mbled collection of bread and butter, and
cookie crumbs.

"An' I dot a gun to shoot bad bears," went on Paul, shouldering a wooden
article, that, by a wide stretch of the imagination could be seen to
somewhat resemble a musket. "Gun go bang-bang!" explained the little
chap, "bad bears run 'way off. Turn on, Dodo, we go wif 'em," and he
nodded at the "hikers," as Will unfeelingly characterized his sister and
her chums.

"Go back! Go back!" cried Mollie, now again on the verge of tears. "Oh,
you bad children! What shall I do? Mamma will be dreadfully worried, and
if we take them back we'll lose a lot of time. What shall we do, girls?"

"We go back for tandy--lots of tandy," spoke the inexorable Dodo. "We
'ikes tandy; don't us, Paul?"

"Yes," said Paul, simply.

"The easiest way out of it is to give them some candy," said Grace, in a
low voice, but, low as it was, the twins heard. Their eyes brightened at
once, and they came eagerly forward.

"Oh, dear, I suppose it is the only thing to do," affirmed Mollie. "Will
you go straight back if you get some candy?" she asked. "Straight home
to mamma?"

"Ess--we bofe go," promised Dodo, who usually led her small brother. "We
'ikes tandy," she reiterated.

"Me tan shoot bears to-morrow," said Paul, philosophically. "Where is
tandy?" With him evidently the prospect of present enjoyment was
preferable to the future possibility of becoming a great hunter.

"Here you are!" cried Grace, as she took out some chocolates. "Now be
good children. Do you think it safe for them to go back alone, Mollie?"

"That's so, I never considered that. I wonder if we'll have to go with
them? Oh, isn't this annoying, and we're behind time now! We'll never get
to Rockford to-night. What shall I do?"

"We take 'em back if oo dive us some tandy!" mocked Will, who, with his
chums, had been an interested observer of the little scene.

"Smarty!" exclaimed his sister. "But I'll take you at your word just the
same. Here, Frank--Allen--you see that he performs his part of the
contract," and she held the candy box out to the other two, who
laughingly accepted the bribe.

Then with the hands of the trusting, and now contented, twins in theirs,
Will and Frank bade the girls good-speed and led away the two small ones
on their homeward way, Allen following them after a farewell to Betty.

"At last we are off!" murmured Mollie. "I'm so sorry it happened, girls!"

"Why, the idea!" cried Betty. "It was j