“But why did he do it?” Jan demanded. “A doll isn’t good for a doggie to eat, and Rover wouldn’t want to play with Flo. Why did he take her?”
“I dess he wanted the ham bone,” was Trouble’s answer.
“A ham bone? In my doll!” cried Jan. “Flo hasn’t any ham bone!”
“She did have one,” explained Trouble, and he never even smiled. “I gived her my ham bone.”
“Your ham bone?” repeated Mary. “Where did you get a ham bone, Trouble Martin?”
“Offen your mamma’s table when she wasn’t in de titchen. I tooked de ham bone to suck ’cause I was hungry.”
“Yes, he does do that, sometimes,” explained Jan, as Mary looked at her in surprise. “Mother often gives him one that’s been boiled and’s had most of the meat cut off. He likes to gnaw the bone and pretend he’s a little dog.”
“And there was a ham bone out in our kitchen,” said Mary. “I saw it there when I went in to get some cookies. I’ll see if it’s gone.”
“Oh, if Trouble says he took it he did,” replied Jan, and when Mary went to look, surely enough the ham bone was gone. Mrs. Seaton was not in the kitchen, having gone to the cellar to get some molasses to make a cake.
“But what did you do with the bone, Trouble?” asked Jan. “And how did the dog take my doll?”