But when the children came down from the attic, neither their mother nor grandmother was to be seen. The ladies had gone next door to talk to Mrs. Trent, the mother of Addie and Rodney.
"Oh, well," said Nat, after Lizzie had told him where his mother was, "she won't mind if we go out. Come on!"
"Where are you going?" inquired the maid. "You must dress warmly, for it will be cold after the rain. Where are you going?"
"Oh—just out—to play," answered Nat. He did not want to say they were going to search for Racky, but that is just what the children intended to do.
"We'll find Grandma's glasses!" declared Nat as he led the others through the kitchen into the back yard, where they could go through the hole in the fence.
ADVENTURE VII
THE SNOW STORM
Now we shall see what happened to Racky when he slipped out of the cottage of the Singing Girl into the moonlit forest.
"I hope I don't make a noise and awaken the wood-chopper," thought the rocking chair as he softly swayed to and fro across the floor. "He would chase after me and bring me back if he thought I was going away. He thinks I dropped off a load of moving and slid down hill. But I didn't at all! I ran away! I know what I did."
The wood-chopper slept soundly after his day's work in the forest, and the Singing Girl did not open her eyes, as Racky softly slipped through the door.