But Jo, hearing them, ran on ahead mischievously.
"I'll give them the hunt of their lives!" she chuckled. "The nerve of them! Talking as though I needed a nurse!"
A few moments later Sadie and Nan caught sight of her through the trees and gave full chase.
Laughing, breathless, looking over her shoulder at her pursuers, Jo did not notice her danger until it was too late! Almost before she knew it she was in the midst of the dangerous huckleberry swamp!
Her feet slipped from the firm earth into a slimy ooze. Mud and water clutched at her ankles, drawing her down deeper into the slime the more she struggled.
Jo looked about her wildly. On all sides rose huckleberry bushes, their branches now bare save for a few dried berries here and there.
"The huckleberry swamp!" she cried.
Nan and Sadie were running toward her. She called out a warning to them, but they did not understand—they thought she was still joking.
They did not understand until their feet, too, caught in the sticky ooze. Then the laughter on their faces froze into fear.
"I tried to warn you!" cried Jo, half-sobbing. "It's the swamp! I tried to warn you, but you ran straight on! Oh, why didn't you listen to me!"