The sisters all felt guilty consciences for not having looked after their little brother, all but Helen, who was the only one who had not seen him.
"I was the only one who had time for him and I am the only one he didn"t come to," she cried. "If I only hadn"t promised Dr. Wright to stay still until he got here! I know I could find Bobby."
"But, honey, there are lots of hunters and you must do what the doctor told you," begged Douglas.
"Oh, I"ll mind him all right--that is unless Bobby stays lost too long and then I"ll have to get up and break my word if I lose my immortal soul in the act."
Staying still while the hue and cry for her dear little brother was going on was about the hardest job Helen Carter ever undertook. She imagined all sorts of terrible things. Maybe gypsies had stolen him.
Maybe a rattlesnake had bitten him and he was even now dying from it.
Maybe he had fallen down the mountain side and had dashed his brains out on some boulder. Worse than anything he might be lost forever, wandering over the mountains trying to find his way home, crying and calling, scared almost to death, tired and hungry, dying finally of starvation and exposure.
Taking Bill"s advice, all hands turned out to hunt for the lost boy. In five minutes Helen was the only person left in camp, even Miss Elizabeth Somerville and the newly arrived boarders joining in the search. There were many paths leading from camp and up and down these the crowd scattered.
Dear little Bobby! No one thought him a nuisance now. Nan and Gwen made their way to Aunt Mandy"s cabin, thinking perhaps he had gone there in search of Josh. Aunt Mandy came out with kindly words of discouragement and gruesome tales of a child her mother told her of who wandered off and never was found.
"That there Bobby looks like a angel anyhow. Children like him is hard to raise. We uns is been a tellin" of Gwen and Josh that Bobby is too purty for a boy. He looks to we uns more like a gal angel." Gwen tried to stop her but the old woman went on until Nan was almost in tears. If she had not been so distressed she would have found this amusing, but with Bobby gone for hours a sense of humor did not help much.
"Oh, Gwen! Where can he be?"
"Let"s keep on down this path for a while. He and Josh often go this way."
"If Josh would only come! I know he could find him."
"He will be found soon, I am sure. His little legs cannot carry him very far and I am sure he would not get out of the trails. He may be back at camp now. You turn back and let me follow this trail for a mile or so.
You are tired, I know."
"No, indeed, I"m not; if I were it would serve me right. If only I had stopped and told him a story! I am so selfish when I get steeped in a book. What will Mother say if Bobby is lost?"
"Oh, but I am sure we will find him."
The girls wandered on, stopping every now and then to call to the lost child. Sometimes they would be answered by an echo and then would stop and listen and call again.
Douglas got in the car with Lewis, who whisked her down the mountain side to the station.
"Maybe he has carried out his threat of running away. He is always saying he is going back to Richmond when he gets tired of the camp, which he does occasionally when he has nothing to occupy him. If I had only stopped adding up expenses and built the log cabin for him! I have neglected him, I am sure--and what will Father and Mother say? I wish I had let him go with Josh. He always takes such good care of him."
"We are going to find him, Douglas, I feel sure. Why, the little shaver could not walk very far."
He was not at the station and no one had seen him. Old Abner Dean came out of his store and actually seemed to feel some concern for the boy.
He was a hard old man but not hard enough to resist the charm of Bobby"s eyes.
"He could not have come to the station without some one seeing him, and now I am going to take you home. He may be found by this time and if he is not I"ll start out again. There is no use in your going," said Lewis, feeling very sorry for the distracted sister and very uneasy himself in spite of his repeated a.s.surances to Douglas that the little shaver was all right wherever he might be.
"First let"s go down this road a little way. He might have turned off before he got to the station. He knows that this is the road Josephus and Josh took this morning."
"All right! Anywhere that there is a chance of finding him!"
Lucy and Lil with Frank and his friend Skeeter, went over the mountain.
Lucy and Lil were feeling very much cut up that they had refused to let poor little Bobby tag along earlier in the day.
"I should have taken him with me," wailed Lucy. "Maybe I can never take care of him again. S"pose wild cats get him."
"But they wouldn"t attack in daylight," declared Frank.
"But we might not find him before dark and wolves and snakes and wild cats and all kinds of things might get him. I promised Mother I"d be good to him, too." Lucy was sniffing dismally and Lil joined her friend in her demonstration of woe.
They came to the reservoir where Bobby loved to play and was not allowed to come alone. It was not deep but then a little child does not need much water to drown in.
"It is so clear that if he is in the bottom we can see him, that"s one comfort," suggested Skeeter, but the rest of them could not extract much joy from the fact.
"I am scared to look in!" exclaimed Lucy, hiding her eyes.
"Nothing in there but a bullfrog," rea.s.sured Frank, so they left the reservoir and climbed on up the mountain.
Susan and Oscar took the path around the mountain. The two devoted servants were so deeply concerned about their darling Bobby, very precious now that he was lost, that they felt there was no way to express their concern but by quarreling with each other.
"Whin I sint him to you, why"n you keep keer er him?" grumbled Oscar.
"Wherefore you didn"t keep keer er him yo" se"f?"
"I ain"t no nuss!"
"Me neither! I done hi"ed out fur a housemaid. I is demeanin" of my rightful oaths to be adoin" what I is. If the haid of our sa.s.siety should git wind of all the occupations I is a occupying I ain"t got a doubt she would read me out in meetin"."
"Well, n.o.body ain"t a goin" to blow "bout what wuck you does but yo"se"f. I can"t see but what you keeps to yo" vows well enough. If lookin" after chillums aint "ooman"s wuck I lak to know what is."
Every now and then they stopped their wrangling to shout for the lost boy.
"Bo--oob--by! You, Bo--oob--by! I got some ca--an--dy fur yer," called Susan.
""Andyfuryer!" came back from the next mountain.
"Thar he is!" declared Oscar.
"Thar he is much! That there is what Miss Nan calls a ego. It"s some kind er a beast I reckon what mocks folks. Sounds lak hants ter me. I done dream of trouble last night anyhow. I dream I was a gittin"
married--"
"That would sho" be trouble to the groom," chuckled Oscar.
"My dream book says that dreamin" of marriage is sho sign er death. I reckon our little Bobby is dead by this time. Out here cold and starved in the mountings."
"Well, he done et a good breakfast this mornin" and ain"t starved yit as "tain"t time ter dish up dinner yit. An" if he is cold I"d lak ter know whar he done foun" a cool spot. I sho is a sweatin" myse"f."
"Go "long, you ole n.i.g.g.e.r! You ain"t got no feelin"."
"I"s got as much feelin" as you is but I"s got enough ter worry "bout without makin" up troubles. I want ter find that there Bobby an" I feel turrible bad "bout his a gittin" lost but I ain"t agoin" ter trouble my haid about his bein" cold and hongry whin the sun is a shinin" down on my back as hot as a mustard plarster an" I done see the boy put away two full batches of waffles with enough scrambled eggs to feed a whole fambly. His applet.i.te done pick up wonderful sense we been a campin"
out."
Miss Elizabeth Somerville had to help in the search, too, although Bill Tinsley tried to persuade her that he and Tillie Wingo could do her part and she had better go back to the pavilion, but go she would down the rocky path.