e with his lasso to carry
home on Tonto's back.

The children had such fun wandering about, gathering sticks, and looking
for birds' nests that they didn't think a thing about time until they
suddenly realized that they were very hungry. They had gone some
distance into the wood, and quite out of sight of Tonto by this time.

II

They sat down on a fallen log and ate their lunch, and then they were
thirsty.

"Let's find a brook and get a drink," said Tonio. "I know there must be
one right near here."

They left their bundle of wood and walked for some distance searching
for water, but no stream did they find. They grew thirstier and
thirstier.

"It seems to me I shall dry up and blow away if we don't find it pretty
soon," said Tita.

"I've _almost_ found it, I think," answered Tonio. "It must be right
over by those willow trees."

They went to the willow trees but there was no stream there.

"I think we'd better go back and get the wood and start home," said
Tita. "We can get a drink in the goat-pasture."

"All right," said Tonio, and he led the way back into the woods.

They looked and looked for the bundle of sticks, but somehow everything
seemed different.

"I'm sure it must have been right near here," said Tonio. "I remember
that black stump. I'm sure I do, because it looks like a bear sitting up
on his hind legs. Don't you remember it, Tita?"

But Tita didn't remember it, and I'm afraid Tonio didn't either, really,
for the bundle of sticks certainly was not there. They hunted about for
a long time, and at last Tonio said, "I think we'd better go back to
Tonto; he may be lonesome."

But Tonto had disappeared too! Tonio was sure he knew just where he had
left him, but when they got to the place he wasn't there, and it
_wasn't_ the place either! It was very discouraging.

At last Tonio said, "Well, anyway, Tonto knows the way home by himself.
We'll just let him find his own way, and we'll go home by ourselves."

"All right," said Tita, and they started down the mountain-side.

They had walked quite a long way when Tita said, "I think we're high
enough up so we ought to see the lake." But no lake was in sight in any
direction.

Tita began to cry. "We-we-we're just as lost as we can be," she sobbed.
"And you did it! You said you knew the way, and you didn't, and now
we'll die of hunger and nobody will find us--_I want to go home_."

"Hush up," said Tonio. "Crying won't help. We'll keep on walk