"No, I don't believe it was burglars," said Grandma Brown. "But I see how they got in. I left the pantry window open, though the shutters were closed. They opened the shutters and climbed in. The shutters were tied with a string, and the string has been cut—see!"
She showed Bunny and Sue, also Mother Brown, where the cut string hung dangling from the edge of one shutter.
"They climbed in that window and took the cake," went on Grandma Brown.
"Oh, my lovely cake!" exclaimed Sue. "And I wanted some for supper!"
"So did I!" said Bunny Brown. "Is there any other kind of cake, Grandma?"
"Oh, yes, I can give you cookies. But I would like to know who it was got in my pantry. We don't generally trouble to lock our doors and windows around here in the day time," she went on, "for none of us was ever robbed before. But if this is going to happen I'll have to be more careful."
She pushed open the shutters, which were partly closed, and looked out. Then she called:
"Oh, here's a box they stepped on to get in the window. Look, children, they brought a box from the barn, stepped up on it, and crawled in the window. And see! One of them dropped his handkerchief!"
Bunny and Sue, looking under Grandma Brown's arms, one on each side of her, saw, down on the ground, a red handkerchief. At the sight of it Bunny Brown cried:
"Oh it was the tramps! It was the tramps that took our cake, Grandma!"