ws, and can't see anything high and tall,
like a tree or a building sticking up, that one doesn't know which way
to go. All ways look alike then. So it is no wonder that Vi, after she
had helped her doll gather a bouquet, went the wrong way. Instead of
walking back toward the creek she walked away from it.

And she was walking away from the Three Star Ranch house also. In fact
Violet was lost on the plain, and she was getting more and more lost
every minute and with each step she took.

Finally she said:

"Oh, Su-San! aren't you tired? I am. I'm going to sit down and rest and
let you rest, too."

Of course the doll wasn't tired, as she hadn't done any walking, for Vi
had carried her all the way. But Vi pretended that the doll was as
weary as was the little girl herself.

So together they sat down in the tall grass, which came over Violet's
head now, and rested. Violet didn't know she was lost. But she was, all
the same.

After a while she got up and started to walk again. She walked and
walked, and, when she couldn't find the creek nor the willow tree nor
see her mother nor any of the other little Bunkers, she became
frightened and started to cry.

"Oh, Mother!" she called, "where are you? I want you!"

Of course Mrs. Bunker could not hear then, for she was on her way to get
Captain Roy to help search for the little girl.

Violet wandered around and around, calling now and then, and crying real
tears every once in a while, until, at last, when the sun began to get
lower and lower in the west, and the little girl knew it would soon be
dark, she sobbed:

"Oh, what shall I do! Oh, where is my mother!"

And just then she heard a horse come trotting along. She could hear the
gallop of the hoofs on the ground.

"Oh, maybe it's an Indian!" thought Vi. "We'd better hide, Su-San!"

She clasped the Japanese toy in her arms, and crouched down in the
grass. But the trotting came nearer. Then Violet knew it was more than
one horse.

"Maybe it's a whole band of Indians!" she whispered. "Oh, Su-San!"

Down in the tall grass she hid, but she kept on crying. And then,
suddenly, close to her, a voice said:

"I thought I heard a child crying just now, didn't you, Jim?"

"Sounded like it, but what would a child be doing out here all alone?"

"I don't know, but I sure did hear it!"

Then another voice called:

"What's the matter over there?"

"Oh, Frank thought he heard a child crying," answered some one, and Vi