“We must hurry along, Dolly,” said Bessie.  “It’s getting dark, and we don’t want to be out here when it’s too dark.  I think it’s safe enough, but—­”

“Oh, suppose that horrid gypsy followed us through the woods, Bessie?  That’s what you mean, isn’t it!  Let’s get back to the camp just as fast as ever we can.”

“Bessie, I’m an awful coward, I’m afraid,” Dolly said, as the camp was approached.  “Will you tell Miss Eleanor what happened; everything!  I’m afraid that if I told her myself I wouldn’t put in what I did with the signs.”

“You wouldn’t tell her a story, Dolly?”

“No, but I might just not tell her that.  You see, I wouldn’t have really to tell her a story, and, oh, Bessie, I want her to know all about it.  Then if she scolds me, all right.  Can’t you understand?”

“I’ll do it if you like, Dolly, but I’m quite sure you’d tell her everything yourself.  You’re not a bit of a coward, Dolly, because when you’ve done something wrong you never try to pretend that it was the fault of someone else, or an accident.”

“Do you think I ought to tell Miss Eleanor myself?” said Dolly, wistfully.  “I will if you say so, Bessie, but I’d much rather not.”

“No, I’ll tell her,” Bessie decided.  “I think you’re mistaken about yourself, Dolly, and the reason I’m going to tell her is because I think you’d make her think you were worse than you were, instead of not telling her the whole thing.  Do you see?”

“You’re ever so good, Bessie.  Really, I’m going to try to stop worrying 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.”