THE Brownies and Veve were spending the afternoon rummaging in Grandmother Gordon’s attic.

Connie had suggested the idea immediately after lunch and everyone had been enthusiastic. Mrs. Gordon, of course, did not expect the girls to find her missing locket, but she knew they would have a fine time poking about among all the old things.

The attic had only one small window to let in light. Everywhere cobwebs hung from file walls. Veve ran into one as she started toward an old spinning wheel which stood near the door.

“Ugh!” she exclaimed, fighting it off. “This old boy has me by the throat.”

“Maybe there are mice in here too,” Rosemary added uneasily.

“Grandma Gordon is too good a housekeeper to have mice,” declared Connie. She was alarmed lest the girls decide to leave the attic before they had138 explored it. “Anyway, Fluff is here to scare them away.”

The cat had followed the Brownies upstairs and was rubbing against Connie’s legs.

“Fluff is too lazy to catch anything,” laughed Rosemary.

The attic fairly overflowed with boxes, trunks, suitcases and broken furniture. Eileen tried out an old rocker which squeaked like an animal in distress.

Connie and Eileen began opening the trunks. In one they found old shoes, ancient hats and woolen goods scented with moth balls.

One box contained children’s winter clothing, still in good condition and very little out of style. In another were several old-fashioned silk dresses with tight waists and long full skirts.

“What fun to dress up!” exclaimed Eileen.

“We couldn’t without asking Mrs. Gordon’s permission,” said Connie. “If we start to dress up now, we’ll have no time to look at the other things here.”

“Then let’s do it tomorrow,” Eileen replied, temporarily giving up the idea.

Suddenly from the far end of the attic came a resounding crash.

Veve, who had tried to peep into a box that was higher than her head, had pulled it over. Barely139 missing her feet, it spilled its contents of books over the floor.

“Oh, Veve! See what you’ve done!” Jane exclaimed impatiently. “If that box had contained glass, it would have been smashed!”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Veve mumbled, starting to pick up the books. “The old box just fell over.”

“You mean you accidentally pulled it down. Veve, you never stop to think before you act, and then when it’s your fault, you don’t like to admit it! Brownies believe in being honest about their mistakes.”

Although it was quite dark in the attic, Connie saw that tears were coming into Veve’s eyes. She really thought Jane was being too severe.

“Oh, why make a fuss about it?” she interposed. “Of course, Veve didn’t mean to do it.”

“She never does,” retorted Jane crossly.

“Well, you’re not being very nice yourself to blame Veve every time she has an accident,” said Rosemary, siding with Connie. “At lunch today when you upset your glass of milk, no one said a word.”

Jane started to say that the milk had spilled only because Sunny had joggled her elbow, but thought better of it.

140 “Sorry,” she muttered. “I wouldn’t have said anything about the box, only I think we should be careful or Mrs. Gordon won’t want us to play up here.”

“We all should be careful,” emphasized Connie.

She and Sunny helped Veve pick up the books and stack them back in the box. The task had just been finished, when Rosemary let out a squeal of excitement.

“See what I’ve found!” she cried.

Rosemary had come upon a box of old buttons in a cardboard box tucked in the drawer of a rusty sewing machine.

“Say, maybe the golden locket is in there!” exclaimed Veve.

Hopefully the girls examined the many odd shapes and designs of the buttons. Some were of brass or silver; others were of glass and tin.

“Oh, see this button!” declared Jane, selecting one from the collection. “It has the face of George Washington on it and must be very rare.”

“And here’s one in the shape of a little house,” added Rosemary. “One never sees buttons like these today.”

“Except in collections,” contributed Connie. “It would be nice if the Brownies could save buttons,141 only we have so many other interesting things to do.”

The girls spent nearly half an hour studying the assortment. So fascinating was the pastime, that they forgot their disappointment over failure to find the missing locket.

Time passed so swiftly that the girls all were quite startled when Mrs. Gordon called from the foot of the stairs to ask them to wash up for supper.

“Is it supper time already?” gasped Connie. “Oh, dear, and we’ve only half explored this wonderful place.”

“Let’s finish up tomorrow if we can,” proposed Sunny as they all trooped down the stairs. “Maybe we can dress up in the old clothes. That would be fun.”

All the Brownies agreed that it would be good sport to put on a style show. Next morning, however, they had so many other interesting things to do they had no time to think of the attic.

In the morning the girls played games in the snow and went coasting again on Hammer Hill.

After lunch, Miss Gordon announced that she would drive to the village in the sleigh.

“Who wants to ride along and help me select the sled for the Stone children?” she inquired.

142 All of the Brownies were eager to accompany her. However, everyone could not crowd into one sleigh. So in the end, Veve and Eileen were chosen to go with the Brownie leader.

In the village, Miss Gordon attended to several errands. Then she took the girls to a hardware store where they inspected a number of sleds. After much debate, Eileen and Veve settled upon a handsome one which was large enough for two children to ride on at the same time.

While they were waiting for the sled to be carried out to the sleigh, Veve wandered to the rear of the store to look at a construction set.

As she stood there, she chanced to hear the owner of the hardware store talking to another man who was buying a snow shovel.

“Too bad about Stone,” the storekeeper remarked. “I’d help him if I could, but business is slack now and I can’t give him a place here.”

Hearing Mr. Stone’s name mentioned, Veve listened carefully.

“Yes, I’ve heard he’s had no regular work for more than a month,” the customer replied, “Pretty tough on that family of his, especially with Christmas coming on.”

When Veve left the hardware store with Eileen143 and Miss Gordon, she repeated the snatch of conversation she had overheard.

“I was afraid the Stone children might face a very meager Christmas, and this confirms it,” declared Miss Gordon. “I wish we could give them other things besides just a sled.”

“They must need food and clothing,” said Eileen as she climbed into the sleigh. “And I noticed the youngsters’ mittens were ragged.”

“We’ll have to do something about it,” said Miss Gordon. “However, I don’t wish to offend Grandma Gordon, so we must plan carefully.”

After the three had returned to the Gordon home with the new sled, they reported to the other Brownies what they had learned about Mr. Stone being out of work.

“If you want to give the children clothing, I know where there’s some!” exclaimed Connie, before she stopped to think. “A trunk in the attic is filled with garments—”

Then she broke off, seeing from Grandmother Gordon&rs............