When it was time for dinner, Mrs. Clifford spread a table-cloth on the ground, and covered it with the nice food she had brought. It was a delightful entertainment. Flyaway was so nearly wild with the new experience of eating in the woods, among the toads and squirrels, that she required constant watching to keep her within bounds. She wanted to run after all the little creeping things she saw, and give them part of her dinner. Horace gladly assumed the care of her. He did not mean that his mother should regret having brought little Topknot.
CHAPTER X.
SURPRISES.
After a very happy day in the woods, the Cliffords started for home with as many nuts as they could carry.
Dotty said she had had a nice time; but for some reason she could not go to sleep that night. There was a burning sensation in her right side, and she had a horrible fancy that a snake had bitten her. She could not endure the thought of lying and listening to the strokes of the clock.
"I'll go find my father," thought she, with that "far-off" feeling at her heart again.
But which way to go? She had not yet learned the plan of the house, but had no doubt she could find her father's room. She pattered about the chambers with her little bare feet, and at last waked Horace by overturning a chair near his bed.
"Why, who is there? And what's wanted?"
"It's me, and I want my father."