“Jimmie, is Sunny Boy down there with you?” Juddy peered over the edge of the haymow where Jimmie sat mending the harness. Grandpa had gone to the house, declaring that there was a little too much noise in the barn for his rheumatism.
“Haven’t seen him,” answered Jimmie. “Isn’t he up there with you?”
Juddy’s lip began to quiver. He was only eight years old.
“Then he’s lost,” he said. “He isn’t here at all, Jimmie.”
Jimmie dropped his harness and ran up the little ladder that led to the haymow.
“Nonsense!” he declared sharply. “A boy can’t get lost with a roof over him. Likely enough he’s hiding for fun. Sunny! Sunny Boy, where are you?”
But no Sunny Boy answered. And though Jimmie and the Hatch children turned over the hay and looked in every corner of the haymow, they could not find him.
“Shall I go and tell Mr. Horton?” suggested David, who was the oldest of the Hatch boys.
“Not till we have something to tell,” was Jimmie’s answer. “Where was he when you saw him last?”
“Right over in that corner,” said Juddy, pointing. “I saw him going over the top of the cave, an’ then I ducked under, and when David got Dorabelle he just wasn’t here.”