"Maybe someone has moved our town," suggested Mollie, humorously. Betty looked puzzled, annoyed and a little anxious. A snub-nosed, freckle-faced boy came along whistling, and beating the dust of the road with a long switch. "Which is the road to Rockford, little boy?" asked Betty. "Huh?" "I say, which is the road to Rockford?" "Give him a candy if you have any left, Grace," suggested Mollie, in a low tone. "Are you folks peddlin' candy?" asked the boy, and his eyes shone. "No, but we have some," answered Betty. "We want to get to Rockford." "You're five miles off the road," exclaimed the boy, with a grin, as though he took personal delight in their dilemma. "You come the wrong way. Huh!" "Oh, dear!" murmured Mollie. "Don't you give him any candy, Grace." "It isn't his fault that we went wrong," spoke Betty. CHAPTER XI THE BARKING DOG Disappointment, and not a little worriment, held the four girls silent for a moment. Then Betty, feeling that it was her place to assume the leadership, said: "Are you sure, little boy? A man told us, at the last dividing of the roads, to take the left, as that led to Rockford." "Well, he didn't know what he was talking about," asserted the little chap, with the supreme confidence of youth. "To get to Rockford you've got to go back." "All that distance?" cried Grace. "We'll never make it in time." "Isn't there a shorter way--some cross-road we can take?" inquired Betty. "Who's got the candy?" inquired the little chap, evidently thinking that he had already earned some reward. "Here!" said Grace, hopelessly, holding out an almost emptied box. "But please--_please_ don't tell us we're lost." "Oh, you ain't exactly lost!" exclaimed the urchin, with a grin. "I live just down the road a piece, and it's only a mile to Bakersville. That's a good town. They got a movin' picture show there. I went onct!" "Did you indeed?" said Betty. "But we can't go there. Isn't there some way of getting to Rockford without going all the way back to the fork? Why, it's miles and miles!" "I wish I had that man here who directed us wrongly!" exclaimed Mollie, with a flash of her dark eyes. "I--I'd make him get a carriage and drive us to your aunt's house, Betty." "That would not be revenge enough," declared Grace. "He ought to be made to buy us each a box of the best chocolates." "Nothing like making the punishment fit the crime," murmured Betty. "Say, are you play-actors?" demanded the boy, who had stood in opened-mouth wonder during this dialogue. The girls broke into peals of merry laughter that, in a measure, served to relieve the tension on their nerves. "Now do please tell us how to get to Rockford?" begged Mollie when they had quieted down. "We must be there to-night." "Well, you kin git there by goin' on a mile further and taking the main road that goes through Sayreville," said the boy, his mouth full of candy. "Would that be nearer than going back to where we made the mistake?" Betty asked.