"Who's got the candy?" inquired the little chap, evidently thinking that
he had already earned some reward.

"Here!" said Grace, hopelessly, holding out an almost emptied box. "But
please--_please_ don't tell us we're lost."

"Oh, you ain't exactly lost!" exclaimed the urchin, with a grin. "I live
just down the road a piece, and it's only a mile to Bakersville. That's a
good town. They got a movin' picture show there. I went onct!"

"Did you indeed?" said Betty. "But we can't go there. Isn't there some
way of getting to Rockford without going all the way back to the fork?
Why, it's miles and miles!"

"I wish I had that man here who directed us wrongly!" exclaimed Mollie,
with a flash of her dark eyes. "I--I'd make him get a carriage and drive
us to your aunt's house, Betty."

"That would not be revenge enough," declared Grace. "He ought to be made
to buy us each a box of the best chocolates."

"Nothing like making the punishment fit the crime," murmured Betty.

"Say, are you play-actors?" demanded the boy, who had stood in
opened-mouth wonder during this dialogue. The girls broke into peals of
merry laughter that, in a measure, served to relieve the tension on
their nerves.

"Now do please tell us how to get to Rockford?" begged Mollie when they
had quieted down. "We must be there to-night."