sappeared Bab put her head down on

stead of my little sister! Mother always trusts me to loo

he relied on us to keep cool heads and strong hearts in any case of emergency. Now let's gather

peated quietly, "Certainly w

quickly. Suddenly, off through the trees, the two girls distinctly saw a light that shone

?" Bab brea

I don't know," she ans

drew back again, never ceasing to spar

rbara, "could it be

Barbara, dear

seemed almost to call to them. Barbara started to her feet

Rapidly she tore from a pad in her leather knapsack a sheet of paper and wrote on it: "Bab and

ar the place where she and Bab had been sitting. The skirt fluttered and

" she cried. "

wed, leaving behind her a trail of white

he forests. They must have followed it for more than a mile. Ruth's pap

ise. A tongue of flame darted up between two distant trees, and a

had lighted a fire. Sitting on a bank of autumn leaves, slowly rubbing her eye

d, springing toward her an

me? I must have been dreaming. I did not hear you make the fi

ire?" they queried in amazement. "Sure

tly. "I am not enough of an 'early settler' to know how to make a light by striking two flints together. But please

st straight to Mollie. And who could have started the fire, that now roared and blazed, lighting the woods

ng red dropped to the ground. Ruth picked it up. "Why, it is Grace's sweater!" she exclaimed. "I am so gl

t with me. I was nearly frozen. You or Bab must have brought it wit

nothing to be said. It was all a puzz

of shrubs, along which Ruth's bits of torn paper gleamed white and ch

dear," Mollie whispered, "I needn't have created all thi

will be so happy to see you again, you p

and the beating of bushes. "Here we are!" Ruth calle

nd Grace were with him and two strange m

hough she had been a baby, and the par

Miss Sallie. She could bear the suspense o

ited Mollie, still wrapped in Grace's red sweater, on