“It’s been taken!” Jane was saying excitedly. “The Brownie pin was on my jeans and now it’s gone. It disappeared the same as the quilt did!”
Miss Gordon came down from her ladder to learn what was wrong.
Jane told her that she had worn the dancing elf pin that morning on her shirt. Only a few minutes before she had noticed that it was missing.
“You must have lost it somewhere in the orchard,” the Brownie leader declared. “But it isn’t right to suggest that someone took it.”
“Well, someone went off with our quilt!”
“That was a different matter, Jane. And I blame myself. I never should have left the coverlet under the tree.”
Jane made a great fuss over the loss of the pin. For nearly half an hour she gave up cherry picking and searched everywhere on the ground.
Several of the Brownies helped her. But they could not find the missing pin.
“It makes me fairly ill,” Jane said in a discouraged voice. “First our quilt—and now my pin. There must be someone dishonest in this orchard!”
“But Jane, no one could have taken the pin off your jeans without you having seen them,” Connie pointed out. “Besides, the pickers all seem very nice. I’m sure they wouldn’t steal.”