she was greeted with cries of joy when the girls
saw her burden.

"They'll make our breakfast ever so much nicer," said Eleanor. "It was
good of you to think of them."

Not until after breakfast did they see Mrs. Chester--not, indeed, until
all the dishes had been washed and put away. And then she approached
with a grave face, and called the Guardian aside. They talked together
earnestly for a few minutes, and Eleanor's face grew as serious as the
Chief Guardian's. Bessie saw that they looked at her more than once as
they spoke, and that Eleanor shook her head repeatedly.

"I wonder what can be wrong, Zara," she said. "Do you suppose that
Farmer Weeks has been making trouble for us again?"

"Oh, I hope not! Do you think it's about us they're talking?"

"I'm afraid so. See, they're calling me. We'll soon know."

Bessie did indeed, soon know what had happened.

"Bessie," said Mrs. Chester, "did you go anywhere else this morning when
you went for berries?"

"I just walked about the place, Mrs. Chester, and looked around. That's
all."

"But you were quite alone?"

"Yes, quite alone. I only saw a few men who were working, cutting the
grass, and trimming hedges."

"Oh, I'm sorry! Bessie, over there in the woods there's a place that's
fenced off, where General Seeley keeps a lot of pheasants. And some time
since last night someone has been in there and frightened the mother
birds and taken a lot of the eggs. Some of them were broken--and it was
not an animal."

Bessie looked frightened and concerned.

"Oh, what a shame! But, Mrs. Chester, you don't think I did it?"

CHAPTER XIII

A TANGLED WEB

Bessie's eyes were full of fear and dismay as she looked at Mrs. Chester
and Eleanor. At first she hadn't thought it even possible that they
could think she had done anything so cruel as to frighten the birds and
steal their eggs, but there was a grave look on their faces that
terrified her.

"No, Bessie," said Mrs. Chester, "I don't believe you did--certainly, I
don't want to believe anything of the sort."

"I _know_ you didn't do it, Bessie!" cried Eleanor Mercer.

"But General Seeley is very indignant about it, Bessie," Mrs. Chester
went on to say. "And some of the men told him that one of the girls from
the camp was around very early this morning, before anyone else was up,
walking about, and looking at things. So he seemed to think right away
that she must have done it. And he sent for me and asked