camping ground, which he found presently in a little
hollow by the side of the road, not far from a house, where water could
be begged for themselves, and also for the horse: a great convenience
this, because they seemed to have left the region of little roadside
streams, and they had seen no water since noon.

"I wonder why Sylvia and Rumple do not come back. Do you think that they
can have lost their way?" Nealie asked Rupert, when he came to help her
unharness the horse, after the wagon had been drawn into position at the
side of the road.

"If they have, they will soon find it again when they turn round to come
back," said Rupert in a casual tone; but secretly he was very much
worried because they had not come back, and would promptly have gone in
search of them if his foot had not ached so much as to make walking out
of the question.

Don, Billykins, and Ducky worked very hard at getting supper ready, but
everyone was more or less anxious, and no one really enjoyed things,
until, just as they were going to sit down to supper without them, the
wanderers appeared. They were very tired, and dreadfully shamefaced at
having stayed away so long that all the burden of supper preparations
was thrown on the others.

"We don't mind that; only we were so worried because you were away so
long," replied Nealie, who had been looking rather white and worn, but
who was smiling now that the worry was at an end.

The night was delightfully fine, and they grew very merry as they sat
round the supper fire. It really seemed a shame to turn in; but, mindful
of the early start which would have to be made next morning, Nealie said
they really must go to bed.

It was one thing to talk of turning in and quite another to do it,
however. The three girls were going to sleep on the floor of the wagon,
but when the mattress was unrolled there seemed no room at all, and so
much twisting and turning was necessary, before there was room for the
three of them to lie down, that a good part of the night was taken up in
getting comfortable; indeed they might not have been able to sleep at
all if it had not been for Sylvia's brilliant idea of lying in what she
called the head and toe position; that is to say, her head and Nealie's
feet shared the same end of the mattress, while Ducky, being so many
sizes smaller, was accommodated somewhere about the middle.

Down below, the boys had more room and less comfort. A tarpaulin spread
over the shafts