As he went in one direction, the boys thought it wise to take the other. They continued on the road, and quarter of an hour later came in sight of a small farmhouse, perched on a hillside and surrounded with fields of grain.
“So you were really in that balloon!” said the farmer after he had heard their story. “Don’t it beat all now! I wouldn’t go up in one of them pesky things not fer a million dollars!”
“An’ I wouldn’t go fer three million,” said his wife, who was in the kitchen baking.
The boys asked if they could purchase some lunch and were given some sandwiches, fresh cake, and all the milk they could drink. The farmer wanted no pay, but each cadet insisted upon giving his wife a quarter.
“This road will take you to Cedarville,” said the farmer. “It’s a long way around though. A short way is by the trail over yonder.”
“Is the trail a good one?” asked Pepper, cautiously.
“You see, we don’t want to lose our way again,” explained Jack.
“I don’t see how you can lose your way,” answered the farmer. “Keep to the trail until you come to some tall rocks. Then turn to your left, go around the rocks, and you’ll come out on the old Borden Road, which runs straight down to Cedarville.”
“That looks easy enough,” said Andy.
The three cadets soon set off, and in a few minutes the farmhouse was out of sight. They passed through a patch of woods, then across a meadow, and then followed the trail beside a tiny brook, which seemed alive with trout.