“You didn’t think I’d give him anything but the best; did you?” inquired Natalie, as she tossed back her long braids. “I was going to offer him some olives, but he didn’t stay for dessert. Come on, girls. Now he’s gone we can advance.”
“I don’t believe I want a drink—at least not here,” said Alice. “But we can get past the house, and maybe there’s a spring farther on.”
The dog evidently accepted the chicken sandwich as a peace offering for he barked no more. There was no sign of life about the house as the girls passed it. They soon came to a roadside watering-trough, cut out of one solid log, into which, from a wooden spout, there flowed a stream of clear, cold water.
The drink was refreshing, and they filled some milk bottles they had brought with them for this purpose, since at Bear Pond the water was not fit to use.
Again they struck into the cool, green woods, glad of the change from the hot highway. Birds flitted around them in the trees, calling in sweet notes, and now and then some startled creature of the forest darted away from beneath their very feet. They heard the distant call of crows, and the lowing of cows hidden in the fastness of the wood.
“We are almost there,” declared Marie consulting her elaborate directions. “It’s about half a mile from this spring,” and she pointed at the one where they had halted for another drink—a spring stone-lined, in the center of a grassy plot, and shaded by a great, gnarled oak. A spring so clear that the sand bottom seemed but a few inches below the surface. Yet when they replenished their water bottles they realized that it was nearly three feet deep. Cold and refreshing was the water.
And then, a little later, they emerged from the forest and stood on the shore of Bear Pond. They could look down its lonesome length and see the rock where they had first stood. The place did not seem to have changed.
“It’s as dreary and Dead Sea-like as before,” said Natalie in a whisper. Somehow it seemed natural to whisper at Bear Pond.
“Well, now to see if we can locate the Gypsy camp,” suggested Mrs. Bonnell. “It is early yet. We don’t want lunch for an hour. Let’s explore a bit first.”
They walked on, keeping as near to the shore of the lake as possible. Suddenly Natalie, who was in the lead, held up a hand for silence.