ysical exhaustion which follows nervous strain was upon her now
and her little feet lagged in their soaking shoes and once or twice she
stumbled with fatigue.

For what burden is heavier than a heavy heart? The soothing voices of
insect life which soften the darkness and cheer the wayfarer in the
countryside seemed only to mock her with their myriad care-free songs.
And to make matters worse there suddenly rang in her ears from far over
to the west the loud clatter of those loose planks on the old bridge
along the highway, as a car sped over it:

"You have to go back,
You have to go back."

Then the noise ceased suddenly, and there was no sound but the calling
of a screech-owl somewhere in the intervening woods.

Pepsy sat down on a rock by the roadside partly to rest and partly
because she did not want to go home. She knew, or she ought to have
known, that Aunt Jamsiah was pretty sure to be lenient about a harmless
transgression with so generous a motive. But the warning voice from that
unseen bridge disconcerted her. It was not long after she was seated
that her head hung down and soon the gentle comforter of sleep came to
her and she lay there, pillowing her head on her little thin arm.

But the comforter did not stay long, for Pepsy dreamed a dream. She
dreamed that all the people of the village, Simeon Drowser, Nathaniel
Knapp, Darius Dragg, the sneering Deadwood Gamely, and even the
faithless Arabella Bellison, the school teacher, were pointing fingers
a yard long, at her and saying, "You have to go back to the big brick
building. You have to go back, you have to go back." On the big doughnut
jar in the "refreshment parlor" sat Licorice Stick saying, "You have to
go back the next time it thunders." She shook her fist at Licorice Stick
and called him a Smarty and said she would not go back, but they all
laughed and sang:

"You have to go back,
You have to go back."

Miss Bellison was the worst of all. ...

"You have to go back,
You have to------"

With a sudden start Pepsy sat up on the rock, wide awake,

"-----go back,
You have to go back.",

She still heard.

Her forehead throbbed and her face felt very hot. There was a ringing in
her ears. She was feverish, but she did not know that. All she knew was
that everybody was against