“Yeth.  I with I’d thtayed at home,” piped Tommy.  She was very frank about it.  There was no beating about the bush with Grace Thompson.

“This time you will have to walk whether you wish to or not,” jeered Buster.  “I don’t want to walk, but I am willing to for the sake of seeing you do something you don’t like for once.  Just think, you will have to walk five miles, Tommy Thompson.”

“Five mileth?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, thave me!  I won’t.  I’ll thtay right here till Jathper getth another horthe.”

“Very well,” smiled Miss Elting.  “You may remain here until he comes for you sometime to-morrow morning.  Jasper, when the young women have their bags ready you will take two of them.  We shall manage with the rest of the things very well, I think,” she added sweetly.

Jasper obeyed meekly after glancing at the determined face of the guardian.

“We shall have to leave some of our belongings here.  I suppose they will be perfectly safe?” she questioned.

Jasper grunted sourly.

Tommy stood observing the preparations for their departure, her alert eyes taking in everything.  Especially did she eye Miss Elting, but the expression on the face of the latter told Grace nothing.  Jasper dragged down the canopy top, surveyed it ruefully; then kicked it aside with a grunt of disgust.

“I gueth you’d like to kick the horthe too,” observed Tommy.

Jasper gazed at her, started to say something, then checked himself.  Margery and Hazel giggled.  The man finally picked up the bags and stood sullenly waiting.  Miss Elting and Harriet also carried suit cases, the other girls taking small packages with them.  Tommy stood leaning defiantly against a tree.

“Good night, Tommy,” called Miss Elting sweetly.  “Keep out from under the trees, if a thunder storm should come up during the night.”  Harriet, Hazel and Margery suppressed their giggles.  Tommy held her position, standing with head thrust forward, eyes narrowed, face drawn into sharp wrinkles.

“Oh, we oughtn’t to do it,” whispered Hazel.

“Never mind, dear,” replied Miss Elting.  “You don’t think for an instant that Grace will remain behind, do you?  This is one of several little lessons that we shall teach her this summer.”

They walked on swiftly, for darkness had now overtaken them.  All at once they heard a plaintive little wail behind them.  A small figure came flying down the log road.

“Thave me!  I’m tho afraid,” pleaded Tommy, darting up beside Miss Elting and snuggling against her.

Then the Meadow-Brook Girls laughed.  The woods rang with their laughter.  They expressed no sympathy for Tommy.  They were agreed that she had learned a good lesson.  Tommy pouted, but clung closely to the guardian.  About this time a halt had to be made while Harriet attended to the skirt of her gown that had been badly torn by the brush.  Her companions assisted her in pinning it up.  While absorbed in this task they had forgotten all about Jasper.  They discovered his absence quite suddenly when Miss Elting raised her voice in a loud hello to him.