back to the foot of the ladder and put his front feet on the highest step he could reach.