blurred the forest floor, and
Gertie caught the panic fear. She wished to go home at once. She saw
darkness reaching for them. Her mother would unquestionably whip her
for staying out so late. She discovered a mud-smear on the side of her
skirt, and a shoe-button was gone. She was cold. Finally, if she
missed supper at home she would get no tea-biscuits and honey.
Gertie's polite little stomach knew its rights and insisted upon them.

"I wish I hadn't come!" she lamented. "I wish I hadn't. Do you s'pose
mamma will be dreadfully angry? Won't you 'splain to her? You will,
won't you?"

It was Carl's duty, as officer commanding, to watch the blackened
stumps that sprang from the underbrush. And there was Something, 'way
over in the woods, beyond the trees horribly gashed to whiteness by
lightning. Perhaps the Something hadn't moved; perhaps it _was_ a
stump----

But he answered her loudly, so that lurking robbers might overhear: "I
know a great big man over there, and he's a friend of mine; he's a
brakie on the M. & D., and he lets me ride in the caboose any time I
want to, and he's right behind us. (I was just making b'lieve, Gertie;
I'll 'splain everything to your mother.) He's bigger 'n anybody!" More
conversationally: "Aw, Jiminy! Gertie, don't cry! Please don't. I'll
take care of you. And if you ain't going to have any supper we'll
swipe some 'taters and roast 'em." He gulped. He hated to give up, to
return to woodshed and chicken-yard, but he conceded: "I guess maybe
we hadn't better go seek-our-fortunes no more to----"

A long wail tore through the air. The children shrieked together and
fled, stumbling in dry bog, weeping in terror. Carl's backbone was all
one prickling bar of ice. But he waved his stick fiercely, and,
because he had to care for her, was calm enough to realize that the
wail must have been the cry of the bittern.

"It wasn't nothing but a bird, Gertie; it can't hurt us. Heard 'em
lots of times."

Nevertheless, he was still trembling when they reached the edge of a
farm-yard clearing beyond the swamp. It was gray-dark. They could see
only the mass of a barn and a farmer's cabin, both new to Carl.
Holding her hand, he whispered:

"They must be some 'taters or 'beggies in the barn. I'll sneak in and
see. You stand here by the corn-crib and work out some ears between
the bars. See--like this."

He left her. The sound of her frightened snivel aged him. He tiptoed
to the barn door, eying a ligh