CHAPTER XXV 

 CANNIBALS IN COURT 



Dodo's birthday and a disappointment came together 

 on the eighth, and the disappointment took the shape 

 of a rainy day. Not an early morning shower, with 

 promise of warmth and clear weather ; for it was one 

 of the cold, northeasterly storms that are very trying 

 at any time of the year, but doubly so when they 

 come in July, and seem, for the time, to turn summer 

 into autumn. 



Dodo, Nat, Rap, and Olive stood under the shelter 

 of the porch, the children vainly hoping that it might 

 clear up before nine o'clock — the hour the train left 

 — and Olive racking her l)rain for something that 

 would soothe their feelings. '^ We might ask mammy 

 to let us go into the kitchen and make candy," she 

 said. " The weather is too damp and sticky for mo- 

 lasses candy, but butter-scotch will harden if we put 

 it in the dairy." Even this did not seem to be very 

 tempting to little people who had expected to go to 

 the real Owl woods, and Quick barked and yelped as 

 if he, too, felt cheated out of an expected excursion. 



Presently the Doctor came out and saw the forlorn 

 group, which, being quite heedless of the sharp slant 

 of the rain, was rather wet and limp. 



" Poor little bird-hunters ! " he said — rather too 



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