“I am and I do,” answered Miss Dean haughtily.
“Now let us forget our little lecture, and do what we can to assist the women of the village to get set, so to speak,” suggested Grace. “We must not worry about Elfreda. I believe we shall find her and that she is as safe at this moment as we are.”
“I’ll demonstrate over her. I’ll keep saying to myself, ‘Elfreda is well and happy. No harm can come to her because only error can mean harm,’” promised Emma, bubbling and laughing.
“Come,” said Grace. “Demonstrate after we have given some material aid to these distressed people.”
It was about this time that Elfreda reached the shack in the forest and made the discovery that so startled her. Elfreda’s amazement was caused by the sight of a human being, sitting on a stump near the shack. The human being was short and fat. He was eating from a can of baked beans, his big eyes regarding Miss Briggs soulfully, his cheeks puffed out with the beans.
“Stacy!” cried Elfreda. “Oh, Stacy Brown! Am I dreaming?”
“Mebby,” mumbled the fat boy, digging more beans from the can.
Elfreda ran to him, and in her joy at seeing her Overland companion, she threw her arms about Stacy. In doing so she knocked the can of beans from his hands, and the rest of the contents was spilled on the ground.
“Now see what you’ve done,” wailed the fat boy. “And the beanery fifty miles away.”
“Never mind the beans. What is this place?”