"Come, now, drink this beef tea," commanded Dorothy, as she brought from
the pantry a steaming cup of the fragrant beverage. "You must be perished
inside as well as out."

"Oh, but you should have seen me in that cart!" began Tavia as she sipped
the tea. "You know--I--"

"Missed the train," broke in Ned, who had been just a little joyful that
all his predictions had turned out to be correct.

"Never," replied Tavia; "I was on the 4:10, but I stayed on it."

"Why?" asked Dorothy in surprise.

"Couldn't get off," replied Tavia. "I was talking to the cunningest little
boy, and never knew it until the train was out on the branch, going for
dear life toward--land knows where."

"And you went all the way out to--"

"Indeed I did. I went all the way, and then some. I thought I had gone
even farther than that before the conductor would make up his mind to stop
and let me come back."

"But that train couldn't stop nearer than a telegraph station,"
volunteered Ned. "If it did there might have been a collision."

"I would have welcomed even a collision if some one only had to walk back
home my way," said Tavia. "But to be put off a train at such a place! Why,
I just made a bolt for the first black speck I could see with a light in