"My cousin and I got lost up here Saturday night," said Mary Lee, "and if we had known there was a house so near we wouldn't have been so scared. We heard a wildcat and it frightened us nearly out of our wits."
The girl looked interested. Mary Lee had chosen the proper way to approach her. "We-alls ain't skeered of 'em," she drawled. "Maw shot one las' week, an' she come nigh gittin' another yessaday."
"Maybe it was the very one that scared us. I wish she had killed it. I wonder why we didn't see a light in your house. That is your house, isn't it?"
"Yes, we-alls lives hyah. They wasn't no light, 'scusin' the fiah, an' that died down arter supper. We-alls goes to bed with the chickens."
"We didn't get home till nearly midnight," Mary Lee told her, "and my, but I was tired. My cousin and I got lost from the rest and they had a great time finding us. If we had only gone on a little further, we should have come to your house, shouldn't we?"
"We-alls don't come aroun' that-a-way from town; we comes up the other side; it's a little mite furder but it ain't so steep."
"Oh, that's it. I wish we had known." Then feeling that she had established a sufficient acquaintance to put her important question she asked, "You didn't happen to find a little watch in the leaves, did you? My cousin lost it. He sets such store by it and we all came up the mountain this afternoon to help him find it."
For answer the girl put her hand down into the bosom of her frock and drew forth something which she held out in her palm. It was Phil's watch.
"Oh!" Mary Lee turned and called: "Polly, Polly, it's found! it's found!" She turned to the girl again. "Where did you find it? and please tell me your name."
"My name's Daniella Boggs," said the girl, taking a shy look at Polly Lewis who now came up.