and floated down the stream.

"Oh, Ted, we must go home!" suddenly cried Jan. "It's getting dark!"

The sun was beginning to set, but it would not really have been dark for
some time, except that the western sky was filled with clouds that
seemed to tell of a coming storm. So, really, it did appear as though
night were at hand.

"I guess we'd better go," Ted said, with a look at the dark clouds.
"Come on, Hal. There's room for you, too, Mary, in the wagon."

"Can Nicknack pull us all?" Mary asked.

"I guess so. It's mostly down hill. Come on!"

The four children got into the goat-wagon, and if Nicknack minded the
bigger load he did not show it, but trotted off rather fast. Perhaps he
knew he was going home to his stable where he would have some sweet hay
and oats to eat, and that was what made him so glad to hurry along.

The wagon was stopped near the Home long enough to let Hal get out, and
a little later Mary was driven up to her gate. Then Ted and Jan, with
the doll between them, drove on.

"Oh, Ted!" exclaimed his sister, "mother'll scold. We oughtn't to have
stayed so late. It's past supper time!"

"We didn't mean to. Anyhow, I guess they'll give us something to eat.
Grandma baked cookies to-day and there'll be some left."

"I hope so," replied Jan with a sigh. "I'm hungry!"

They drove on in silence a little farther, and then, as they came to the
top of a hill and could look down toward Star Island in the middle of
Clover Lake, Ted suddenly called:

"Look, Jan!"

"Where?" she asked.

"Over there," and her brother pointed to the island. "Do you see that
blue light?"

"On the island, do you mean? Yes, I see it. Maybe somebody's there with
a lantern."

"Nobody lives on Star Island. Besides, who'd have a blue lantern?"

Jan did not answer.

It was now quite dark, and down in the lake, where there was a patch of
black which was Star Island, could be seen a flickering blue glow, that
seemed to stand still and then move about.

"Maybe it's lightning bugs," suggested Jan.

"Huh! Fireflies are sort of white," exclaimed Ted. "I never saw a light
like that before."

"Me, either, Ted! Hurry up home. Giddap, Nicknack!" and Jan threw at the
goat a pine cone, one of several she had picked up and put in the wagon
when they were taking a rest in the woods that afternoon.

Nicknack gave a funny little wiggle to his tail, which the children
could hardly see in the darkness, and then he trotted on faster