“I must have been looking the other direction. I didn’t see it.”
“None of the Brownies did. It was flapping there on the clothesline as much as to say, ‘Come and get me, Veve!’ That’s what I intend to do! At lunch time, I’m going to slip over to that house and ask the lady if she’ll let me have the quilt for our show.”
In her enthusiasm, Veve did not realize that she was talking in a loud, shrill voice. Jane Tuttle, who was working in the next tree, heard the conversation. She became so interested that for a minute or two she forgot to pick cherries.
“I guess I won’t be a tail-ender after all!” Veve declared in satisfaction. “I’ll beat Jane!”
The little girl said no more about the quilt. However, when at last Miss Gordon signaled the Brownies that it was time to knock off for luncheon, she was off her ladder in a flash.
“See you later!” she called to Connie. “Save me some lunch, if I’m late.”
Miss Gordon was directing the girls and their mothers to the big oak where lunch was to be served. In counting noses, she failed to see Jane Tuttle.
“Why, I wonder where she is?” she inquired aloud. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her around for the last fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“Jane went to the shed awhile ago to weigh in her fruit,” Sunny informed. “I never saw her come back though.”