They had a big room for their sleeping chamber and sometimes they came, with a selection of the dolls, and “visited” in the house. Being allowed to play in the bedroom, as long as they “tidied up” after the play was over, Tess and Dot did so. Ruth had strictly forbidden them going to the garret to play, unless she went along. The excuse Ruth gave for this order was, that in the garret the smaller girls were too far away from the rest of the family. Tess and Dot, the morning after Mrs. Adams had made them the tea party, had a party for their dolls in the big bedroom. Tess set her folding table with the best of the dolls’ china. There were peanut butter sandwiches, and a sliced pickle, and a few creamed walnuts that Ruth had bought at the Unique Candy Store and divided between the younger girls. They sat the dolls about the table and went down to the kitchen for milk and hot water for the “cambric tea,” as Mrs. Adams called the beverage. When they came back Tess, who entered first, almost dropped the pitcher of hot water. “My goodness me!” she ejaculated. “What’s the matter, Tessie?” asked Dot, toiling on behind with milk and sugar. “Some—somebody’s taken our dolls’ luncheon. Oh, dear me!” “It can’t be!” cried Dot, springing forward and spilling the milk. “Why! those walnut-creams! Oh, dear!” “They haven’t left a crumb,” wailed Tess. “Isn’t that just mean?” “Who’d ever do such a thing to us?” said Dot, her lip trembling. “It _is_ mean.” “Why! it must be somebody in the house,” declared Tess, her wits beginning to work. “Of course it wasn’t Mrs. McCall. She’s in the kitchen,” Dot declared. “Or Uncle Rufus. He’s in the garden.” “And Ruth wouldn’t do such a thing,” added Dot. “It couldn’t be Aunt Sarah,” said Tess, eliminating another of the family group. “And I don’t think Miss Titus would do such a thing,” hesitated Dot. “Well!” said Tess. “Well!” echoed Dot. Both had come to the same and inevitable conclusion. There was but one person left in the house to accuse. “Aggie’s been playing a joke on us,” both girls stated, with conviction. But Agnes had played no joke. She had been out to the store for Mrs. McCall at the time the children were in the kitchen. Besides, Agnes “would not fib about it,” as Tess declared. The disappearance of the dolls’ feast joined hands, it seemed to Dot, with that mysterious _something_ that she knew she had heard Ruth and Agnes talking about at night, and which the younger girl had thought referred to a goat in the garret. “It’s just the mysteriousest thing,” she began, speaking to Tess, when the latter suddenly exclaimed: “Sandy-face!” The mother cat was just coming out of the bigger girls’ bedroom. She sat down at the head of the main flight of stairs and calmly washed her face. Sandy-face had the run of the house and her presence was driving out the mice, who had previously gnawed at their pleasure behind the wainscoting. “You—you don’t suppose Sandy-face did that?” gasped Dot.