“Oh, dear, oh dear!” exclaimed the cat. “It must be on deck! Let us look for it!”
“You are not able yet,” said Mary Frances. “Lie still! I will look! Was it a roll or a book?”
“It was a glass bottle,” said the cat, “and it may have rolled back into the sea—if that is what you mean by ‘was it a roll?’”
Mary Frances went down on her hands and knees.
She crept all over the deck, feeling for it in the darkness. After a while the cat helped.
They worked all night, but could find nothing. In the morning, as it grew light, they both saw a dark green bottle caught in the top of the rope ladder which was fastened to the side of the boat. So lightly was the bottle held that it might easily have fallen back into the water and been lost again.
Mary Frances lifted it carefully. It was labeled—The Lost Story.
The bottle was sealed with a cork, and inside was a roll of paper.
“Oh, isn’t it too good to be true!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Where shall we hide it?”
“Let’s label it Catsup and put it on the side table in the dining-room,” said the cat. “Put the new label right over the old one,” he added.