"And did you?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "Yes'm, I did, Mother. He and Laddie put my doll in the corn shucker and they started to turn the wheel. Then I thought maybe my doll would be hurt, and I wanted her back again. But they wouldn't give her to me, so I came to tell you!" And once more the tears came into the little girl's eyes. "Well, I'll fix it all right," said Mrs. Bunker. "Don't cry, Rose. Even if her buttons are all shucked off we can sew more on. Don't cry!" So Rose dried her tears and hurried on after her mother out to Grandma Bell's corncrib. As they came near it they could hear a grinding noise, and then the voice of Laddie called: "Oh, Russ! here come some of the buttons." "Yes! A lot of 'em!" Russ added. "Oh, she's shucking fine, Laddie--just like an ear of corn!" "Dandy!" exclaimed Laddie. "It's too bad Rose didn't wait to see what we were doing. This is fun!" "I'm here now! And you just give me my doll!" cried Rose. "I told mamma on you, that's what I did!" The grinding noise kept up for a moment or two longer, and the laughter of the two little boys could be heard. Then Mrs. Bunker, followed by Rose, went into the corncrib. Mrs. Bunker saw a curious sight. Standing at one side of the corn-shelling machine was Russ, turning the big wheel, which went round quite easily. On the other side was Laddie, and in his hat he was catching a little stream of yellow shoe buttons that came down through the spout. "Boys! Boys! What are you doing?" cried Mrs. Bunker. "Hello, Mother!" cried Russ. "She shucks dandy. All the buttons are coming off, just the way Tom made the kernels of corn come off the cobs for the chickens! Look!" and he pointed to the buttons dropping from the tin spout into Laddie's hat. "Oh, my doll! My nice doll!" cried Rose. "She'll be spoiled now. She won't have any buttons left! Oh, I--I'm mad at you!" and she cried again and stamped first one foot and then the other at Laddie and Russ. "Oh, you mustn't do that," said Mrs. Bunker gently. "I don't care!" pouted Rose, half tearfully. "They ought not to shuck all the buttons off my doll!" "Are you doing that, Russ?" asked his mother. "Yes'm. But Rose said we could, and then, after she let us take her doll, she wanted it back, and we can't get her out till she goes through the shucker and all her buttons come off. Then she'll pop out the other spout like an ear of corn." "Here she comes!" shouted Laddie. "All the buttons are off now! But, gee! you can sew more on, Rose. And here's your doll!" As he spoke the doll dropped from a tin spout on the other side of the machine, at the place where the shelled cobs dropped out. And there wasn't a single yellow shoe button left on the doll. "Oh--oh, dear!" sobbed Rose. "She's all spoiled!" "Never mind," said Mrs. Bunker. "We can sew the buttons on again. But you boys shouldn't have done it," she told Russ and Laddie. "What made you?"