lie, from which it will be
seen that Billie was not in the best of tempers. "This place must be full
of stuff. Goodness, why didn't we think to bring matches with us!"

"Because we went out to get ferns, not to burn up the woods," said Laura,
with a chuckle.

"Goodness!" cried Vi suddenly out of the darkness. "It is--no it
isn't--yes it is----"

"For goodness sake, what's the matter with her?" asked Laura, getting
hysterical again. "Has trouble turned her head?"

"No. But something's turned yours," Vi's voice came indignantly back at
her. "I've found something, I have. But I've a good mind not to tell you
what it is."

"Violet, my darling," cried Laura, fondly. "Don't you see me on my
knees?"

"Yes," said Vi, and suddenly there was a flare of light in the room that
illuminated the faces of the girls and made Billie and Laura jump.

"I see you," said Vi calmly, and stood laughing at them while the
flickering match in her hand died down to a little glimmer and went out.

"So that's what you found--matches," cried Billie joyfully, while Laura
just kept on gaping. "Oh, Vi, you're a darling, and I forgive you for
scaring us almost to death. Come on, light another one so we can see
where we are."

Vi obediently lighted another match, a box of which she had found quite
by accident, and the girls looked about them curiously. And as they
looked their curiosity and wonder grew. Billie was wild with impatience
when the match in Vi's hand flickered and went out again.

"Here, give them to me," she cried. "I thought I saw something. Look out,
don't spill them, Vi!"

"I should say not--they're all we have," chimed in Laura.

The match flared up in Billie's hand, and this time it was her turn to
make a discovery. The discovery was a pair of thick white candles, each
set in a white china dish and pushed to one end of a rudely-made table.

Quick as a flash, Billie put the match to the wick of one candle, and
then, with a sigh of excitement, blew out the match that was almost
burning her fingers.

"Girls," she cried, looking about her eagerly, "isn't this the queerest,
funniest little place you ever saw? And it's so complete."

Excitedly she crossed the little hut, whose floor was nothing but solid,
trampled-down earth, and began to examine a rude-looking cot that ran
along all one side of the queer little place.

"And here's a pantry!" exclaimed Vi excitedly. "Look, girls, shelves and
cans of things and--and--everyth