"Why, Bessie King! Can't you ever take a joke? I didn't say a single,
solitary thing that wasn't so. I said the signs said this was the way to
Little Bear Lake, and you never asked me if I'd changed them, did you?"

Bessie laughed helplessly.

"Oh, Dolly!" she said. "Of course I didn't; why should I? Who would ever
think of doing such a thing, except you? You don't expect people to
guess what you're going to do next, do you?"

"I suppose not," said Dolly, impenitently, her eyes still twinkling. "I
do manage to surprise people pretty often. My aunt Mabel says that if I
spent half as much time studying as I do thinking up new sorts of
mischief I'd be at the top of every class I'm in at school."

"She's perfectly right. I thought at first you had a hard time with your
aunt, Dolly, but I'm through being sorry for you. She needs all the
sympathy anyone has got for having to try to look after you!"

"Oh, what's the harm? We're here now, and It isn't so very dreadful, is
it? Come on, let's go over to the hotel."

"Indeed we shan't do anything of the sort, Dolly Ransom! We'll turn
around and go right straight back to Long Lake, that's what we'll do."

"I guess not. You don't think I've come this far and that I'm going to
turn around without seeing what the place is like, do you?"

"Why, Dolly, you know we weren't supposed to come here alone. I don't