e, or
else you may be punished, because Farmer Weeks would say we were bad,
and that it was wrong to help us."

"I wouldn't believe him, and neither would my pop, I know that. He's the
greatest man that ever lived--greater than George Washington. And he'll
say I was just right if I tell him. I just know he will."

"But maybe he and Farmer Weeks are friends, Jack. Then he'd think it was
all wrong, wouldn't he?"

"My pop wouldn't have him for a friend, Bessie, don't you believe he
would! My pop would never lock a girl up in a room by herself without
her dinner, even if she'd been bad."

"I wonder why they're so long coming back," said Bessie, finally. "Won't
they miss you, Jack?"

"Not if I get back in time for supper. They don't care what I do when
it's a holiday, like this. They know I know my way around here, and
there aren't any wild animals. I wish there were!"

"Wouldn't you be afraid of them?"

"Not a bit of it! I'd have a gun, and I'd shoot them, just as quick as
quick!"

"Even if they weren't trying to hurt you?"

"Yes, why shouldn't I? Everyone does, in all the books."

"But we don't act the way people in books do, Jack. We can't. Things
aren't just that way. Books are to read, to learn things, and for fun,
but we've got to remember that real life's different."

"Well, I bet if I saw a lion coming through that wood there I'd kill
him."

"Suppose he ate you up first?" asked Zara.

"He'd better not! My pop'd catch and make him sorry he ever did anything
like that! Say, it is taking them a long time to come back. Maybe
they've lost their way."

"Could they around here?"

"You bet they could! Lots of people do, from the hotel, and we have to
send out and find them, so's they don't have to stay out all night. Say,
did you hear something just then?"

They listened attentively, and presently Zara keen ears detected a
sound.

"There's someone coming," she said. "Listen! You can hear them quite
plainly now."

They were quiet for a minute.

"They must be quite close," said Zara, then. "We heard them much further
off than that when they were coming after us. I wonder why they got so
near before we heard them this time?"

"That's easily explained, Zara," said Bessie. "When they were going the
wind was behind them. Now it's in front of them. And they were going up
hill, too, so there may have been an echo, because they were shouting
toward the rocks upon the hill. Now that's changed, too."

"Say