be like my father; if I am bad he will punish me. Is it not so among
your people?"

Bessie struggled with a laugh at the thought of the only married couple
she had ever known at all well: Paw and Maw Hoover. The idea that Paw
Hoover, the mildest and most inoffensive of men, might ever beat his
wife would have made anyone who knew that couple laugh.

Instead of turning when they reached the trail which Bessie had followed
after her descent from the rocks, Lolla led the way straight on.

"Are you sure you know where you are going, Lolla!" asked Bessie.

Lolla smiled at her scornfully.

"Yes, but it is not the way you would go," she said. "The trail to the
camp will be full of people. They will be out all over the camp
particularly. We must come to it from another direction. That is why we
are going this way."

It was not long before Bessie was as thoroughly lost as if she had been
in a maze. Lolla, however, seemed to know just where she was going. She
left one trail to turn into another without ever showing the slightest
doubt of her direction, and, at times, when the woods were thin, she
would take short cuts, leading the way through entirely pathless
portions of the forest with as much assurance as if she had been walking
through the streets of a city where she had lived all her life. Even
Bessie, used to long walks around Hedgeville, in which she had learned
the country thoroughly, was surprised.

"I don't believe I'd ever get to know these woods as well as you do,"
she said admiringly. "Why, you never seem even to hesitate."

"I've been here every summer since I was born," said Lolla, in a
laughing tone. "I ought to know these woods pretty well, I think."

"I hope no one sees us now," said Bessie, nervously. "I really do feel
as if it were wrong for me to keep away. Miss Mercer must be as anxious
about me as she is about Dolly."

"Is she the lady who is with you girls?"

"Yes. You see, she probably thinks that was carried off, as well as
Dolly."

"She will stop being anxious all the sooner for not knowing where you
are. I think it will not be long now before we get your friend away from
that place where she is hidden."

"Well, I certainly hope so. Listen! I think I can hear voices in front
of us."

"I heard them two or three minutes ago," said Lolla, with a smile. "Stay
here, now; hide behind that clump of bushes. I will go ahead and see
what I can find. Even if it is some of your friends they would