quite able to amuse herself at times, and
since coming to the woods she had enjoyed playing in the clearing with a
toy shovel and pick and a blunt axe. She liked to make believe she was
chopping down trees and piling them up in tiny heaps of firewood that
cook's helper generally used for kindlings. No one was concerned about
the child as she had played quietly in that way for several days and she
was not given to adventure like the twins. So, it was with a startled
expression that Mrs. Starr called Babs and, receiving no reply, went to
the door of the log cabin to find her. As no Babs was to be seen, and
nobody had seen her anywhere for the past half hour, Mrs. Starr felt
frightened.

Mrs. Starr and Mrs. Latimer ran over to the school room to inquire, but
no one had seen Babs there. Then, they ran to the office where the two
bosses were writing and figuring, but neither one of them had seen Babs.

"Where's Mike?" asked Mr. Starr.

"Oh, I never thought of him," replied Mrs. Starr with a feeling of
relief.

"If Mike isn't about the clearing you can rest assured that he has Babs
with him, and she is as safe as she would be in bed," said Mr. Starr,
going out of the office to inquire about Mike at the cook's quarters.

As Mike had not been seen about for an hour, there was no doubt that
Babs and he were out together.

Now Mike had loped silently over the frozen ground toward the direction
of the timber cutting, without ever looking behind him. Had he glanced
back he might have seen a tiny little girl making great efforts to
follow after him. Mike was too entirely a creature of nature to walk in
a beaten path when a short-cut through the woods saved so many steps.
Therefore, Babs found her path beset by many obstacles as she tried to
follow exactly in the way Mike had chosen.

Her short little legs could not keep up with his agile old ones, and
soon Babs was left behind. Try as she would she could not run fast
enough to find Mike again. She could barely remember in which direction
she last saw him going, and finally, she sat down upon a flat rock and
cried. She was tired, she was hungry, she wanted to go home, and she
wanted Mike. But not one of these wants were satisfied, and she cried
lustily for someone to come and find her.

Since living in the forest, Mother had often warned the children never
to go out of sight of the clearing, for there might be bears about the
woods. To add to her fear of being lost, came a q