“He must be here—somewhere,” retorted Jimmie impatiently. “I’m going to look once more—and if he’s just hiding, won’t I shake him!”
Jimmie climbed over the top of the “robber’s cave,” as Sunny Boy had done, and down on the other side. The children heard him scuffling about, kicking the hay with his feet, and then suddenly he gave a shout.
“You stay where you are till I come back,” he called. “You David, and Juddy, keep the others where they are. I’ll bet I’ve found him.”
The Hatch children were fairly dancing to follow Jimmie, but they knew he meant what he said. They sat down in the hay to wait.
One—two—three—four—five minutes passed. Then Jimmie stepped out on the barn floor and grinned cheerfully up at the anxious group perched on the edge of the haymow.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I’ve found him. He’s out in the old dairy. Now don’t all come down at once—Jud, let the girls come first. Easy there!”
The Hatch children came tumbling down, eager to see Sunny Boy. Sarah stopped to pick up the baby, who had slept through all the excitement and now merely opened two dark eyes, smiled, and went to sleep again. The Hatch baby was used to being taken about and had the steady habits of an old traveler.
They found Sunny absorbed in watching a mother duck and her ten little ducklings who were swimming daintily about in a trough in the dairy.
“Well, where were you?” Juddy pounced on Sunny Boy. “You gave us an awful scare.”
“I’ve been right here all the time.” Sunny was a bit aggrieved to find such a fuss made over him. First Jimmie and now Juddy. “I haven’t been anywhere,” he insisted.