“It’s like an enchanted forest, isn’t it?” murmured Anne as, helped ashore by the Indian, she breathed deeply of the spicy air.
“We’ll have to blaze our own trails, I guess,” declared Betty, peering speculatively toward the unbroken ranks of forest kings, reigning long undisturbed in their towering might.
“We won’t dare go very far inland without Blue Wolf,” demurred Emmy. “We’d be likely to get lost. It’s too bad he can’t stay here to-day, instead of having to leave us to the mercy of the wilds.”
“Here’s our chance to be good woodsmen,” laughed Anne. “This time we’ve a real forest to practice in.”
“All safe ashore!” broke in Ruth’s cheery tones. Disdaining the Indian’s hand, she had made a nimble spring to terra-firma, calling out just as the guide landed Frances, the last to leave her canoe.
“It’s a wonder we are,” muttered Jane, who stood at her elbow.
“Don’t say anything about what happened to us,” warned Ruth in an undertone.
“I won’t go back in the same canoe with her,” protested Jane in low, vehement tones. “She spoiled our whole trip. We all made a big mistake in not saying ‘No’ when she first wanted to come to our reunion.”
For once Ruth was tempted to concur with Jane. She was beginning to believe that their kindly effort toward Blanche had been ill-advised. They had not succeeded in helping her, and there seemed small prospect that they ever would. The light that she had hoped to pass on undimmed to Blanche seemed in a fair way to flicker out.