should have to tell to admiring listeners one of these days.

When it was time for dinner, Mrs. Clifford spread a table-cloth on the
ground, and covered it with the nice food she had brought. It was a
delightful entertainment. Flyaway was so nearly wild with the new
experience of eating in the woods, among the toads and squirrels, that
she required constant watching to keep her within bounds. She wanted to
run after all the little creeping things she saw, and give them part of
her dinner. Horace gladly assumed the care of her. He did not mean that
his mother should regret having brought little Topknot.




CHAPTER X.

SURPRISES.


After a very happy day in the woods, the Cliffords started for
home with as many nuts as they could carry.

Dotty said she had had a nice time; but for some reason she could not go
to sleep that night. There was a burning sensation in her right side,
and she had a horrible fancy that a snake had bitten her. She could not
endure the thought of lying and listening to the strokes of the clock.

"I'll go find my father," thought she, with that "far-off" feeling at
her heart again.