“No, Trouble!” answered Janet.
“Don’t come here, little man! Stay where you are a few minutes!” called Mr. Keller.
“What’s matter?” William wanted to know, for he seemed to feel that something had happened.
“Mrs. Keller has lost her ring,” explained Ted.
“And I think the best way to find it will be to look about on the sand before it is trampled down out of sight,” added Mr. Keller. He wanted to explain to the children.
“Please don’t any one move,” he begged, as, after another look all around where his wife had been sitting, he stepped a little to one side so that he might look behind her. “All of you keep still!”
“Is you all playin’ a game?” asked Trouble, who did not seem quite to understand what had happened.
“Yes, it’s a sort of game,” answered Janet, for Mrs. Keller was feeling too sad to answer and her husband was busy looking about. Janet thought this was the best way of making Trouble stand still. And so it proved, for he said:
“Aw right! I stay here an’ play game. Has it got a nellifunt in it?” he wanted to know.
“No, dear, no elephant,” answered Mrs. Keller, with a sigh. “I should hope not,” she went on. “If an elephant trampled over the sand I should never see my dear wedding ring again. Oh, I don’t see how it dropped off without my noticing it at once.”