was gazing with
considerable surprise upon a figure outstretched on the ground.

He could see it was a little girl, possibly four years old. She had
golden curls, and when she looked up suddenly at hearing his footsteps
Phil discovered that she was as pretty as a fairy.

Just then she looked a little forlorn, since her face was soiled from
the dirt, and tears had made furrows down her cheeks.

She scrambled to her feet, and seemed hardly to know whether to try and
run away, or put her childish trust in this strange boy.

Now Phil was always a favorite with younger children. They all loved him
because he had such a pleasant face, engaging laugh, and seemed to know
just how to appeal to a child's heart.

Few boys care to bother with little tots; they only appear as a nuisance
in their eyes. Phil, however, was different.

"Hello! here, little girl, what's all the trouble about?" he asked,
cheerily; and somehow there must have been magic in his voice, for the
look of fear left the child's face immediately.

She recognized a friend in need. As a rule children, just the same as
most dogs do, have an instinct that tells them who to trust.

"I'se losted!" she said, simply, with a little sob in her voice.

Phil had now reached her side. She did not shrink from him as he bent
down and put his hand gently on her curly head. Something that she saw
in his kind eyes, perhaps the vein of sympathy so pronounced in his
tones, told her this strange boy could be safely trusted.

"Now, that's too bad," Phil went on to say, just as if he himself had
been "losted" and hence knew how it felt. "But who are you lost from?"

"Daddy," she said, simply, as though taking it for granted that every
one must know who was implied by that term; because to her mind there
was only one "daddy" on earth.

Phil believed he saw it all now. The man who had occupied the cabin, had
this child with him. For some unknown reason he had taken alarm, perhaps
because of their coming to the lonely lake, and made a hurried change of
base.

Why he had prowled around on that first night it was of course
impossible for the boy to say, unless he simply meant to satisfy himself
with regard to their intentions.

And now the little girl had managed to lose herself in the woods. No
doubt the father would be searching everywhere for her.

Phil thought it all over, even while he was soothing the child and
telling her he would see to it that she found "daddy" agai