After a while the runaways returned, and then it was time to start for home. Before that, however, Polly took Lilith and Dolly for a short drive around the beautiful Loch Lairnie, which Dolly enjoyed talkatively every moment of the way. Only she did want Sardis to see it, and she could not understand why he didn’t come, when there was plenty of room.
It had grown cool, so for the home drive Dolly rode in her brother’s arms on the front seat. Presently she went to sleep and awoke saying that she had been dreaming about her little lame duck, and that he quacked her wide awake.
“There! I never bade him good-bye!” she lamented. “Why didn’t I think of it! I wonder you didn’t remind me, Sardis; you always think of everything.”
Sardis laughed, and then Polly laughed, too. What was funny about that?
Next morning Dolly’s brother took her in his arms and strode up to the little brook at the edge of the woods. For an instant the child stared in silence. Then her amazement broke into words.
“Why-ee!” she gasped; “it looks like my little lame duck! But how did he get here? Did he follow me?”
“Not quite,” laughed her brother. “He came with you, he and his comrade.”
“In the car?”
Sardis nodded.
“O-h!” cried Dolly comprehendingly; “that’s why you and Miss Dudley laughed! That’s why everybody laughed! And I did hear them quack, didn’t I?”