him, and at last I found him in a big, big field. I was so glad to see him that I sat down and played with him. See! I made this chain of daisies; isn’t it pretty?

“Well, after we had played for a while we started to go home, but we didn’t find the place. Somehow, we kept getting into more fields and more fields, and then I got oh, so tired, and I called mamma but she didn’t hear me.”

“Well, never mind now,” said Alice; “we will take you home in our carriage, and you shall soon see your mamma. What is your name?”

“My name is Linda Forest,” said the little girl, “but I can’t tell you where I live, for I don’t know the way. It is a big, big house with big, big trees all around it. It isn’t our city house, but our new house in the country.”

“Well,” said Alice, “we will find out where it is when mamma comes out. There she is now,” she added. “Come take my hand and we will go and tell mamma.”

“Snowball must go, too,” said Linda, holding back a little; “I mustn’t leave him behind.”

Mrs. Grey came out of the door just then, so the children went to meet her.

“Who is this little girl?”

Alice told her mother of Linda’s wanderings, and to her surprise her mother exclaimed:

“Why, of course I know where the child lives; don’t you, Alice? Mr. Forest has just bought the old Minor place; they only moved in last week. Why, yes, you poor little thing, you shall be with your mamma in a little while; but how in the world did those little bits of feet carry you so far from home?”

Mrs. Grey then got into the carriage, and then the children climbed in.

They saw a great many interesting things on their way home, but I can only tell you of one

of them. They were driving along chatting merrily about all sorts of things, when suddenly, as they followed the turn in the road, what should appear before them but an encampment.

“Why, mamma, there’s a man lying flat down on the grass,” said Alice; “it looks like—why, mamma, mamma, it is Uncle Dick.”

Alice stood up on her seat and called “Uncle Dick.”

Uncle Dick, for it was really he, walked rapidly towards the carriage, and in a few minutes they were all asking and answering questions.

Uncle Dick told them he was on a walking trip, and that they were stopping here for a day or two to rest.

“I was going up to call on you this afternoon,” said he.

“You must come up to tea instead,” said Mrs. Grey.

They had to go a good deal out of their way to reach Linda’s house, but, as Alice said, it was all the better, for they would have a pleasant drive.

At length they reached the house. It was a delightful place surrounded by tall trees. Alice thought the only fault she could find with it was that it was too far from the ocean. A young girl, the gardener’s daughter, was picking a basketful of flowers as she walked under the trees.

When they drove in at the gate they saw that some great excitement had taken possession of everybody. The maids were running back and forth, and the house doors were all open.

As they drew nearer, Mrs. Grey began to guess what was the cause of all this trouble.

“They are looking for Linda,” said Mrs. Grey. “Yes; I hear them calling ‘Linda Linda!’ ”