"Say, are you play-actors?" demanded the boy, who had stood in opened-mouth wonder during this dialogue. The girls broke into peals of merry laughter that, in a measure, served to relieve the tension on their nerves.
"Now do please tell us how to get to Rockford?" begged Mollie when they had quieted down. "We must be there to-night."
"Well, you kin git there by goin' on a mile further and taking the main road that goes through Sayreville," said the boy, his mouth full of candy.
"Would that be nearer than going back to where we made the mistake?"
Betty asked.
"Yep, a lot nearer. Come on; I'll show you as far as I'm goin'," and the boy started off as though the task—or shall I say, pleasure?—of leading four pretty girls was an every-day occurrence.
"We never can get there before dark," declared Mollie.
"Oh, yes, we will," said Betty, hopefully. "We can walk faster than this."
"If you do I'll simply give up," wailed Grace. "These shoes!" and she leaned against a tree.
And to the eternal credit of the other girls be it said that they did not remark: "I told you so!"
Silently and unconcernedly, the snub-nosed boy led them on. Finally he came to his own home, and rather ungallantly, did not offer to go farther.