ith her. It was so
comfortable that they remained nearly an hour and would have stayed
longer only the Little Captain, with a look at her watch, decided that
they must get under way again.

"Now it's noon!" exclaimed Grace, when they had covered two miles after
their rest. "Mollie, open the lunch and let's see what it contains."

There was a startled cry from Mollie. A clasping of her hands, a raising
of her almost tragic eyes, and she exclaimed:

"Oh, girls, forgive me! I forgot the lunch! I left it back there where we
rested in the shade!"

CHAPTER XIV

THE BROKEN RAIL

Dumb amazement held the girls in suspense for a moment. Then came a
chorus of cries.

"Mollie, you never did that!"

"Forgot our lunch!"

"And we're so hungry!"

"Oh, Mollie, how could you?"

"You don't suppose I did it on purpose; do you?" flashed back the guilty
one, as she looked at the three pairs of tragic, half-indignant and
hopeless eyes fastened on her.

"Of course you didn't," returned Betty. "But, oh, Mollie, is it really
gone? Did you leave it there?"

"Well, I haven't it with me, none of you have, and I don't remember
picking it up after we slumped down there in the shade. Consequently I
must have left it there. There's no other solution. It's like one of
those queer problems in geometry, or is it algebra, where things that are
equal to the same thing are equal to each other," and she laughed with
just the hint of hysteria.

"But what are we to do?" demanded Grace. "I am so hungry, and I know
there were chicken sandwiches, and olives, in that lunch. Oh, Mollie!"

"Oh, Mollie!" mocked the negligent one. "If you say that
again--that way--"

Her temper was rising but, by an effort, she conquered it and smiled.

"I am truly sorry," she said. "Girls, I'll do anything to make up for it.
I'll run back and get the lunch--that is, if it is there yet."

"Don't you dare say it isn't!" cried Betty.

"Why can't we all go back?" suggested Amy. "Really it won't delay us so
much--if we walk fast. And that was a nice place to eat. There was a
lovely spring just across the road. I noticed it. We could make tea--"

"Little comforter!" whispered Betty, putting her arms around the other.
"We will all go back. The day is so perfect that there's sure to be a
lovely moon, and we can stop somewhere and telephone to your cousin if we
find we are going to be delayed. She has an auto, I believe you said, and
she might come and get us