* * * * *

When the pupils filed into the schoolroom after recess, Miss Gilman missed Prue and Hi, and questioned a number of scholars in regard to them.

“I seen ’em a-settin’ on a stump back er the school,” volunteered one small boy, “Want me ter go’n look for ’em?”

Permission given him, the boy ran out, delighted with the thought that he might thus elude one recitation; but a long search failing to discover the missing children, he was obliged to return with the information that he had looked everywhere and they weren’t “anywheres ’raound the place.”

“Possibly they have gone home,” said Miss Gilman, but a vague uneasiness took possession of her, and when the afternoon session commenced with both children absent, she determined to call after school at the Weston’s and see if Prue were safe, at the same time sending the Babson girls home in haste to learn if Hi could be found.

When Prue did not return at noon, Mrs. Weston was not alarmed, as the little girl often stayed at the school when, as on this day, she had in her little basket a hearty lunch, and before Prue could have possibly reached home in the afternoon Miss Gilman, with a desperate attempt to appear calm, called to ask if the little girl had been unable to attend the afternoon session.

“Ill?  Why no, indeed!  Why, what is it you say, Miss Gilman?  That Prue has not been at school since the morning recess?”

The color left Mrs. Weston’s cheek, and she leaned heavily upon the table, while Aunt Prudence, speaking with more confidence than she really felt, exclaimed,

“Now it’s no use gettin’ frightened.  She’s likely enough in someone’s house as safe as can be, and what we’ve got ter do is ter harness up an’ call at the houses where Prue is acquainted an’ she’ll be with us before dark, I’ll warrant ye.”

Just at this point, Belinda Babson breathless and excited, ran in at the door crying wildly,

“Oh, Miss Gilman, Mrs. Weston!  Little Hi isn’t at our house and a man just told father that he saw Hi and Prue sitting on the stone wall away over on the mill road, and that was long before noon time.  Where can they be now?  Mother’s just wild and Aunt Drusilla’s lost every idea she ever had.  She’s just wringing her hands and crying, and a saying that she’s afraid that they’re lost and wont be found.”

Mr. Weston, coming in from the barn, heard Belinda’s words and saw her frightened face.

With a grave expression in his kind gray eyes, he said,

“There, there mother, I wouldn’t get too frightened.  Prue’s out of sight?  Well, I’ll start out ter find her, and we’ll hope that she is not so far off but that I shall soon bring her home.”  But to the mare he muttered as he adjusted the harness,

“This is bad business, Snowfoot.  Two little folks lost and no idea where ter look for ’em.”