long
time, it might dry up, but it doesn't look as if that ever happened
here."

"Well, it is good water, and that's a lot better than nothing," said
Dolly. "Come on! We started for the road. Let's go down and sit on the
fence and watch the people go by."

So they made their way on through the field until they came to the road,
and there they sat on the fence, enjoying some apples that Bessie had
pronounced eatable, after several attempts by Dolly to consume some from
half a dozen trees that would have caused her a good deal of pain later.
Two or three automobiles passed as they sat there, and Dolly looked at
their occupants enviously.

"If we had a car, Bessie," she said, "we could get to some place where
they sell ice-cream soda in no time, and be back in plenty of time for
lunch, too. I wish some friend of mine would come along in one of those
motors!"

None did, but, vastly to Bessie's surprise, they had not been there
long before a big green touring car that had shot by them a few minutes
before so fast that they could not see its occupants at all, came back,
doubling on its course, and stopped in the road just before them. And on
the driver's seat, discarding his goggles so that Bessie could recognize
him, was Mr. Holmes--the man who had taken her and Miss Mercer for a
ride, and whom she felt she had so much reason to distrust!

"This is good fortune! I'm very glad indeed to see you," he said,
cordially, to Bessie. "Miss King, is it not--Miss Bessie King, Miss
Mercer's friend? Won't you introduce me to the other young lady!"

CHAPTER X

A FOOLISH PROCEEDING

Reluctantly enough, Bessie yielded to his request. If she had known how
to avoid introducing Holmes to Dolly, she would have done it. But she
was not old enough, and not experienced enough, to understand how to
manage such an affair. Had there been occasion, Miss Eleanor, of course,
could have snubbed a man and still been perfectly polite while she was
doing it. But Bessie had not reached that point yet.

"Are you staying down here together? How very pleasant!" said Holmes.
"This seems to be a beautiful place from the road, but of course one
can't see very much from an automobile."

"We're down here with our Camp Fire--a lot of the girls," explained
Dolly, hurriedly. "Miss Mercer is Guardian of the Camp Fire, and this is
her father's farm. It is a nice place, but it's dreadfully slow. Just
fancy, there isn't a place anywhere around where