ont yard, cellar, shed, Mell searched. There were no small
figures ranged about the pump, no voices replied to her calls. Mell ran
to the gate. She strained her eyes down the road, this way, that way;
not a sign of the little flock was visible in any direction.

Now Mell _was_ frightened. "What _will_ mother say?" she thought, and
began to run distractedly along the road, crying and sobbing as she
went, and telling herself that it wasn't her fault, that she only went
upstairs to make the beds,--but here her conscience gave a great prick.
It was but ten o'clock when she went upstairs to make the beds!

"Oh, dear!" she sobbed. "If only Tommy isn't drowned!" Drowning came
into her head first, because her step-mother was always in an agony
about the pond. The pond was a mile off at least, but Mrs. Davis never
let the children even look that way if she could help it.

Toward the pond poor Mell bent her way; for she thought as Tommy had
been strictly forbidden to go there, it was probably the very road he
had taken. The sun beat on her head and she put up the parasol, which
through all her trouble she had grasped firmly in her hand. Even under
these dreadful circumstances, with the children lost, and the certainty
of her step-mother's wrath before her, there was joy in carrying a
parasol like that.

By and by she met a farmer with a yoke of oxen.

"Oh, please," said Mell, "have you seen five children going this
way,--four girls and one little boy?"

The farmer hummed and hawed. "I did see some children," he said at last.
"It was a good piece back, nearly an hour ago, I reckon. They was making
for the pond?"

"Oh, dear!" sighed Mell. She thanked the farmer, and ran on faster than
ever.

"Have you passed any children on this road?" she demanded of a boy with
a wheelbarrow, who was the next person she met.

"Boys or girls?"

"One boy and four girls."

"Do they belong to you?"

"Yes, they're my brothers and sisters," said Mell. "Where did you see
them?"

"Haven't seen 'em," replied the boy. He grinned as he spoke, seized his
barrow, and wheeled rapidly away.

Mell's tears broke forth afresh. What a horrid boy!

The pond was very near now. It was a large pond. There were hills on one
side of it; on the other the shore was low, and covered with thick
bushes. In and out among these bushes went Mell, hunting for her lost
flock. It was green and shady. Flowers grew here and there; bright
berries hung on the boughs