"Slide down the hay chute and into the manger," said Andy quickly. "The horses won't bite, and we can get away before Uncle Jonah comes down." In a moment they were at the chute and, holding to the edge, dropped down, Andy first and Hortense on top. Andy scrambled through the hole into the manger and Hortense after him, but the hole was small, and Hortense plump, and it was only by hard squeezing that she got through at all. Once in the manger, it was only a moment before they were out from under the velvety noses of the horses and had slipped past them through the stall. They ran out of the barn and to the kitchen where they secured an unusually large supply of cookies; then hurried to the nook in the shrubbery beside the basement window that led to the furnace, a good place to hide. They ate cooky for cooky until they had eaten ten apiece, when they stopped to rest a bit. Hortense was still warm and unbuttoned her collar. As she did so, she was conscious of missing something and felt again carefully. "I've lost my charm," she said hurriedly. "Perhaps it slipped down inside," Andy suggested. Hortense felt of herself but could not find it. "I must have lost it going down the hay chute," she said. "I know I had it in the haymow. It must have come off when I squeezed through. Dear me, if I should lose it!" "We'll find it when Uncle Jonah goes away from the barn," Andy consoled her. They attacked the remaining cookies. "I wonder how many cookies I could eat," said Andy dreamily as they began their thirteenth. "I've had most enough," said Hortense taking another bite. Then she began to feel very strange. Everything about her seemed to grow larger and larger, except Andy. The entrance to the basement seemed as wide as the barn door; the lilac bush over her head looked as big as an oak tree, and the piece of cooky in her hand as big as a dinner plate. "What's happened to us?" Andy asked. "I believe," said Hortense, "that we've grown small, or everything else big. I don't know which." "How'll we ever grow big again?" Andy asked. "We won't worry about that now," said Hortense practically. "It'll be lots of fun to be small. We can hide so nobody can find us and surprise people. I believe I could climb right into one of Highboy's drawers, or even into the jar where Grandpa keeps his tobacco." "Mother'll never be able to find me when she wants me to weed the garden," said Andy hopefully. Hortense's eyes grew wide, and she looked at Andy with a great idea in her eyes. "What is it?" Andy asked. "Now we can go through the little door and down the shining tunnel!" said Hortense. It was so bright an idea that they wondered they hadn't thought of it sooner. "But we're so small, how'll we ever get to the bottom of the chute? It'll be twice as high as we are." Hortense hadn't thought of this difficulty. "We can't go through the kitchen either, for we might be seen," said she. "Besides, the kitchen steps would be too high for us."