.

"I am very sorry," said he, "that your good father and mother, not to
mention yourself, should be so sorely troubled; but I hope this is not
serious. Nellie came to me about three o'clock and asked whether I would
let her go home."

"Was she sick?" asked the distressed brother.

"Not at all; but she said you had gone to Dunbarton in your carriage and
she wanted to meet you coming back. She knew her lessons perfectly, and
Nellie is such a good girl that I felt that I could not refuse so simple
a request. So I told her she could go. I saw her start homeward with her
lunch-basket in one hand and her two school-books in the other. She
stepped off so briskly and was in such cheerful spirits that I stood at
the window and watched her until she passed around the bend in the
road."

Nick felt his heart sink within him, for the words of the teacher had
let in a great deal of alarming truth upon him.

Nellie had reached the forks two hours ahead of him, and then, not
wishing to sit down and wait, she had started up the road in the
direction of Dunbarton to meet him. She must have entered the eight mile
stretch of woods from the south about the same time Nick himself drove
into it on his return from Dunbarton.

The two should have met near Shark Creek, but neither had seen the
other. Nick, as a matter of course, had kept to the road, but what had
become of Nellie?

This was the question the lad put to himself, and which caused him to
feel so faint that he sank down in a chair unable to speak for a minute
or two. Then, when he tried to do so, he had to stop, and was kept busy
swallowing the lump that would rise in his throat, until finally the
tears suddenly appeared, and, putting his hands to his eyes, he gave way
to his grief.

"There, there," said Mr. Layton soothingly, "don't cry, Nick, for it
will do no good. Nellie has strayed off in the woods to gather flowers
or perhaps wild grapes and has missed her way."

"She--is--lost--poor--Nellie!" said the lad as best he could between his
sobs; "we'll never see her again."

"Oh, it isn't as bad as that! I suppose she has grown weary, and,
sitting down to rest, has fallen asleep."

If the good teacher meant this to soothe the lad, it had the contrary
effect, for the picture of his little sister wandering alone in the
woods was one of the most dreadful that could be imagined, and it took
all the manhood of his nature to keep from breaking down again.

While the inter