ankle. Here, take my hand. Sitting here in
this mud I feel as if I had fallen into a nest of snakes."

Mollie gave Bab both her hands. Setting her teeth, Bab tried to rise,
but, with a groan, sat down again. The second time Mollie pulled with all
her might. Barbara, summoning her courage, rose slowly to her feet.
Without speaking she leaned against the trunk of the nearest tree.

"Wait here, dear," urged Mollie, more worried than she would show. "I
will try and find you a stick. Then if you lean on me and use the stick
in the other hand, perhaps we can get along all right."

They were several miles from home and in another hour the dusk would be
upon them. So the two girls struggled bravely on through the thick woods,
though it was difficult to walk abreast in the narrow path. Barbara
insisted she was better with each step, but Mollie knew otherwise. With
every foot of ground they covered Bab limped more and more painfully. Now
and then when her injured foot pressed too heavily on the rough ground,
she caught her breath and swallowed a groan. Mollie realized they would
not get home before midnight at the rate they were now moving.

"Rest here, Bab," she insisted, when they came to an opening in the woods
where the shade was less dense. "I think I see a place over there that
must lead into a road. I will run on ahead and find some one to come back
to help you."

Bab was glad to sit down. Her foot was swelling and growing more painful
every moment; her pulses were throbbing. She was almost crying, but she
would never mention surrender; she was not sorry, however, when Mollie
suggested that she should rest.

Mollie sped through the woods as fast as she could run. As soon as her
back was turned, Bab closed her eyes. "How glad I am to rest," she
thought gratefully.

In the half hour that Barbara Thurston waited alone her mind wandered to
many of her own hopes and fears. First, she couldn't help worrying over
her mother. Then, she thought of her own ambition. More than anything in
the world she longed to go to Vassar College. In two years more she would
be ready to enter, but where was the money to come from? Barbara realized
that her mother would never be able to pay her expenses from their small
income; nevertheless, she meant to go. The Kingsbridge High School
offered a scholarship at Vassar to the girl who passed the best final
examinations during the four years of its course. Barbara had won the
highest honors in