, gliding ashore, and sitting down on a
stone almost out of breath.

"I call it nice sport for girls," replied Carrie, pausing on the edge of
the bank; "but you aren't tired yet, are you?"

"Yes, a little. Besides, too much of a good thing, as my uncle says,
destroys your relish for it. I guess I've skated enough for once," said
Jessie, stooping and unbuckling the straps of her skates.

"Pooh! Jessie's not half a skater!" rejoined Carrie; "but what has become
of your friend Madge?"

"Sure enough! Where is she? I had forgotten all about her."

But Madge had wandered still farther off, and was nursing her bad feelings
in a small grove which skirted the pasture. She was not visible from where
the girls and Guy were.

"O Guy! Madge is gone. Won't you please come and help me find her?" said
Jessie, putting on a very long and sorrowful face.

"I'll call her. She's not far off, I'll bet," replied Guy.

Then placing his hands to his lips as a sort of speaking trumpet, he
shouted--

"Madge! Ma-adge! Ma-a-adge!"

"Adge! Adge! Adge!" said an echo from the distant grove.

"Where can she be!" cried Jessie, now relieved of her skates and standing
on a hillock, peering eagerly all over the pasture.

"I guess she is only gone home. Never mind her," said Carrie. "She ain't
worth worrying about."

"Yes, she is," replied Jessie. "She is a poor unhappy girl, and I want to
make her good and happy. Uncle Morris says everybody that God made is
worth caring about, and I _do_ care for Madge. Oh dear, I wish I knew
where to find her."

"See there?" cried Guy, pointing to a group of boys near the distant
grove. "I think I see Madge among those fellows. I'll lose my guess if
that isn't Idle Jem and his crew. There's a girl among them for certain,
but how could Madge stroll all up there and none of us see or think of
her?"

"Let us go and see," said Jessie.

Quickly as their nimble fingers could loose the straps, Carrie and Guy
removed their skates. In a minute or two more, the three were hurrying
across the pasture toward the boys and girl, whom they saw.

Madge was, indeed, one of that group. Idle Jem and his crew, while
wandering across the pasture in search of the hickory-nuts which were
hidden under the dead leaves, had found her in the grove. They began to
jibe at her at once. The girl long used to the rough news and beggar boys
of the city, and out of temper, withal, jibed back at them with interest.
They goaded her wit