By this time the girls could hear the noise of voices and the beating of bushes. "Here we are!" Ruth called out cheerfully. "Don't worry. We have found Mollie!"

Naki burst through the opening. Ceally and Grace were with him and two strange men from the farm below them on the hill.

Naki picked up Mollie in his arms as though she had been a baby, and the party trudged on to their little log cabin.

At the top of the fateful ravine they found Miss Sallie. She could bear the suspense of waiting no longer and had climbed up alone.

"Home for sure!" proclaimed Naki briefly, as he deposited Mollie, still wrapped in Grace's red sweater, on the couch before the fire in their cosy living room.

CHAPTER IX

SPIRIT OF THE FOREST

"It is perfectly incredible!" exclaimed Miss Sallie.

She and Bab were discussing Mollie's adventure the next morning at breakfast.

"The more I try to reason out the whole thing, the more in the dark I am," Bab answered.

"Have you talked with Mollie?" Miss Sallie inquired.

Bab nodded, and replied thoughtfully: "The truth of the matter is, Mollie knows less on the subject than the rest of us. All that she can tell is that she was sitting quietly at the bottom of the ravine, when suddenly a shower of leaves fell over her head, and she heard the noise of feet running along the bank above her. Determined to discover what had startled her, Mollie climbed up the ravine and kept on with her pursuit until she was completely lost. She must have wandered around all day.

Finally she was so tired she sat down to rest. When she awoke Ruth and I had found her."

"But Grace's sweater! Where did it come from?" asked Miss Sallie weakly.

Ceally who entered the room at this moment, with her arms full of logs for the fire, caught the end of the conversation. She looked about her cautiously. Naki, her husband, was some distance away, cutting down the underbrush which was growing too high near their cabin.

"Miss," whispered Ceally cautiously, "they do say there is a ghost up on that mountain. It must have been a ghost that led Miss Mollie on that lost trail. Once you strike that trail, there ain't no way of finding your way back again, unless you follow some such clue as Miss Ruth's bits of paper."

"Ghosts! Utter nonsense, Ceally!" scolded Miss Sallie. But under her breath she confessed to herself: "If anything in this world could bring me to believe in ghosts it would be this mysterious occurrence."

Ruth flew in at the door.

"Aunt Sallie," she cried, "here is a man on horseback, with a note from Mr. Latham. He wants us to come down and spend the afternoon with him. He says he will send for us in a carriage that can come almost all the way up the hill, so we need only walk a little way. Do let's go! Want to, Bab?" Ruth finished.

Miss Sallie looked dubious. "It is a good deal of a task, child, to go down this hill, except when we mean to stay down," she protested.

"Oh, no, Aunt Sallie!" Ruth begged. "You know Naki goes down the hill every day, on some errand or other. I have been to Lenox twice myself and to Pittsfield once. I won't give you and Bab these letters, unless you promise to accept. One is for Bab, from her mother; the other is for you, from father."

Miss Stuart was reading Mr. Latham's note.

"My sister-in-law is with me," it read. "She joins her entreaties to Reginald's and mine to beg our hillside fairies to come down to the earth and have afternoon tea with us. We are to have no other guests, except a few young people whom I am sure your girls will like to meet. Later on, when you condescend to spend a few weeks in Lenox, it may be a pleasure for you to know them. Certainly it will be a pleasure for them to know you."

"The man is waiting outside for your answer," proclaimed Ruth, dancing first on one foot and then on the other. "Here are pen and paper. Do write and let me take the note out to him."

Miss Stuart allowed herself to be persuaded into accepting Mr. Latham's invitation. Life on the hill was growing a bit dull for Miss Sallie. She dreaded the long trip, but Mr. Latham's place lay between their hill and the town of Lenox.

Mollie came into the room as Ruth ran out to deliver the note of acceptance. "Who is out there?" she inquired languidly. The little girl was not yet rested from her experience of the day before.

"We are invited to the Latham place this afternoon, Molliekins!" Bab explained.

"Are you going, Miss Sallie?" Mollie asked.

Miss Stuart nodded. "Yes, I think so, child," she declared. "It is a dreadfully long journey, but Ruth is determined to go, and I am as wax in her hands."

"Aunt Sallie Stuart, you are no such thing!" Ruth laughed, as she returned to the little group. "I am the most obedient niece in the world.

You know you liked Mr. Latham. And he has a marvelous place, with a wonderful fish pond on it. From his veranda he says you can see over into four states, New York, Connecticut, Ma.s.sachusetts and Vermont!"

"Well, girls, we will start promptly after an early lunch," Miss Stuart remarked.

"Miss Sallie," interrupted Mollie gently, "remember I am in the guard house for the next twenty-four hours. I broke all camp regulations by being lost yesterday. So I can't go with the party to Mr. Latham's."

"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Miss Stuart kindly. "I was only joking when I threatened to establish military discipline in my camp. Besides, if you were disobedient, you were well enough punished for it. Don't you wish to come with us?"

Mollie shook her head. "If you don't mind, Miss Sallie, I would rather not," she replied. "I am a little tired and I would rather stay quietly up here. You can count on my promise this time. I won't go more than a yard from the cabin. Naki and Ceally will both be here to look after me."

"I will stay with Mollie," spoke up Bab. "I prefer not to leave her alone."

Mollie protested energetically. "Bab, you must not stay behind with me.

If you insist on doing it, I shall go with you, no matter how tired I feel. You know you are the one original lady rescuer of an airship yet on record! I was only the legs of the rescue, as I ran after Naki and Ceally. You were the brains of the whole business. Besides, you know you are simply dying to see Reginald Latham's airship models, as well as their beautiful house and grounds. Make her go, Miss Sallie!" Mollie ended.

"I see no reason, Bab, why you shouldn't accompany us." Miss Sallie declared. "Naki and Ceally will look after Mollie, and an afternoon's rest will be much better for the child than a long, fatiguing excursion."

Mollie walked to the edge of the hill to see Miss Sallie and her charges start off on their excursion to Mr. Latham's. Then she thankfully crept home to the little cabin and stretched herself out on her cot, with the eider down comfort drawn up to her head. The child, who was not so vigorous as Bab, was worn out from her fright and exposure. An hour later she awakened, feeling bright and rested as though she had never been lost in a strange woods.

It was a lovely, bright afternoon. Mollie could hear the leaves rustling outside, as the wind stirred them and they fluttered to the ground. The little girl had read that a swan sings a wonderful song just as he is about to die. She walked out on the porch with an odd fancy in her head.

She stopped and listened again to the sound the autumn leaves made, as they swirled from the trees to the earth.

"I believe," Mollie smiled to herself, "that the autumn leaves sing their swan song, too." She pointed to a beautiful, golden maple leaf, that was fluttering in the air. "See, there is a leaf! It is singing its good-bye song to the tree, which has borne it all summer! The little leaf is traveling to an unknown land down under the ground."

Mollie laughed at her own idea. It was difficult for her to keep her eyes turned away from her ravine. She glanced up the hill. Surely she saw a figure moving there. It was a slight young creature, no larger than Mollie herself. Was it a boy or girl? It was impossible to tell, though the figure was drawing toward her.

The little girl watched with fascinated eyes. Down the ravine crept a thin, brown body. Now it looked this way, then that. Hardly touching the earth, it flew from one high rock to the other. Then it dipped into the hollow between the two hills and was gone.

This time Mollie did not stir from her veranda, but through her brain flashed the thought--the ghost at last!

In another moment she saw a black head rise up on a level with her eyes.

Mollie gave a gasp of surprise, then was silent. A thin, brown creature moved softly toward her on velvet feet. Mollie hardly breathed. Never in her life had she beheld so odd, so exquisite a figure.

A girl about her own age stood before her. Her hair hung over her shoulders, black and straight. Her cheeks were a deep carmine. Her complexion was too dark to be olive, yet it was neither brown nor red.

She was dressed in a thin, soft garment that fitted her closely from her bare neck to her ankles. Around her waist she had knotted a crimson scarf. On her head she wore a fantastic wreath of scarlet autumn leaves.

The newcomer stared at Mollie. Once, like a startled fawn, she turned to flee. But Mollie was too wise to speak or to move. Rea.s.sured, the quaint visitor drew nearer.