ndered too far and haven't been able to find their way back. But
if your mother has notified the police, as she surely has by this time,
they are sure to be found. And now," she added, rising briskly and
making for the door, "since everything seems a good deal worse than it
is on an empty stomach, I'm going to give you some lunch and we'll
decide what to do afterward."

Left alone, the girls gazed helplessly at each other. Mollie had stopped
sobbing and was staring moodily out at the ocean, her eyes and nose
swollen with weeping.

"I'll have to go home, of course," she said suddenly, breaking a silence
filled with unhappy thoughts. "I don't know that I'll be any good, but I
can at least comfort mother. I'm sorry," she gave them a wistful,
apologetic little glance that went straight to their hearts and brought
the tears to their eyes, "to break up the party."

"You darling," cried Betty, trying to laugh and not making a very great
success of it, "do you think we care a rap about our old party? Only,"
she added thoughtfully, "as you say yourself, I don't see that you can
do very much good by going home."

"I could comfort mother," repeated Mollie, in a flat tone, as though she
were repeating a lesson.

"But she said not to come," suggested Grace. "She said she was doing
everything possible--"

"I know," interrupted Mollie, wearily. "Of course she would say not to
come. And I suppose," she added, dabbing impatiently at her eyes, "all
I'd do would be to weep anyway, and make things about ten times worse."

"Do you want your lunch inside or out here?" Mrs. Ford asked from the
doorway and the girls jumped to their feet.

"Here we are, letting you do all the work again," cried Betty
self-reproachfully. "I guess we'd rather have it out here, but we'll
bring it out ourselves. Please go over there, get into the swing, and
don't stir until we say you may." Betty had a pretty manner, half of
deference, half of _camaraderie_, with older people that made them love
her. Mrs. Ford patted her cheek with a little smile and obeyed her
command while the three girls ran into the kitchen to bring out the
sandwiches and cake that she had already prepared.

And all the time Mollie sat motionless, staring out over the ocean,
apparently unconscious of everything that was going on around her.

"Little Dodo and Paul," she said over and over to herself. "What has
happened to them? Oh, I must go home, I must!"

"Come to your lunch," cal