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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
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