“I move we all take a half hour’s rest and then go on,” said David.  “We still have a mile to go before we are through the wood.  We’ll feel more like walking after we’ve rested a little.”

“Let us all sit in a row with our backs against this fallen tree and tell a story,” said Grace.  “Hippy, you are on the end, so you can begin it, then after you have gone a little way, Nora must take up the narrative, and so on down the line until the story is finished.”

“Fine,” said Hippy.  “Here goes:” 

“Once upon a time, in the heart of a deep forest, there lived a most beautiful prince.  He had all that heart could wish; still he was not happy, for, alas, he was too fat.”

At this statement there was a shout of laughter from his listeners, at which Hippy, pretending anger, glared ferociously and vowed that he would not continue.  Nora thereupon took up the narrative and convulsed her hearers with the remedies tried by the fat prince to reduce his weight.  Then the story was passed on to Anne.  With each narrator it grew funnier, until the party screamed with laughter over the misfortunes of the ill-starred prince.

Hippy ended the tale by marrying the hero to a princess who was a golf fiend and who forced the poor prince to be her caddy.

“From the day of his marriage he chased golf balls,” concluded Hippy, “and the habit became so firmly fixed with him that he even rose and chased them in his sleep.  He lost flesh at an alarming rate, and three months after his wedding day they laid him to rest in the quiet churchyard, with the touching epitaph over him, ’Things are not what they seem.’”

Hippy buried his face in his handkerchief and sobbed audibly until David and Reddy pounced upon him and he was obliged to forego his lamentations and defend himself.

“It’s time to move,” said Tom Gray, consulting his watch.  “I don’t believe we’d better go on through the wood.  We’ll have to about face if we expect to get home before dark.”

So the start back was made, but their progress was slow.  A dozen things beguiled them from the path.  Tom’s trained eye spied a wasp’s nest hanging from a limb.  It was as large as a Japanese lantern and a beautiful silver-gray color.  Anne stopped to pick some ground berries she found nestling under the leaves.  Then they all started in wild pursuit of a rabbit, and in consequence had difficulty in finding the road again.  Finally they all grew so hungry they sat down and disposed of the remaining food.

“How dark it is growing,” exclaimed Jessica, as they again took the road.  “It must be very late.”

“It’s after four o’clock,” replied David, “and there’s a storm coming, too.  I think we had better hurry.  I don’t fancy being caught in the woods in bad weather.  Hustle, everybody.”

As they hurried along the path a blast of wind blew full in their faces.  The whole forest seemed suddenly astir.  There were strange sounds from every direction.  The branches creaked and the dry leaves fell rattling to the ground by hundreds.  Another gust of wind filled their eyes and nostrils with fine dust.