Blue, whose imagination sometimes ran away with her.

"More likely she has twisted her ankle," practical Ethel Brown.

"She wouldn't sound as gay as that if anything had happened to her,"
Della reminded them.

The cries that kept reaching them were unquestionably cheerful but where
they came from was a problem that they did not seem able to solve. It
was only when Dorothy poked out her head from behind a rock almost in
front of them that they saw the entrance of what looked like a real
cave.

"It's the best imitation of a cave I ever did see!" the explorer
exclaimed. "These rocks have tumbled into just the right position to
make the very best house! Come in."

Her guests were eager to accept her invitation. There was space enough
for all of them and two or three more might easily be accommodated
within, while a bit of smooth grass outside the entrance almost added
another room, "if you aren't particular about a roof," as Ethel Brown
said.

"Do you suppose Roger has never found this!" wondered Dorothy. "See,
there's room enough for a fireplace with a chimney. You could cook here.
You could sleep here. You could _live_ here!"

The others laughed at her enthusiasm, but they themselves were just as
enthusiastic. The possibilities of spending whole days here in the shade
and cool of the trees and rocks and of imagining that they were in the