aveling was altogether
too fatiguing, and went back into the woods where they found a path
which ran in the general line of the shore and which was much easier
traveling. But even at that they were pretty well tired when they
reached the Point of Pines where they supposed the others would be
waiting for them. But there was no glimpse of the Hares at the Point of
Pines.

"Where do you suppose they are?" asked Hinpoha, mystified.

"Hiding, I suppose," said Sahwah wearily, sitting down in the soft
grass. "Let's let them stay hidden until we get rested up. It's up to us
to get dinner I suppose, but I'm just too tired to begin."

"But you will pretty soon, won't you?" asked Slim anxiously.

"You aren't hungry already, are you, Slim?" asked Hinpoha teasingly.

"Already!" said Slim, looking at his watch. "Do you folks know what time
it is? It's half past two!"

"Mercy!" said Sahwah. "It's taken us ages to get here. Maybe the beach
would have been shorter, anyway."

"Let's call for the Hares," said Hinpoha. "It'll take too much time to
try to find them. And I'm too tired to go hunting through the woods."

So they called, "Come out, we give up." Their voices echoed against the
opposite shore, but there was no other answer. They called again with
the same result.

"They're not here!" said Hinpoha with a prophetic feeling. "Where are
we, anyway? Is this the Point of Pines? I believe we've come to the
wrong place! We should have stuck to the shore after all and not gone
off into that path through the woods that turned and twisted so many
times. Are you sure this is the Point of Pines?"

"I don't know whether I'm sure or not," said Sahwah in perplexity. "I
certainly thought it was all the time. I may be mistaken."

"I think you are," said Hinpoha. "There isn't a sign of the Hares here.
How will we find them?"

"I think the best thing to do," said Sahwah calmly, displaying her great
talent for leadership in this emergency, "is to stay where we are and
let them find us. If we start hunting around for each other in these
woods we'll never get together. We'll just stay here and build two
signal fires. You know that two columns of smoke is the sign for 'I'm
lost.' Well, we'll just put up the 'lost' signal and if they're hunting
for us they'll see that and come straight over here."

The others agreed that this was the most sensible thing to do under the
circumstances. There was plenty of driftwood, and two good fires were