“Meg said to save it for Mother and Daddy and Aunt Polly and Norah, so we did,” Bobby explained.  “They didn’t have any sodas.”

You may be sure they had a great deal to tell as soon as they were inside the house and when Bobby pulled out the money Mr. Mendam had given him, they were all surprised.  Instead of one ten dollar bill, there were two, and Father Blossom said it would pay almost two months rent for Mrs. Jordan.  Mother Blossom was quite willing for them to keep the money—­since it was not for themselves—­and she promised to write Mr. Mendam a note of thanks.  She did the very next morning and it crossed a letter from him to Dot, telling her that the sled had been claimed by a little girl whose farmer father had let it fall out of his wagon on the way home from the creamery and never missed it.  The little girl’s cousin, who had outgrown the sled, had sent it to her and she was very glad to have it found.

“Isn’t supper ready?” asked Bobby hungrily, when they had told everything that had happened to them that afternoon.

“Ready and waiting for you,” answered his mother.  “But first there is something on the table in the living-room for you to look at.  You especially, Meg.”

The twins, who had been prevented from telling only by main force, rushed in with Meg and Bobby.  There on the table, under the light of the lamp, lay Meg’s lost locket!

“Oh, Mother!” shrieked Meg.  “Mother!  Where did it come from?  Who found it?  Where was it?  And it isn’t hurt a bit, is it?”

“Paul Jordan found it,” said Dot, with satisfaction.  “And Daddy’s going to give you the reward to give him.  It was in the snow all this time.  Paul was digging out the gutter ’longside the road ’cause he thought maybe it might thaw.  And he found it.”

“How perfectly lovely!” exclaimed Meg, her face bright with pleasure.  “Now I’ll put it in the velvet box, and never, never wear it again only when Mother says to.  Aren’t you glad, Aunt Polly?”

“Yes indeed, darling,” answered Aunt Polly, as Meg threw her arms around her.

It was lucky Meg couldn’t look forward and see when she would wear the locket the next time, or she would never have been able to eat her good supper so quietly.  But she didn’t know, and you will have to wait with her till you meet the four little Blossoms in another book.

After the news spread about that Meg’s locket had been found and that Paul Jordan had found it for her, the children were more interested than ever in the play and the fair which were to earn money for him and his mother.  Poor Paul had been in bed since the finding of the locket, for digging in the snow had been work that was too heavy for him, and his lame leg pained him more than usual.  Meg went to see him with Father Blossom and took him the ten dollars reward, which he was very glad to get.

When the Saturday afternoon for the fair came, the Blossom house was crowded.  The fair tables were arranged in the living-room, and Norah stood at the door to take the tickets.  Aunt Polly had printed these, and one of them and ten cents entitled the holder to “walk in and look around.”  Another ten cents would entitle the visitor to a reserved seat for the stuffed animal play.