er!" Bessie called to him. "Quick!"

And she unlocked the padlock and let Zara, terrified by the fire, out.
But Jake stood there stupidly, and, fanned by the wind, the flames
spread rapidly.

"Gosh, now you have done it!" he said. "Maw'll just about skin you alive
for that when I tell her you set the shed afire!"

Bessie turned a white face toward him.

"You wouldn't say that!" she exclaimed.

But she saw in his scared face that he would tell any lie that would
save him from the consequences of his recklessness. And with a sob of
fright she turned to Zara.

"Come, Zara!" she cried. "Get away!"

"Come with me!" said Zara. "She'll believe you did it! Come with me!"

And Bessie, too frightened and tired to think much, suddenly yielded to
her fright, and ran with Zara out into the woods.

CHAPTER II

AN UNJUST ACCUSATION

They had not gone far when the rain burst upon them. They stuck to the
woods to avoid meeting Maw Hoover on her way home, and as the first big
drops pattered down among the trees Zara called a halt.

"It's going to rain mighty hard," she said. "We'd better wait here and
give it a chance to stop a little before we cross the clearing. We'll
get awful wet if we go on now."

Bessie, shivering with fright, and half minded, even now, to turn back
and take any punishment Maw Hoover chose to give her, looked up through
the trees. The lightning was flashing. She turned back--and the glare of
the burning woodshed helped her to make up her mind to stay with Zara.
As they looked the fire, against the black background of the storm, was
terrifying in the extreme.

"You'd never think that shed would make such a blaze, would you?" said
Zara, trembling. "I'd like to kill that Jake Hoover! How did he set it
on fire?"

"He must have been watching me all the time when I was trying to help
you to get out," said Bessie. "Then, when I was nearly done, he called
to me, and then he began throwing the burning wood at me. He knows I
hate that--he's done it before. I can always get out of the way. He
doesn't throw them very near me, really. But two or three times the
sparks have burned holes in my dress and Maw Hoover's been as mad as she
could be. So she thinks anyhow that I play around the fire, and she'd
never believe I didn't do it."

"The rain ought to put the fire out," said Zara presently, after they
had remained in silence for a few moments. "But I think it's beginning
to stop a little now."

"I