"Course we're not lost," asserted Bobby stoutly.

"Course not," echoed Meg. "I think the brook is right past those three
big trees. Come on, Dot, let's run and see who gets there first."

Dot allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"I'll count for you," said Bobby, glad to see her stop crying.
"One--two--three--go!"

Away went Meg and Dot. Meg had intended to let Dot win, because she
was so much smaller she couldn't be expected to run as well as her
older sister. But Meg's good intentions came to nothing. Dot had an
unfortunate habit of shutting her eyes tight when she ran, and the
woods, of all places, are where it pays to keep one's eyes wide open.
Poor Dot, running over the uneven ground with her eyes closed,
crashed headlong into a wild blackberry bush.

"Oh, ow!" she wailed shrilly. "Meg, Meg! Ow!"

Her face and hands were scratched and bleeding and her dress was badly
torn by the time Meg and Bobby got her free from the prickly bush.

"I won't go," sobbed the unfortunate child, rubbing her smarting face.
"I'll lie down in the grass and the birds can cover me with leaves.
Nasty old woods!"

"But you'll have to come," urged Bobby. "I don't b'lieve it's much
further, Dot. Come on."

"Then I'll take of my shoes and stockings," said Dot.

"Her feet are all puffed up," said Meg, unbuttoning the little tan
shoes. "Poor sister! But you can't go barefoot through here--the
Stones and things are too sharp."

"They'll cut you," said Twaddles, who was watching anxiously.

"Let's make a chair with our hands and carry her," suggested Bobby.

So Meg and Bobby joined hands and managed to start off comfortably,
carrying Dot.

Twaddles looked at them anxiously.

"It's getting dark," he quavered.

It was, too, a shadowy gray dusk there in the woods.

"I guess it's only 'cause there's so many trees," said Meg cheerfully.
"It can't be dark out in the fields yet. I don't believe Jud has even
started to milk."

They took up Dot again and went ahead, but it grew more and more
difficult to follow the path.

"Here's where we were when you stopped to get your breath," declared
Twaddles positively as they came into an open space. "I 'member that
rotten log on the ground."

It was true. They had been walking in a circle!

"What's that?" cried Meg, starting up in sudden fright.

The twins clung to her, hiding their faces in her skirt.

"I saw something move--over there in those bushes," whispered Bobby.

"Is i