see, Dolly, if it
_had_ been the right way, we would be home by now?"

"Oh, Dotty, what are we going to do?"

Dolly's face took on a woe-begone expression, and her big blue eyes
stared at the white face of her friend. "I'm frightened, Dolly, I-- I
never was lost in the woods before."

"Nor I, either. I've often heard of people being lost in these woods,
when they were really quite near their homes. One man was lost for three
days before they found him."

"Oh, don't say such dreadful things! It's getting awful dark, and I'm
cold, and--and I'm scared!"

"I'm all those things, too! oh, Dolly, I'm awfully frightened!" and
Dotty dropped her bundles of birch bark and sitting down on a stone
began to cry hysterically.

Now Dolly Fayre was the sort to rise to an emergency, where Dotty Rose
would lose her head completely. So Dolly, though terribly frightened,
controlled herself, and sitting down, put her arm around Dotty and tried
to cheer her.

"Brace up, Dot, it can't do a bit of good to cry you know. Now you know
more about this sort of thing than I do, what do people do when they're
lost in the woods?"

"Hol--holler," said Dotty, weakly, between her sobs, "holler like fury,
and m-maybe somebody hears them and maybe they d-don't."

"All right, let's holler," and Dolly gave a yell, that sounded about as
loud and carrying as the pipe or a bulfinch.

"Who do you s'pose'll hear that?" and Dotty almost smiled through her
tears; "this is the way to holler." Dotty gave a loud scream, a long
halloo, tapping her fingers against her mouth as she did so, making a
peculiar mountain cry, known to campers.

"All right, I'll do that, too," and Dolly set up a rival yell.

But though both girls did their best, their screams were not very loud
and they were followed by a silence, so intense, that they shivered and
clung together in fear. The dark had fallen suddenly, and though only
about seven o'clock, in the thick woods, they could scarcely see each
other's faces.

Appalled by the awfulness of the situation, Dolly burst into tears, and
though not as violent as Dotty's, her sobs were deep and racking ones.

"Oh, don't, Dollyrinda, _don't_ cry so! I'll never forgive myself for
losing you in these awful woods!"

"You didn't lose me, any more than I lost you. We both lost each other;
I mean-- I guess I mean we're both lost!" and Dolly's tears fell afresh.

Then both girls gave way and cried desperately, till they could cry no