After lunch Arthur took the deep, brown basket and got the mail from the mailbox. Grandfather was waiting in his Study for it and thanked Arthur for bringing it to him, promptly.

Not waiting for Grandfather to suggest it was time to rest, Arthur eagerly presented the important subject he wanted to discuss with him.

"I'm not tired and I don't want to rest this afternoon."

Grandfather was not at all surprised. He merely raised his eyebrows and asked, "What do you intend to do instead of resting?"

"I want to take a frog home with me to show to my friends. I must catch one. Ardath will help me." Arthur announced.

"How do you know Ardath will help you?" Grandfather wanted to know. "Ardath may want to rest and listen. We will let her decide what she wants to do." Grandfather said, firmly so there was no chance of offering another excuse for Ardath.

When Ardath finished helping Mary with the dishes, Grandfather asked her if she wanted to take her "rest and listen" period or id she wanted to help Arthur catch a frog to take along home with him.

Ardath decided she would rest and listen. It was still very wet in the garden from the morning rain. Little girls who live where it seldom rains or is cool, do not like the change in weather as much as little boys like it. Ardath was no exception. But she wanted to rest, also, so she would not be tired and could help Mary finish the cookies.

Arthur went to the garden, alone. First, he tried to catch a frog but did not do any better than he had the other time he tried it. Arthur could not figure out why, if he was so much bigger than the frog, that he could not catch one. Every time he thought he was about to get one, plop, it went into the water.

There was still the tree he had not tried to climb, so he tried it next. He got to the first fork easily enough and looked up through the branches. He looked around for Adam, thinking he might give him a boost to the next big limb, but Adam could not be seen, so he tried to reach it. It was as easy to reach as the first fork had been. He sat for awhile and dangled his legs, wishing Ardath would be there to see him. It was not much fun trying to climb higher if no one was there to admire his accomplishments. So he climbed down the tree and sat with his back propped against the trunk, wondering what he could do, next.

He thought of the wheelbarrow so he went to the implement shed and tried to balance it. He succeeded in taking a few steps without it tilting. Even though he was encouraged with his efforts, he soon tired of trying to push it.

"Is it time for Mary to be baking the cookies?" he asked himself aloud and was surprised at his own voice in the afternoon stillness. Arthur went to the house. Mary was not in the kitchen. She was in the sewing room, ironing and did not say anything to Arthur when he looked in the door, so he went upstairs. Ardath was asleep on her little bed and did not hear him because he tiptoed. To see his sister, asleep, made him feel like sleeping, too, but he had told Grandfather he was not tired and did not want to rest, so he had to stick to his word.

The door of Grandfather's study was closed. That meant Grandfather did not wish to be disturbed. He was probably writing at his desk. So Arthur tried the barn.

Adam was in the horse stable, brushing Will Power, the big white horse.

"This isn't a brush, it's a curry-comb", Adam said holding up an oval-backed, wire bristle object. The horse must be curried every day, sometimes, several times a day, to keep his hair smooth and to brush out the loose hair so his coat will stay shiny."

The horse was tall and Arthur could not reach his sides, but he asked Adam to show him how to curry the horse. Adam gave him a stool to stand on and a lesson in horse-currying. When the job was done, Arthur thanked Adam for teaching him and wondered again about the cookies. He went back to the house.

Both Ardath and Mary were in the kitchen. He asked if he might help them with the cookies. Mary said he could put the brick and hammer away, he had used before lunch. The bowl of shell bark shells was still on the sink. She gave Arthur a paper sack to put them in and asked him to carry them to the garden for fertilizer. This Arthur liked doing more than anything he had cone all afternoon because it was helping the garden grow better.

When the first sheet of cookies were finished, Arthur took them off the tin with a spatula and put them in a flat cake box while Ardath dropped spoonsful of dough on another sheet to put into the oven. Arthur nibbled the crumbs, but Mary said he could not have a cookie until he had finished his dinner. The children seldom had dessert, so having a cookie was a special treat, for no special reason.

At dinner, Arthur kept thinking about the cookies and did not eat as well as he usually ate. It could be that he was too tired to have a healthy appetite. When it came time to serve the cookies, he only ate three, although he had expected to eat a dozen.

Grandfather said they were "perfect - as cookies went", but he ate only one of them.
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