This was too much for the various committees, and Laura’s wild shriek was the signal for a hasty adjournment. A common danger restored peace to the assembly, and they sought the runaway in perfect harmony. ‘Well,’ said Jack, when quiet was restored, ‘I am going a little distance up the Pico Negro trail; there are some magnificent Spanish bayonets growing there, and if you’ll let me have Pancho, Uncle Doc, we can bring down four of them and lash them to each of the corners of Elsie’s tent,—they’ll keep fresh several days in water, you know.’ ‘Take him, certainly,’ said Dr. Winship. ‘Do let me go with you!’ pleaded Laura, with enthusiasm. ‘I should like the walk so much.’ ‘It’s pretty rough, Laura,’ objected Margery. ‘If you couldn’t endure our walk this morning, you would never get home alive from Pico Negro.’ ‘Oh, that was in the heat of the day,’ she answered. ‘I feel equal to any amount of walking now, if Jack doesn’t mind taking me.’ ‘Delighted, of course, Miss Laura. You’ll be willing to carry home one of the trees, I suppose, in return for the pleasure of my society?’ ‘Snub him severely, Laura,’ cried Bell; ‘we never allow him to say such things unreproved.’ ‘I think he is snubbed too much already,’ replied Laura, with a charming smile, ‘and I shall see how a course of encouragement will affect his behaviour.’ ‘That will be what I long have sought, And mourned because I found it not,’ sang Jack, nonchalantly. ‘Oh, Laura,’ remonstrated Bell, ‘think twice before you encourage him in his dreadful ways. We have studied him very carefully, and we know that the only way to live with him is to keep him in a sort of “pint pot” where we can hold the lid open just a little, and clap it down suddenly whenever he tries to spring out.’ ‘Do not mind that young person, Miss Laura, but form your own impressions of my charming character. Excuse me, please, while I put on a celluloid collar, and make some few changes in my toilet necessary to a proper appearance in your distinguished company.’ ‘I prefer you as you are,’ answered Laura, laughingly. ‘Let us start at once.’ ‘Do you hear that, young person? She prefers me as I are! Now see what magic power her generosity has upon me!’ And he darted into the tent, from which he issued in a moment with his Derby hat, a manzanita cane, a pocket-handkerchief tied about his throat, and a flower pinned on his flannel camping-shirt—a most ridiculous figure, since nothing seems so out of place in the woods as any suggestion of city costumes or customs. Laura was in high good-humour, and looked exceedingly brilliant and pretty, as she always did when she was the central figure of any group or the bright particular star of any occasion. ‘Be home before dark,’ said Dr. Winship. ‘Pancho, keep a look-out for the pack-mule. Truth, one of the pack-mules has disappeared.’ ‘So? Dumpling or Ditto?’