Page:The book of Betty Barber (IA bookofbettybarbe00andr).pdf/40

 is it?” said Thirteen-fourteenths. “I know him, a most energetic young man. Tell me what are you going to do?”

“I am going home,” said Lucy. “I shall have so much to cut out to get into three verses.” And Lucy walked away.

“Well, well,” said Thirteen-fourteenths, “we can only hope they’ll be better soon. Somehow I can’t help thinkingHullo, I must be careful, or I shall be lost in thought, too. It is this book, of course,” and he dropped the book promptly and prepared to march away. Then he stopped, stooped down and picked it up again.

“I wonder what I had better do with it,” he said. “I don’t know where it came from, but I don’t think I’ll leave it lying about. It seems to upset every one, and make them quarrel. I know, I’ll hide it somewhere near this tree. Why, I do believe the trunk is hollow. I’ll put it inside the trunk.”

And having climbed into the branches, and dropped the book inside the hollow trunk of the tree, he marched away, feeling very pleased with himself, and thinking himself very clever; never guessing that he had put the book back exactly where Betty Barber, its owner, had hidden it a short time before.

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