They were all at it, excepting the lame duck that had squatted at the child’s feet for a nap, and Sardis carried his sister nearer the shore where she watched the birds delightedly, stopping now and then to give her pet a tiny pat, for he had promptly followed her. Sardis had a moment’s talk with Polly and then disappeared. He was away so long that Dolly made inquiries. Nobody seemed to know anything of him, unless it were Polly, and her answers to the child’s questions were unsatisfactory. Then, suddenly, she was gone, too. “Sardis came over the knoll and beckoned to Miss Dudley,” explained Lilith, “and they went off together towards the street. That’s all I know about it.” “I don’t care, if he’s with Miss Dudley,” returned Dolly. “I was afraid he was lost.” Which made Dr. Abbe laugh so heartily that the little girl wondered what he had seen that was funny. After a while the runaways returned, and then it was time to start for home. Before that, however, Polly took Lilith and Dolly for a short drive around the beautiful Loch Lairnie, which Dolly enjoyed talkatively every moment of the way. Only she did want Sardis to see it, and she could not understand why he didn’t come, when there was plenty of room. It had grown cool, so for the home drive Dolly rode in her brother’s arms on the front seat. Presently she went to sleep and awoke saying that she had been dreaming about her little lame duck, and that he quacked her wide awake. “There! I never bade him good-bye!” she lamented. “Why didn’t I think of it! I wonder you didn’t remind me, Sardis; you always think of everything.” Sardis laughed, and then Polly laughed, too. What was funny about that? Next morning Dolly’s brother took her in his arms and strode up to the little brook at the edge of the woods. For an instant the child stared in silence. Then her amazement broke into words. “Why-ee!” she gasped; “it looks like my little lame duck! But how did he get here? Did he follow me?” “Not quite,” laughed her brother. “He came with you, he and his comrade.” “In the car?” Sardis nodded. “O-h!” cried Dolly comprehendingly; “that’s why you and Miss Dudley laughed! That’s why everybody laughed! And I did hear them quack, didn’t I?” “Probably, for the rest of us did.” “I might have known there was something, for you always love to surprise me--I love it, too,” she chuckled, nestling her cheek to his. “And are they going to stay and live right here?” she questioned later. “Yes, they are yours. Miss Dudley thought the brook would answer very well for their swimming-place.” “It’s lovely--you don’t s’pose they’ll be homesick?” “Not a bit.” “Oh, I wish I had something to feed them with!” A little basket of crumbs pushed its way into Dolly’s hands. “Why, Miss Dudley, I didn’t know you were here!” “I came just in time to hear your wish. I thought you’d be wanting to feed them about now.” “You guessed right. Isn’t Sardis the best Sardis in the world to give them to me?”