“Why! we’ve slept all through the night.”
“Aw—ri’,” Dot said, with very little interest.
“And do you know where we are?” pursued the lively Tess.
“I—I——Oh! is it time to get up?” yawned Dot.
Then she opened her eyes, too, and saw what Tess saw—the curve of the shaded road stretching away into the wood. The two little girls had been well sheltered under the thick umbrella of the tree; but in the open the grass blades sparkled with dew.
Birds hopped about, hunting their breakfasts—big, fat robins in their red vests; a chattering jay that flirted his topknot knowingly as he peered at the two Corner House girls; a clape, running spirals around a neighboring tree trunk like a little striped mouse, and looking at the children with interest. Across a broken wall a red squirrel ran—that pirate of his tribe. A rabbit started suddenly from his form in the grass, and, with a resounding thump or two, shot off across the field as though hearing a sudden call to breakfast at his house. The stirring of the little girls stirred everything else here to sudden activity.
“Why, dear me, Tess Kenway,” gasped Dot, “we—we didn’t get home, did we?”
“I guess we didn’t,” cried Tess, getting up quickly.
“Oh! nor we didn’t find the automobile,” added Dot, the memory of what had happened returning quickly. “Why, Tess! we’re lost.”
“Well, I guess we are,” admitted her sister. “I thought Ruth and Agnes and the others were lost; but I guess it’s us, after all, who don’t know where we are.”