ing
you so much after this. It seems to me that you're always having things
to bother you on account of me."

Miss Eleanor, at first, like Dolly, was inclined to laugh at what
Bessie told her of the gypsy and his absurd suggestion that Dolly should
stay with his tribe until she was old enough to be married to him.

"Why, he must have been joking, Bessie," she said. "You say he talked
well; as if he were educated? Then he surely knows that no American girl
would take such an idea seriously for a moment."

"But American girls do live with the gypsies and marry them, Miss
Eleanor. Often, I've heard of that. And if you'd seen him when he got in
our way on the trail you'd know why he frightened me. His face was
perfectly black, he was so angry. And when Dolly laughed at him he
looked as if he would like to beat her."

"I can understand that," laughed Miss Eleanor. "I've wanted to beat
Dolly myself sometimes when she laughed when she was being scolded for
something!"

"Oh, but this was different," said Bessie, earnestly. "Really, Miss
Eleanor, you'd have been frightened too, if you'd seen him. And I do
think Dolly ought to be very careful until they've gone away from Loon
Pond."

Bessie was so serious that Miss Eleanor was impressed, almost despite
herself.

"Well, yes, she must be careful, of course. I don't want the girls going
over to Loon Pond, anyway. I want them to have this time in the woods,
and live in a natural way, and the Loon Pond people at the hotel just
spoil the woods for me. But I don't believe there's any reason for being
really frightened, Bessie."

"Suppose that man tried to carry her off?"

"Oh, he wouldn't dare to try anything like that, Bessie. I don't believe
the gypsies are half as bad as they are painted, anyhow, but, even if he
would be willing to do it, he'd be afraid. The guides would soon run him
out of the preserve if they found him here; no one is supposed to be on
it, without permission. And a gypsy couldn't get that, I know."

"But it's a pretty big place, and there aren't so very many guides. We
didn't see one today, and we really took quite a long walk."

"But, Bessie, what would he do with her if he did carry her off? Those
people travel along the roads, and they travel slowly. He must know that
if anything happened to Dolly, or if she disappeared, he'd be suspected
right away, and he'd be chased everywhere he went."

"I think it would be easy to hide someone in their carava