o back."

It was half an hour before the girls strolled leisurely into the yard
again, munching their peppermints.

"Where are the children?" asked Eliza, hastily, seeing the girls come
back alone.

"Not with us. We sent them back to you," said Eunice, quickly. "What
have those tiresome children done now? They ought to be put in barrels
and kept there. It's the only way to be sure of them. When did you miss
them?"

"Ever since you've been gone. Zaidee ran past, saying she was going with
you, so I let her."

"They must be somewhere around the house or barn," answered Eunice,
beginning to call "Helen! Helen!" She knew that Helen would answer if
she were within earshot, but Zaidee was quite equal to letting them
call, if she were in a fit of temper. But they searched in vain. Kenneth
insisted they went "that way," pointing down the beach, but Billy
thought he had seen them going up the beach. They searched the house and
barn, and then, as it was near dinner-time, Will and Archie appeared and
joined the detective force.

"This is getting serious," said Will, presently. "I think the little
skivers have really run off."

"Could they have fallen off the dock?" asked Cricket, anxiously. But,
fortunately, it was low tide, and there was no water to fall into. They
inquired of all passers-by, and of the immediate neighbours, with no
better result. The children had not been seen. Faces began to grow
grave, and feet began to fly faster in every direction. Archie saddled
the ponies, and Cricket started off in one direction, Eunice in another,
while he and Will went back into the woodland roads.

Meanwhile, the twins, after being sent back by Eunice, had marched
disconsolately down on the beach, without Eliza's seeing them.

"I'm going to run away now," said Zaidee, firmly. She must have gotten
out of the wrong side of the bed that morning, for everything seemed to
go wrong. She was usually a sunny little soul.

"Where shall we run to?" asked Helen, hanging back.

"Let's go this way," said Zaidee, selecting "this way," for no
particular reason. It led them back of the house, on to one of the
woodland roads, out of sight of anybody.

They trudged on for half a mile or more, and then suddenly came upon a
small cheese factory, which stood upon one side of a little brook. There
was a dam here, and a small pond, and on the other side of the brook a
little saw-mill stood.

Zaidee, of course, immediately wanted to go into th