“Yes, indeed, dear auntie. Now, just hold your head perfectly still, while we decorate you for dinner. We will make Uncle Doc’s eyes fairly pop with admiration. Have you been lonely without us?”
“Oh, not a bit. You see there has been a good deal of noise about here, and I felt as if I were not alone. Hop Yet has been pounding soap-root in the kitchen, and I hear the sound of Pancho’s axe in the distance,—the Doctor asked him to chop wood for the camp-fire. Was Dicky any trouble? Where is he?”
“Why, darling mother, are you crazy?” asked Bell. “If you think a moment, he was in the hammock and you were lying down in the tent when we started.”
“Why, I certainly thought I heard him ask to go with you,” said Mrs. Winship, in rather an alarmed tone.
“So he did; but I told him it was too far.”
“I didn’t hear that; in fact, I was half asleep; I was not feeling well. Ask Hop Yet; he has been in the kitchen all the afternoon.”
Hop Yet replied, with discouraging tranquillity, “Oh, I no know. I no sabe Dicky; he allee time lun loun camp; I no look; too muchee work. I chop hash—Dicky come in kitch’—make heap work—no good. I tell him go long—he go; bime-by you catchum; you see.” Whereupon he gracefully skinned an onion, and burst into a Chinese song, with complete indifference as to whether Dicky lived or died.
“Perhaps he is with Pancho; I’ll run and see!” cried Polly, dashing swiftly in the direction of the sky-parlour. But after a few minutes she ran back, with a serious face. “He’s not there; Pancho has not seen him since lunch.”
“Well, I’ve just happened to think,” said pale Aunt Truth, “that papa came into the tent for some cartridges, after you left, and of course he took Dick with him. I don’t suppose it is any use to worry. He always does come out right; and I have told him so many times never on any account to go away from the camp alone that he surely would not do it. Papa and the boys will be home soon, now. It is nearly six o’clock, and I told them that I would blow the horn at six, as usual. If they are too far away to hear it, they will know the time by the sun.”
“Well,” said Bell, anxiously, “I hope it is all right. Papa is so strict that he won’t be late himself. Did all the boys go with him, mamma?”