‘He is here! Dear, dear Geoff, he is all here! I knew it, I knew it! Hurrah!—no, I mean—thank God!’ she said softly as she stooped down to kiss her mischievous little brother. ‘But what a looking creature!’ exclaimed Geoff, as he stooped over the recovered treasure. ‘See, Bell, his curls are glistening with pitch, his dress is torn into ribbons, and his hands—ugh, how dirty!’ ‘Poor little darling, he is thoroughly used up,’ whispered Bell, wiping tears of joy from her brown eyes. ‘Now, I’ll run home like lightning to blow the horn; and you carry Dicky, for he is too sleepy and stiff to walk; and, Geoff’—(here she laid an embarrassed hand on his shoulder)—‘I’m afraid he’ll be awfully cross, but you’ll not mind it, will you? He’s so worn-out.’ ‘Not I,’ laughed Geoff, as he dropped a brotherly kiss on Bell’s pale cheek. ‘But I’ve no idea of letting you go alone; you’re tired to death, and you’ll miss the path. I wish I could carry you both.’ ‘Tired—afraid!’ cried Bell, with a ringing laugh, while Dicky woke with a stare, and nestled on Geoffrey’s shoulder as if nothing had happened. ‘Why, now that this weight is lifted off my heart, I could see a path in an untravelled forest! Good-bye, you dear, darling, cruel boy! I must run, for every moment is precious to mamma.’ And with one strangling hug, which made Dicky’s ribs crack, she dashed off. Oh how joyously, how sweetly and tunefully, the furious blast of the old cracked dinner-horn fell on the anxious ears in that cañon. It seemed clearer and more musical than a chime of silver bells. In a trice the wandering couples had gathered jubilantly round the camp-fire, all embracing Bell, who was the heroine of the hour—entirely by chance, and not though superior vision or courage, as she confessed. It was hardly fifteen minutes when Geoff strode into the ring with his sorry-looking burden, which he laid immediately in Aunt Truth’s lap. ‘Oh my darling!’ she cried, embracing him fondly. ‘To think you are really not dead, after all!’ ‘No, he is about as alive as any chap I ever saw.’ And while the happy parents caressed their restored darling, Geoff gathered the girls and boys around the dinner-table, and repeated some of Dicky’s remarks on the homeward trip. It seems that he considered himself the injured party, and with great ingenuity laid all the blame of the mishap on his elders.