Mary stood stock still and spoke in a mysterious voice that made her secret seem even greater than it was:
“There’s a hiding place inside the table. You remember how thick the top was? Well, there’s a sliding panel of thin wood and when I disappeared the panel really slid out from under me and I dropped right into the table.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Muffs.
“Gee!” said Tommy. “How did you get out?”
Mary laughed. “Oh, that was easy. I slid out through the table leg. It was hollow and went down like a tunnel right under the stage. Donald was down there to help make the flowers grow and he wrapped me all up in the roses and pushed us both right up through the stand and through the bottom of the vase——”
“You and the roses?”
“Of course. The thorns were all taken off so they wouldn’t scratch me. They did though, just a little,” and she showed them the tiniest scratch on her arm above the elbow.
“Well,” said Tommy after a moment of deep thought, “the house couldn’t have disappeared the way you did, now could it?”
The disappearance of the house, they all decided, was something the Bramble Bush Man alone might tell them. He seemed to be waiting for them there under a tree. He even had extra plates of cakes and as soon as he saw them coming he drew up their chairs and called to one of the girls to bring more ice cream.