peared interested in the girls. "Mamma Carrie live dat way, mamma
Mary live dat way," and in quick succession she pointed first in one
direction and then the other.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Amy. "It's getting worse and worse!"

"You can't have two mammas, you know," said Betty, gently. "Try and tell
us right dearie, and we'll take you home."

"I dot two mammas," announced the child, positively. "Mamma Carrie live
down there, mamma Mary live off there. I be at mamma Carrie's house, and
I turn back, den I get losted. Take me home!"

She seemed on the verge of tears again.

"Here!" exclaimed Grace, in desperation. "Have a candy--do--two of them.
But don't cry. She reminds me of the twins," she added, with just the
suspicion of moisture in her own eyes. The lost child gravely accepted
two chocolates, one in each hand, and at once proceeded to get about as
much on the outside of her face as went in her mouth. She seemed more
content now.

"I can't understand it," sighed Mollie. "Two mothers! Who ever heard of
such a thing?"

"Me got two muvvers," said the child, calmly, as she took a bite first of
the chocolate in her left hand, and then a nibble from the one in the
right. "One live dat way--one live udder way."

"What can she be driving at?" asked Amy.

"There must be some explanation," said Betty, as she got up from the
stump on which she had been sitting, and placed the child on the ground.
"We'll take her a little distance on the way we are going," she went on.
"Perhaps we may meet someone looking for her."

"And we can't delay too long," added Mollie. "It will soon be supper
time, and my aunt, where we are going to stay to-night, is quite a
fusser. I sent her a card, saying we'd be there, and if we don't arrive
she may call up our houses on the telephone, and imagine that all sorts
of accidents have befallen us."

"But we can't leave her all alone on the road," spoke Betty, indicating
the child.

"Don't 'eeve me!" pleaded the lost tot. "Me want one of my muvvers!"

"It's getting worse and worse," sighed Mollie, wanting to laugh, but not
daring to.

Slowly the girls proceeded in the direction they had been going. They
hoped they might meet someone who either would be looking for the child,
or else a traveler who could direct them properly to her house, or who
might even assume charge of the little one. For it was getting late and
the girls did not feel like spending the night in some strange place. It
was pr