talking. "Do you and Nan want to play, Bert?" she asked
her older brother.

"No, Flossie," he answered with a smile. "I'm going to help Sam cut wood
for the campfire. We're going to have a marshmallow roast to-night."

"Oh, I just wish I could stay!" cried Helen. "I love roast
marshmallows!"

"We'll roast some when you come again," said Nan, who was going to do
some sewing, so she could not play with the smaller children just then.
Soon the game of hide-and-go-to-seek began.

Freddie said he would hide first, and let both girls hunt for him. He
thought he could hide so well that he could fool them both, and still
get "home safe" before they spied him.

So while Flossie and Helen "blinded" by hiding their faces in their arms
against a tree, Freddie stole quietly off to hide. He found a good place
behind a pile of brush-wood, and there he cuddled up in a little bunch
and waited, after calling "coop!", until he heard the two girls
searching for him.

By peeping through the brush Freddie could see Helen and his sister
looking all about for him--behind trees, down back of fallen logs, and
in clumps of ferns.

Then Freddie saw the girls go far enough away from "home," which was a
big oak tree, so that he thought he would have a chance to run in
"free."

This he did, and how surprised Flossie and Helen were when they saw him
dash out from the pile of brush-wood!

"I'll blind now and let you hide," said Freddie, though if the game was
played by the rules it would be his turn to hide again, as he had not
been caught.

So this time the little boy hid his head in his arms and began counting
up to a hundred by fives, and when he had called out loudly:
"Ninety-five--one hundred! Ready or not, I'm coming!" he opened his eyes
and began searching.

Freddie had to be more careful about going away from the "home" tree
than had the two little girls. Either one of them could have spied him
and have run to touch "home" before he did. But Freddie was all alone
hunting for his sister and Helen, and when he had his back turned one or
the other might run in ahead of him.

"But I'll find 'em," he told himself. "I'll spy 'em both and then it
will be my turn to hide again."

Meanwhile, Flossie and Helen were well hidden. Flossie had found two
logs lying on a pile of leaves, not far from the "home" tree, and she
had crawled down in between them pulling leaves over her. Only her nose
stuck out, so she could breathe, and no one coul