Page:Poor Cecco - 1925.djvu/169

Rh and silk, was a brand-new red velvet coat with gold buttons, and a little pair of sky-blue trousers trimmed with silver braid!

They might have been made to the very measure of Bulka!

Tubby’s paws shook with excitement as she folded the clothes up again and tumbled everything back into the box. She could hear footsteps along the passage. It was the squirrel, come back to see how she was getting along.

“Look what I found!” cried Tubby. “Look what I found! There’s T.L. on it. It came from Tubbyland!”

“That’s a queer thing!” said the squirrel, peering into the box with his head on one side. “That must have belonged to old Miss Magpie. She rented this house before we had it, and from what I hear she was a terrible old miser. All sorts of things she had, stored away, and they do say she didn’t come by the half of them honestly, either. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she stole these! Anyway you’re welcome to them if they’re any use to you, for I’m sure I don’t want the house cluttered up.”

And while Tubby held her pinafore out he very obligingly stowed everything into it, the box being too big to carry.

That evening, after she had tucked the baby squirrels into bed, tidied up the nutshells, and bidden Mr. Squirrel good-night, Tubby sat on the floor at the bottom of the