One of those sudden sharp temptations to wrong-doing had come to Hecla which sooner or later come to everybody, even to little boys and girls. And she had not been trying to do her best for some days past; had not been praying hard, and fighting steadily. So when the temptation arrived, it did not find her strong to resist.
"I do want to go so very, very much!" she sighed.
"Come along then," cried thoughtless Mildred, never pausing to consider whether she had any right to take the children without leave. She had a great liking for little Ivy, and had often wanted to get possession of her for an hour or two. "See here," she said, "I'll write on this scrap of paper—'Mildred Smith has gone on with Hecla and Ivy to the river,'—and then your aunt will come after us, and it will be all right. Come along."
"Come, Ivy," shrieked Hecla, dancing wildly about.
Ivy went, of course. She was too young to understand that it was wrong, when the elder girls told her to do it. She trotted off contentedly, with her doll in one arm and her other hand held by Mildred.
[CHAPTER X]
Great Danger
THOUGH Hecla ran and jumped, she could not feel happy. A voice kept saying, deep down in her heart, "You are wrong—you are wrong!" And it would not be silenced.
She was frightened too, when she thought of Miss Anne going indoors to find the children gone. Yet still she went on, drawn river-wards by her vehement longing to find Chris and to have the little boat.
Running nearly all the way, as they did, till Ivy was quite tired and out of breath, it did not take long to reach the covered part of the river, where the stream, fuller and more rapid than usual from recent heavy rain, disappeared for a space and then came flowing out again. And when they arrived, Chris was nowhere to be seen.