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"
"
Well, where is my dishpan?" demanded the woman.
It is lost, but it must be found. Unfortunately, we have no policemen or
detectives to unravel the mystery, so we must employ other means to regain
the lost article. Cayke must first write a Proclamation and tack it to the door
of her house, and the Proclamation must read that whoever stole the jeweled
dishpan must return it at once."
"
But suppose no one returns it," suggested Cayke.
"
Then," said the Frogman, "that very fact will be proof that no one has stolen
it."
Cayke was not satisfied, but the other Yips seemed to approve the plan highly.
They all advised her to do as the Frogman had told her to, so she posted the
sign on her door and waited patiently for someone to return the dishpan--
which no one ever did. Again she went, accompanied by a group of her
neighbors, to the Frogman, who by this time had given the matter
considerable thought. Said he to Cayke, "I am now convinced that no Yip has
taken your dishpan, and since it is gone from the Yip Country, I suspect that
some stranger came from the world down below us in the darkness of night
when all of us were asleep and took away your treasure. There can be no
other explanation of its disappearance. So if you wish to recover that golden,
diamond-studded dishpan, you must go into the lower world after it."
This was indeed a startling proposition. Cayke and her friends went to the
edge of the flat tableland and looked down the steep hillside to the plains
below. It was so far to the bottom of the hill that nothing there could be seen
very distinctly, and it seemed to the Yips very venturesome, if not dangerous,
to go so far from home into an unknown land. However, Cayke wanted her
dishpan very badly, so she turned to her friends and asked, "Who will go with
me?"
No one answered the question, but after a period of silence one of the Yips
said, "We know what is here on the top of this flat hill, and it seems to us a
very pleasant place, but what is down below we do not know. The chances are
it is not so pleasant, so we had best stay where we are."
"
It may be a far better country than this is," suggested the Cookie Cook.
"
Maybe, maybe," responded another Yip, "but why take chances? Contentment
with one's lot is true wisdom. Perhaps in some other country there are better
cookies than you cook, but as we have always eaten your cookies and liked
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