"Well, he didn't know what he was talking about," asserted the little chap, with the supreme confidence of youth. "To get to Rockford you've got to go back."
"All that distance?" cried Grace. "We'll never make it in time."
"Isn't there a shorter way—some cross-road we can take?" inquired Betty.
"Who's got the candy?" inquired the little chap, evidently thinking that he had already earned some reward.
"Here!" said Grace, hopelessly, holding out an almost emptied box. "But please—please don't tell us we're lost."
"Oh, you ain't exactly lost!" exclaimed the urchin, with a grin. "I live just down the road a piece, and it's only a mile to Bakersville. That's a good town. They got a movin' picture show there. I went onct!"
"Did you indeed?" said Betty. "But we can't go there. Isn't there some way of getting to Rockford without going all the way back to the fork? Why, it's miles and miles!"
"I wish I had that man here who directed us wrongly!" exclaimed Mollie, with a flash of her dark eyes. "I—I'd make him get a carriage and drive us to your aunt's house, Betty."
"That would not be revenge enough," declared Grace. "He ought to be made to buy us each a box of the best chocolates."
"Nothing like making the punishment fit the crime," murmured Betty.