k we'd better not try anything like that!"

"It would be risky, Dolly, and I know it as well as you do. But I don't
see what else we're going to do. I hate to see you mixed up with my
troubles--it isn't fair. I think I'd better just let them catch me, and
take a chance of getting away afterward--"

"Bessie King, do you think I'd let you anything like that? Whose fault
is it that you're in this trouble? Mine, isn't it? Well, we're going to
stick together! I'm certainly not going to let you get into more trouble
just for the sake of saving me from sharing it. And I've got an idea,
anyhow. Jake Hoover looks to me as if one could fool him pretty easily.
He doesn't know what I look like, does he?"

"I don't suppose he does, Dolly. I don't see how he could. But what's
that got to do with it?"

"Just you wait and see! If you had any plan, Bessie, I wouldn't want to
suggest anything, because I think you're a lot cleverer than I am. But I
have fooled boys before now, just for fun, and I think maybe I can do it
this time, when I've really got a good reason for doing it. These woods
along the road here aren't very thick so let's walk along, and follow
the road, until we come in sight of the trolley. Then we'll see what
it's like where the trolley comes along, and maybe we'll he able to fool
Mr. Jake Hoover, the horrid thing! I think he must be a dreadful coward
to persecute a girl the way he does you. You never did anything to him,
did you?"

"No, but he never liked me from the time he was a little boy. He was
always trying to get me into trouble with Maw Hoover. I don't know why
he hates me so, but he certainly does."

"Well, he doesn't hate you half as much as I hate him, I promise you
that, Bessie! And I've usually managed to get even with the people I
hate, if it wasn't too much trouble. I'm hungry now, and thirsty, and
it's his fault--partly. I'm going to get even with him for that."

Bessie was surprised to find that Dolly seemed to have conquered her
nervousness and her fear of the strange situation in which she was
placed. A little while before she had seemed almost on the verge of a
collapse, and Bessie had been afraid that her chum, unused to hardships
of any sort, and to roughing it, as country girls almost all learn to do
from the time they are very small, was going to break down. But now
Dolly seemed to be as resolute and as unafraid as Bessie herself, and
the knowledge naturally cheered Bessie, since it assure