The child shivered, as she dropped on the ground. Tired as she was, she had plenty of courage left. Not a tear had been shed in these miles of weary tramping; indeed she had often laughed at her own mistakes, though the laughter had sometimes been close to tears; but Mollie knew that she must not lose her head.
“Suppose, I do have to stay in the woods all night?” she reflected. “It wouldn’t kill me. I have wanted to have adventures in a forest; here is my opportunity. I wish, though, I knew how to make a fire; I’m so cold and hungry; but I haven’t a sign of a match, so there is no use of thinking about it.”
If Mollie could but have kept awake a little longer! No sooner had she dropped on the soft leaves than fatigue overcame her, and she was fast asleep.
Suddenly a figure came out of the underbrush—a strange young figure all brown and scarlet. It moved so softly that scarcely a leaf trembled. For a minute it paused and gazed down on the sleeping child. The little girl stirred in her sleep. With a bound the wood sprite vanished. It need not have hurried; Mollie was too utterly weary to awaken soon.
What had happened at the log cabin, meantime?
All morning Ruth, Bab and Grace had been practising under the instruction of Naki. Bab was growing into a clever shot, and Ruth was playing her a close second, when the luncheon gong sounded. The girls had given no further thought to Mollie, supposing she had grown tired of her walk, and was at home with Miss Sallie. The latter naturally was not worried, as she thought Mollie was with Naki and the others.
When the girls filed into the living room for their lunch Bab asked carelessly: “Where’s Mollie?”
“Where’s Mollie?” repeated Miss Sallie. “Hasn’t she been shooting with you? Perhaps she is somewhere near. Here is Ceally; I will ask her.”
At this moment Ceally entered with a great bowl of vegetable soup that looked most inviting to the hungry girls.
“I haven’t seen Miss Mollie all morning,” she explained. “Not since she started for a walk up that hill over ‘yond’.”