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tomorrow, we can explain that it was an accident.” They retrieved most of the papers, but one sheet had drifted under the workbench. Trixie had to crawl after it.
    “I hope he won’t be too angry.” She wriggled out backward clutching the missing sheet. “Here, slip this in—” She broke off abruptly and stared at the writing on it.
    “Now what?” Honey asked, seeing her startled expression.
    “A page from a letter—” Trixie still stared at the paper. She read aloud, “ ‘—but Judge Armen is willing to let you try. Your sister felt it is probably the last hope left to straighten— Oh! I’m sorry!” Trixie’s face was scarlet as she thrust the paper at Honey. “Here, put it away!”
    Honey slipped it into the file and replaced the file on the shelf. “You didn’t mean to snoop, Trix.”
    “I really am sorry,” Trixie confessed unhappily. “You couldn’t help glancing at it,” Honey insisted. “It was perfectly natural. Anyhow, you only read a few words. You didn’t find out anything you shouldn’t.”
    Trixie sighed. “But I did, Hon. It practically said that Regan’s in some kind of trouble with the law ” There were voices outside at that moment, and the sound of horses’ hooves on the barn floor. The boys had returned.
    Bobby ran out to meet them. “We can’t find my skate,” the girls heard him complain loudly. “Have you got it?”
    “Honey”—Trixie still felt terribly guilty—“we don’t have to tell them about Regan being in trouble, do we?”
    Honey looked grave and shook her head. “We would just be gossiping if we did. I still say you didn’t find out anything, really. So there’s nothing we could tell.”
    But Trixie wasn’t so sure. And now she had a new worry. Maybe Regan hadn’t told Miss Trask the truth when she sent him to Moms for advice. Maybe he wasn’t as honest as he had always seemed. She knew that he hadn’t told her the truth about having someone in the tack room with him last night.
    She decided not to say any more to Honey or anyone. She would just keep an eye on Regan when he came back, and if she got any evidence that he was up to something, she would tell Moms and Dad right away. “But I still hope I’m all wrong,” she told herself.
     

Bobby’s See-crud • 5
     
    YOU DON’T WANNA find my skate.” Bobby sniffed indignantly. “You’re not lookin’!” He pulled at his sister’s sleeve.
    “Oh, Bobby, stop pestering! Were helping the boys so we can all go skating together. We’ll be finished in a few minutes, and then we’ll look for your skate!” Trixie was currycombing Strawberry while Honey attended to sleek Starlight in the next stall. Mart and Brian were measuring out the horses’ next meal and cleaning the leather.
    “We have several of the antique sale posters laid away in the clubhouse,” Brian called out to Trixie as he went past. “Why can’t we use the reverse side of them for our carnival announcements?”
    “Swell idea,” Trixie agreed at once.
    Mart glanced over the top of the next stall at Honey, working hard grooming Starlight. “When is Jim due home? Did he have any idea?”
    “Late tomorrow, he said,” Honey answered cheerfully. “Won’t he be thrilled when he hears all the plans we’ve made?”
    “Yeah, especially when he finds out he’s booked to draw posters, help build the booths, run off the programs on the school printing press—if he can get permission, of course—and—” Mart was ticking off the items on his fingers.
    “—and see that certain parties don’t hand him all the jobs and just go around talking big about how hard they are working!” Trixie finished the sentence saucily.
    “Where did Bobby go?” Brian asked suddenly as he was getting ready to take care of Thunderer’s cut leg. “Hey, Bobby! Where are you?” he called. Then he put aside the bandages to stride outside and look around.
    Trixie groaned. Instead of helping with the horses, a job she really liked, she should