“I have an idea she is going pretty soon,” Josie answered. She flung open the door and then began to laugh.
“Come here, Ursula! All of you come here!” she called softly.
The girls and Ben hurried to the rear of the store, Ursula running like the wind. Lying on the floor of the tiny elevator was little Philip. He was fast asleep and clasped in his arms was the blue-eyed, fluffy-haired doll with the ruffled apron, Ursula’s needle sticking in it. It was lucky it had stuck in the apron and did not find its way into little Philip.
The child made a beautiful picture at which the girls gazed breathless.
“Poor lamb, he’s playing papa,” said Josie softly and Philip stirred in his sleep, restless from the light turned on him, and then he opened his violet eyes.
“I ain’t a sissy, Ben,” he declared, “but this little doll baby had the tummy ache an’ I hadter take her off an’ put her to sleep. She likes this little bitsy house an’ I reckon The Lady in the Chair ain’t a mindin’ if I borrow it from her.”
When everything settled down and the Higgledy Piggledy Shop was cleared of its visitors and helpers and Josie was left alone she got Chief Lonsdale on the telephone.
“Hello, Chief,” she said, “the little boy is found and the fat woman with the little feet and head on one side had nothing to do with his disappearance, but Captain, I wish you would have Clancy look her up all the same and kind of keep an eye on her while she stays in Dorfield. You can do that for me, cannot you, Captain?”
“All right!” boomed the captain. “What you say goes.”