Then she clapped her hands as a sign for attention.

"Now we've got to take our fun for the rest of the day more seriously,"
she said. "You girls will have to take your fire-making sticks, and an
old blanket. You understand how to make smoke signals, don't you?"

"Yes, indeed!" cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath.

"All right, then. How will you make signs to show us which way to go?"

"With a hatchet. We'll blaze the trees," suggested Bessie. "Then
you'll be sure to see it. There's no way that a sign like that can be
blown away, or get moved by accident. With the thin end of the blaze
in the direction you are to take, if there's a choice."

"All right. Hatchet, old blanket, fire-making sticks. You'd better
carry water bottles, for you'll be thirsty on the way."

"Why, we'll find plenty of water. There must be springs!" Dolly
protested.

"Undoubtedly; but you don't know just where they are, and you'd waste
time looking for them. If you have your water bottles, with a little
bit of lemon juice in the water, you can have a drink wherever you
like."

"I like the taste of lemon juice, too."

"It isn't only because you like it that it's a good thing to have it,
but it will quench your thirst better than plain water, and it will
make your water last better, too, because you don't need to drink so
much of it."

"It's fine if you're hot, too," said Margery, approvingly. "A little
lemon water will cool you off better than half a dozen of those
ice-cream sodas you're so fond of, Dolly."

Dolly made a face at her.

"I think it's mean of you to tease me about soda when you know I can't
have it, no matter how much I want it," she said. "But I don't care,
really. I wouldn't have an ice-cream soda now, if I had a pocket full
of money and I could get one by going across the street!"

Eleanor smiled at her.

"What a reckless promise! Only you know you are perfectly safe," she
said, half mockingly.

"I really mean it," protested Dolly. "I'm going to swear off--for a
long time, anyhow. Bessie and Zara and I are going to try to get
enough honor beads to be Fire-Makers as soon as we get back to the
city, and that's one of the ways I'm going to try."

"Then you've started already?" said Eleanor.

"No, not yet," said Dolly. "I'm going to wait--"

A shout of laughter interrupted her.

"Oh, yes, we know! Until you have just one or two last ones--"

Dolly flushed dangerously for a moment. But her ne