AT LAST THE FAIR
"We're late now," said the long-suffering Sam. "What do you want to ask Mr. Mendam, Dot? Hurry up."
Mr. Mendam was still standing on the curb and Dot leaned out of the sleigh to call to him.
"I wish I could know who the sled belongs to," she said earnestly. "If a little girl owns it, will you let me know? Or a little boy—please?"
"I'll write you and tell you," Mr. Mendam promised. "Of course you're interested; I won't forget, Dot."
You see, he knew them quite well by this time—their names and ages and what they did at home and in school. He was another friend, as Meg told her mother when she reached home.
Sam said he hoped they could get home without any more exciting events, and he had his wish. Good old Walter trotted along sedately and the extra load made the sleigh slip along more evenly. They did not go through the cross road, but kept to the good roads all the way and almost before the four little Blossoms knew it, they saw the lights twinkling from their house.
"Did you eat your candy?" asked Sam as he helped them out, before driving on to the foundry with the boxes.
"Meg said to save it for Mother and Daddy and Aunt Polly and Norah, so we did," Bobby explained. "They didn't have any sodas."
You may be sure they had a great deal to tell as soon as they were inside the house and when Bobby pulled out the money Mr. Mendam had given him, they were all surprised. Instead of one ten dollar bill, there were two, and Father Blossom said it would pay almost two months rent for Mrs. Jordan. Mother Blossom was quite willing for them to keep the money—since it was not for themselves—and she promised to write Mr. Mendam a note of thanks. She did the very next morning and it crossed a letter from him to Dot, telling her that the sled had been claimed by a little girl whose farmer father had let it fall out of his wagon on the way home from the creamery and never missed it. The little girl's cousin, who had outgrown the sled, had sent it to her and she was very glad to have it found.