CHAPTER IV.
Mom Beck was busy putting lunch on the table when the Little Colonel looked in at the kitchen door.
So she did not see a little tramp, carrying her shoes in one hand, and a basket in the other, who paused there a moment.

But when she took up the pan of beaten biscuit she was puzzled to find that several were missing.
"It beats my time," she said, aloud.

"The parrot couldn't have reached them, an' Lloyd an' the dog have been in the pa'lah all mawnin'.
Somethin' has jus' natch'ly done sperrited 'em away." Fritz was gravely licking his lips, and the Little Colonel had her mouth full, when they suddenly made their appearance on the front porch.
Aunt Sally Tyler gave a little shriek, and stopped rocking.
"Why, Lloyd Sherman!" gasped her mother, in dismay.

"Where have you been?
I thought you were with Becky all the time.

I was sure I heard you singing out there a little while ago." "I've been to see my gran'fathah," said the child, speaking very fast.
"I made mud pies on his front 'teps, an' we both of us got mad, an' I throwed mud on him, an' he gave me some 'trawberries an' all these flowers, an' brought me home on Maggie Boy." She stopped out of breath.