"You didn't drop it at Mrs. White's, did you? Should we go back and look?" said Floss, standing still, as if ready to run off that moment. "No, no, my dear. It's not at Mrs. White's. She and I searched all over, and she's as honest a body as could be," replied nurse. "No, there's just the chance of its being in the drawer at home. I feel all in a fever till I get there to look. But don't you say anything about it, Miss Flossie; it's my own fault, and no one must be troubled about it but myself." "Poor nursie," said Floss, "I'm so sorry. But you're sure to find it in your drawer. Let's go home very fast. Carrots," she called out to the little figure obediently trotting on in front, "Carrots, come and walk with nursie and me now. Nurse isn't vexed." Carrots turned back, looking up wistfully in nurse's face. "Poor darlings," said the old woman to herself, "such a shame of me to have spoilt their walk!" And all the way home, "to make up," she was even kinder than usual. But her hopes of finding the lost piece of money were disappointed. She searched all through the drawer in vain; there was no half-sovereign to be seen. Suddenly it struck her that Carrots had been busy "tidying" for Floss that morning. "Master Carrots, my dear," she said, "when you were busy at Miss Floss's drawer to-day, you didn't open mine, did you, and touch anything in it?" "Oh, no," said Carrots, at once, "I'm quite, quite _sure_ I didn't, nursie." "You're sure you didn't touch nurse's purse, or a little tiny packet of white paper, in her drawer?" inquired Floss, with an instinct that the circumstantial details might possibly recall some forgotten remembrance to his mind. "_Quite_ sure," said Carrots, looking straight up in their faces with a thoughtful, but not uncertain expression in his brown eyes. "Because nurse has lost something out of her drawer, you see, Carrots dear, and she is very sorry about it," continued Floss. "What has she lost? But I'm _sure_," repeated Carrots, "I didn't touch nurse's drawer, nor nucken in it. What has nurse lost?" "A half-sovereign--" began Floss, but nurse interrupted her. "Don't tease him any more about it," she said; "it's plain he doesn't know, and I wouldn't like the other servants to hear. Just forget about it, Master Carrots, my dear, perhaps nurse will find it some day." So Carrots, literally obedient, asked no more questions. He only said to himself, with a puzzled look on his face, "A half sovereign! I didn't know nurse had any sovereigns--I thought only Floss had--and I never saw any broken in halfs!" But as no more was said in his hearing about the matter, it passed from his innocent mind.