out her, and
sought, in every way, to comfort her.

"They'll find her soon, Dorothy, so don't you be frightened," she
whispered. "They'll _surely_ find her soon."

Dear little Nancy knew, better than any of Dorothy's other friends could
have known, how ready was her sympathy, how kind and loving was her
heart.

She had not loved Floretta, but with Dorothy, that did not count. It was
the dreadful fear that something had happened to a little girl, who, so
recently had been at play with them,--ah, that was what grieved sweet
Dorothy.

She was thinking of what Mrs. Dainty had said to Aunt Charlotte when the
mountain trip was first talked of.

"I think the long tramp is a rougher form of amusement than I can well
endure. I should be so weary long before it was time to return, that I
should derive but little pleasure from the trip. There is another
thought in connection with the picnic," she continued, "and that is an
element of danger. Not great danger perhaps, but such that I would not
join the party, nor would I permit Dorothy, or Nancy to do so. One
gentleman who was talking of the mountain path that they have chosen,
spoke of the great danger to the climbers from small, rolling stones,
and from places where the earth seems to crumble near the edge of the
narrow foot-path. A careless step might lead to a fall that would mean,
I hardly dare to say what!"

Dorothy and Nancy had been wishing to join the party, but upon hearing
this, they lost all interest in it, and had cheerfully taken the drive
behind gentle Romeo, instead. Now, as Dorothy sat with Nancy's arms
about her, she was glad that they had not been permitted to go, and she
heartily wished that Floretta had remained at the Cleverton.

"Had she rolled from the path, and fallen, fallen,--"

Dorothy covered her eyes with her hands, as if she almost saw the little
girl falling, down, down to the ravine so far below the path, and was
trying to shut out the picture. Nancy, still striving to quiet her
fear, heard some one telling what the scribbled note had said.

"Oh, Dorothy!" she whispered, eagerly, "Floretta is just where they know
how to find her, and they've promised to hurry, and bring her back."

"Are you _sure_?" Dorothy asked.

"Yes, _sure_!" said Nancy.

Then Nancy climbed into the big chair beside her, and the two little
girls sat, each tightly clasping the other's hands, while they waited
and watched for the first glimpse of the men who should