"How could you see your bed on the back stairs?" asked Piney doubtfully.
"I left my door open and when I got on the middle stair I could see right in under my bed, and there it was."
"Abby Tucker! What did you do?" exclaimed Hedda. "You never told me."
"What do you suppose I did? I fell right downstairs. Guess you would have too, if you thought you saw a live panther under your bed. But it wasn't. It scooted out past me and it was our big tiger cat Franklin."
"Did they find the real one?" asked Etoile.
"He is not anywhere around now, is he, Abby?"
"Oh, land, no," laughed Abby. "They got it over in the pine woods and it was half starved and cold. It went back to the circus."
"Well," exclaimed Kit, with a sigh. "I used to think things were monotonous in the country, but I've changed my mind. There's something new happening here every minute."
Just then Doris gave a little squeal of dismay, and jumped up.
"Something bit my hand," she said. The girls searched in the grass and found the breaker of the peace. It was a shiny pinching beetle.