“Which road to Rockford, please?” hailed Betty.

“Th’ left!” he exclaimed, sententiously.  “G’lang there!” This last to the horses, not to the girls.

“The road map seems to say the road to the right,” murmured Betty, as the farmer drove that way himself.

“Well, he ought to know,” insisted Grace.  “We’ll take the left,” and they did.

If they had hoped to have all go smoothly on this, their first day of tramping, the girls were destined to disappointment.  In blissful ignorance they trudged on, talking so interestedly that they never thought to glance at the sign-boards, of which they passed several.

It was Amy who discovered the error they had made—­or rather, the error the farmer had caused them to make.  Again coming to a dividing of the ways, they saw a new sign-board, put up by a local automobile organization.

“Eight miles to Hamptown, and ten to Denby,” read Amy.  “Girls, where is Rockford?”

Anxiously they stared at the sign.

“It doesn’t seem to say anything about Rockford,” murmured Grace.

“Maybe someone has moved our town,” suggested Mollie, humorously.

Betty looked puzzled, annoyed and a little anxious.  A snub-nosed, freckle-faced boy came along whistling, and beating the dust of the road with a long switch.

“Which is the road to Rockford, little boy?” asked Betty.

“Huh?”

“I say, which is the road to Rockford?”

“Give him a candy if you have any left, Grace,” suggested Mollie, in a low tone.

“Are you folks peddlin’ candy?” asked the boy, and his eyes shone.

“No, but we have some,” answered Betty.  “We want to get to Rockford.”

“You’re five miles off the road,” exclaimed the boy, with a grin, as though he took personal delight in their dilemma.  “You come the wrong way.  Huh!”

“Oh, dear!” murmured Mollie.  “Don’t you give him any candy, Grace.”

“It isn’t his fault that we went wrong,” spoke Betty.

CHAPTER XI

THE BARKING DOG

Disappointment, and not a little worriment, held the four girls silent for a moment.  Then Betty, feeling that it was her place to assume the leadership, said: 

“Are you sure, little boy?  A man told us, at the last dividing of the roads, to take the left, as that led to Rockford.”

“Well, he didn’t know what he was talking about,” asserted the little chap, with the supreme confidence of youth.  “To get to Rockford you’ve got to go back.”

“All that distance?” cried Grace.  “We’ll never make it in time.”

“Isn’t there a shorter way—­some cross-road we can take?” inquired Betty.

“Who’s got the candy?” inquired the little chap, evidently thinking that he had already earned some reward.

“Here!” said Grace, hopelessly, holding out an almost emptied box.  “But please—­please don’t tell us we’re lost.”