Page 98 - A Little Bush Maid

scrub and familiar with the path. The boys unhampered by skirts and long
hair, found no great difficulty in keeping up with him, but the small maiden

of the party, handicapped by her clothes, to say nothing of being youngest
of them all, plodded along in the rear, catching on sarsaparilla vines and

raspberry tangles, plunging head first through masses of dogwood, and
getting decidedly the worst of the journey.

Harry was the first to notice that Norah was falling "into the distance," as
he put it, and he ran back to her immediately.

"Poor old kid!" he said shamefacedly. "T’d no idea you were having such a
beast of a time. Sorry, Norah!" His polite regrets were cut short by Norah’s

catching her foot in a creeper and falling bodily upon him.

"Thank you," said Harry, catching her deftly. "Delighted, T’m sure, ma’am!
Tt’s a privilege to catch any one like you. Come on, old girl, and T’ll clear
the track for you."

A little farther on the Hermit had halted, looking a trifle guilty.

"T’m really sorry, Miss Norah," he said, as Norah and Harry made their way
up to the waiting group. "T didn’t realise T was going at such a pace. We’ll

make haste more slowly."

He led the way, pausing now and again to make it easier for the little girl,
holding the bushes aside and lifting her bodily over several big logs and
sharp watercourses. Finally he stopped.

"T think if you give Billy a call now, Jim," he said, "he won’t have much

difficulty in finding us."

To the children it seemed an utter impossibility that Billy should ever find

them, though they said nothing, and Jim obediently lifted up his voice and
coo-ee’d in answer to the Hermit’s words. For himself, Jim was free to

confess he had quite lost his bearings, and the other boys were as much at
sea as if they had suddenly been dropped down at the North Pole. Norah