"Gracious! I'm sorry this happened the first day I came," spoke up
Harry, realizing that the other boys would not have gone into the deep
woods if he had not acted as leader.

"Here we are!" called Hal.

"Hello there! That you, Hal?" came a call.

"Yes; we're coming," Hal answered, and the lost boys quickened their
steps, as much as the pails of milk allowed.

Presently Uncle William and Mr. Bingham came up, and were so glad to
find that Hal, Harry, and Bert were safe, they scarcely required any
explanation for the delay in getting home. Of course, both men had
been boys themselves, and well remembered how easy it was to get lost,
and be late reaching home.

The milk pails, too, bore out the boys' story, had there been any
doubt about it, but beyond a word of caution about dangerous places in
deep woodlands there was not a harsh word spoken.

A little farther on the road home, Dorothy, Nan, and Nellie met the
wanderers, and then the woodland escapade seemed a wild tale about
bears, Indians, and even witches, for each girl added, to the boys'
story, so much of her own imagination that the dark night and the
roaring of the ocean, finished up a very wild picture, indeed.

"Now, you are real heroes," answered Dorothy, "and you are the bravest
boys I know. I wish I had been along. Just think of sitting by a
campfire in a dark woods, and having no one to bring you home but a