“Let’s call for the Hares,” said Hinpoha. “It’ll take too much time to try to find them. And I’m too tired to go hunting through the woods.”
So they called, “Come out, we give up.” Their voices echoed against the opposite shore, but there was no other answer. They called again with the same result.
“They’re not here!” said Hinpoha with a prophetic feeling. “Where are we, anyway? Is this 204 the Point of Pines? I believe we’ve come to the wrong place! We should have stuck to the shore after all and not gone off into that path through the woods that turned and twisted so many times. Are you sure this is the Point of Pines?”
“I don’t know whether I’m sure or not,” said Sahwah in perplexity. “I certainly thought it was all the time. I may be mistaken.”
“I think you are,” said Hinpoha. “There isn’t a sign of the Hares here. How will we find them?”
“I think the best thing to do,” said Sahwah calmly, displaying her great talent for leadership in this emergency, “is to stay where we are and let them find us. If we start hunting around for each other in these woods we’ll never get together. We’ll just stay here and build two signal fires. You know that two columns of smoke is the sign for ‘I’m lost.’ Well, we’ll just put up the ‘lost’ signal and if they’re hunting for us they’ll see that and come straight over here.”
The others agreed that this was the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances. There was plenty of driftwood, and two good fires were soon going, and the green branches piled on top of them sent up the most gratifying signal smokes.
“Now let’s get our dinner,” said Hinpoha, when that was accomplished, “without waiting any longer.”
205The seven marooned sailors looked and looked in all directions without seeing a single thing to wave at.
“It’s too bad,” said Katherine. “Here’s a fine opportunity for some likely young fisherman to make a hero of himself rescuing a band of shipwrecked lady fairs and winning their undying gratitude. Maybe we’d take up a collection and buy him an Ingersoll as a reward. But nobody seems to be around anywhere to jump at the chance. It’s a wasted opportunity.”