had
remarked to each other with a shudder, "How awful it would be to get
lost in Bear Swamp."

Anyway, Ann went straight there, through pasture and woodland, over
ditches and stone walls. She knew every step of the way for a long
distance. When she gradually got into the unfamiliar wilderness of
the swamp, a thought struck her--suppose she got lost too! It would
be easy enough--the unbroken forest stretched for miles in some
directions. She would not find a living thing but Indians; and,
maybe, wild beasts, the whole distance.

If she should get lost she would not find Hannah, and the people
would have to hunt for her too. But Ann had quick wits for an
emergency. She had actually carried those cards, with a big wad of
wool between them all the time, in her gathered-up apron. Now she
began picking off little bits of wool and marking her way with them,
sticking them on the trees and bushes. Every few feet a fluffy scrap
of wool showed the road Ann had gone.

But poor Ann went on, farther and farther--and no sign of Hannah. She
kept calling her, from time to time, hallooing at the top of her
shrill sweet voice: "Hannah! Hannah! Hannah Fre-nch."

But never a response got the dauntless little girl, slipping almost
up to her knees, sometimes, in black swamp-mud; and sometimes
stumbling painfully over tree-stumps, and through tangled undergrowth.

"I'll go till my wool gives out," said Ann Wales; then she used it
more sparingly.

But it was almost gone before she thought she heard in the distance a
faint little cry in response to her call: "Hannah! Hannah Fre-nch!"
She called again and listened. Yes; she certainly did hear a little
cry off toward the west. Calling from time to time, she went as
nearly as she could in that direction. The pitiful answering cry grew
louder and nearer; finally Ann could distinguish Hannah's voice.

Wild with joy, she came, at last, upon her sitting on a fallen
hemlock-tree, her pretty face pale, and her sweet blue eyes strained
with terror.

"O, Hannah!" "O, Ann!"

"How did you ever get here, Hannah?"

"I--started for aunt Sarah's--that morning," explained Hannah,
between sobs. "And--I got frightened, in the woods, about a mile from
father's. I saw something ahead, I thought was a bear. A great black
thing! Then I ran--and, somehow, the first thing I knew, I was lost.
I walked and walked, and it seems to me I kept coming right back to
the same place. Finally I sat down here, and sta