But when everything was really gone, and each boy knew it was not possible to get another crumb, each declared he had had plenty.

Certainly it was jolly, but when Ned glanced at his watch and discovered that the noon hour had long since passed, he hurried his companions along.

“Look here,” he reminded them, “we are out for evergreens.  This is not a food-grabbing affair.  Let’s get back to the car.  I don’t see a blade of green around here.”

“Nary a sprig,” declared Tom, looking over the woodland.  “Well, I suppose we will have to leave this retreat.  But I hope we find it next summer.  Wouldn’t it be a great place to camp?”

All agreed the spot would be ideal for a summer camp, and when they had entered the Fire Bird and swung again out upon the wagon road, some of the party rather blamed the kind of holiday that required greens, when such a fine day might have been spent in the woodchopper’s cabin.

CHAPTER XII

THE SCREAM FROM THE CASTLE

Ned White thought he knew all the roads about Ferndale and the Birchlands, but on this afternoon he stumbled with his party into a perfectly strange byway.  It did not seem to lead to any place in particular, but was one of those wagon roads cut through private property and public places alike, without regard to direction or terminus.

This meant that the Fire Bird was lost—­couldn’t tell which way to fly, and its driver did not know which way to direct the big red machine.

“Where in the world is this?” asked Tom, noting Ned looking from one side to the other in a puzzled sort of way.

“Well, if it is only in this world we are lucky,” answered Ned.  “I rather feared we had slipped off into another planet.”

“It’s cold, too,” murmured Joe, for as the afternoon sun slowly set the bleak winter day hastened forward in all its penetrating bitterness.

“What time is it, anyway?” asked Roland of Ned.

“Four, and going to get dark in an hour.  Jingo!  I wish we had found some greens.  The girls want to get the wreaths made up to-morrow.”

“Why didn’t we go to Tanglewood Park?” asked Roger.  “There were plenty of nice evergreens there.”

“Yes, why didn’t we?  That’s the question.  Let’s try this road,” and Ned turned into a branch of the highway he was driving on.  “Perhaps we may get out there yet.”

“Now, see here,” interrupted Roland.  “I’ve got a dinner date to-night.  Sort of a ‘return of the prodigal,’ you know.  I can’t be late.  So please don’t go too far from Mother Earth.  If necessary we can get the greens some other day.”

“All right,” agreed Ned.  “If we can’t make the park in half an hour we’ll turn back.  But I wonder some of you smart ones did not think of it before.  There certainly were plenty of green bushes out there.”

The turn brought our friends out on the road they had been looking for, and it took but a short time to reach the lane to Tanglewood Park.