"I must turn back," she thought dejectedly. "They're not this way."

Her dress was torn, her hair too, was not in its usual neat order.

"Letty, oh Letty," she called with a last forlorn hope.

There was silence for a few seconds. Then from a considerable distance, she heard an answering voice.

A little uncertain as to the location and inclined to believe that the hail might come from Dr. Anderson and the rescue party, she called again.

The answer was clearer and seemed to come from about a quarter of a mile ahead of her.

She hurried forward. Soon she heard someone tearing through the brush and finally Letty and Edith appeared.

As soon as the two girls saw Mary Lee they sat down and began to cry.

"Aren't we the sillies?" said Edith tearfully. "We didn't think of crying until you found us."

"We're certainly glad you did find us," Letty added.

The two girls presented a sorry picture. Their faces and arms were scratched even more than Mary Lee's. Their dresses, too, were torn and one of Letty's stockings had a big hole in it.

The three hurried back to the point Mary Lee had marked. As well as the two girls could, they explained how they had wandered off on a side trail without being aware of it. Then they had suddenly realized they were in the thick of the woods. They had halloaed, but could not hear any answer.

Dr. Anderson and Aunt Madge were already waiting for them. The girls could hear them calling their names and Mary Lee shouted in response that she found the two.

When the party reached the camp, there were three girls who could not decide whether they were too hungry to be tired or too tired to be hungry.

After luncheon had been finished and the girls' scratches dressed, Dr. Anderson joined his wife.

"Better not tell those children what a narrow escape they had. It is best for them not to know that there have been people lost in these woods who have starved to death."

"I think, too, we had better not let them go off by themselves again,"

replied Mrs. Anderson. "They're not all Mary Lees, you know."

So the Andersons made light of the fact that Letty and Edith had strayed off.

By the next day, the girls had almost forgotten the incident in the excitement of the pleasures and enjoyment of the vacation.

CHAPTER XXVI

RETURNING HOME

The stay at Mount Hope came to a close much too swiftly for the girls, who had never enjoyed any outing so much. Bob had come on Sat.u.r.day for the two days and after the first half hour of stiffness and shyness over being in the company of so many girls he found himself thoroughly at home.

The boy had grown more manly. Mary Lee soon found that he preferred the company of boys now. She was glad of that, even though she knew that it took something from their own close friendship. She wanted Bob to be a boy's boy and he was certainly proving himself that.

He was greatly interested in the success of the girls' "Liberty" sale.

Mary Lee told him of the plans for the Red Cross week which was to begin on June 18th. The boy knew of that for his mother had written to him about it and he told Mary Lee of the plans his school had made to help during the same week.

"I'm one of the committee, too," he told her with great pride.

It was a still bright day when the party started for the station in the automobiles after waving a farewell to the caretakers. The train was due at the station at five o'clock. Aunt Madge had no wish to rush things and so had decided on an early start.

Bob left them at Plattsburg. He was to cross Champlain to Burlington and from there take a train for the school.

It was the idea of the girls that they would stay awake until late in the evening. But ten o'clock found most of them in their berths. At seven o'clock the following morning, the train arrived at the Grand Central. Letty, Edith and Mary Lee still showed traces of the scratches they had received in the woods. But they were not in the least disturbed by this for they carried the pleasantest recollections of a delightful party. If the truth were told, the incident of being lost, now that it was a thing of the past, carried a certain zest.

Letty had been quite vexed at herself for having cried when Mary Lee found them. She would have liked to pretend that she had not been at all frightened.

Edith, however, made an outright admission of how frightened she had been.

"And Letty," she rebuked the latter, "you know how scared you were.

You needn't try to pretend you weren't."

"Well, _I was_, and so was Ruth," Mary Lee admitted.

"I suppose I must admit that I was, too," Letty ruefully added.

"Though I would have liked to pretend that I was brave."

"Letty," said Aunt Madge very gravely as she put her arm about her and gave her a hug, "it's the brave people who are scared and frightened.

It's people who are able to overcome their fear who are truly brave."

The girls gathered together at the station and surrounded the Andersons. Aunt Madge, happy, somewhat embarra.s.sed, was the center of the group and received the evidence of the good time the girls had had with flushed face and genuine pleasure. People pa.s.sing by stopped to watch the pretty party.

"Now for school," said Edith, as the girls began to separate to get ready for the same. "Another month and our real vacation time begins."

"Yes," replied Mary Lee, "but we mustn't, in the meantime, forget the things we must plan and do for the Red Cross before that vacation time comes. Remember our promise, don't you, for the week of June 18th?"

"We certainly do," replied the other girls enthusiastically.

CHAPTER XXVII

ANOTHER ADVENTURE

"Oh, what a long week this is!" cried Letty, a few days later as she walked home from school with Mary Lee and Edith.

"Yes, school is certainly dragging along at a slow pace these last few weeks," added Edith.

"I suppose it's because our thoughts are more on our coming vacation than on our studies," said Mary Lee. "We ought to feel bright and perfectly willing to work hard after our delightful outing, but somehow I must confess I don't."

"Neither do I. The taste of fun we had was so good we want more. I wish some one would invite us to another week-end party or something,"