Have you been lonely without us?'
'Oh, not a bit. You see there has been a good deal of noise about
here, and I felt as if I were not alone. Hop Yet has been pounding
soap-root in the kitchen, and I hear the sound of Pancho's axe in the
distance,--the Doctor asked him to chop wood for the camp-fire. Was
Dicky any trouble? Where is he?'
'Why, darling mother, are you crazy?' asked Bell. 'If you think a
moment, he was in the hammock and you were lying down in the tent
when we started.'
'Why, I certainly thought I heard him ask to go with you,' said Mrs.
Winship, in rather an alarmed tone.
'So he did; but I told him it was too far.'
'I didn't hear that; in fact, I was half asleep; I was not feeling
well. Ask Hop Yet; he has been in the kitchen all the afternoon.'
Hop Yet replied, with discouraging tranquillity, 'Oh, I no know. I
no sabe Dicky; he allee time lun loun camp; I no look; too muchee
work. I chop hash--Dicky come in kitch'--make heap work--no good. I
tell him go long--he go; bime-by you catchum; you see.' Whereupon he
gracefully skinned an onion, and burst into a Chinese song, with
complete indifference as to whether Dicky lived or died.
'Perhaps he is with Pancho; I'll run and see!' cried Polly, dashing
swiftly in the direction of the sky-parlour. But after a few minutes
she ran back, with a serious face. 'He's not there; Pancho has not
seen him since lunch.'
'Well, I've just happened to think,' said pale Aunt Truth, 'that papa
came into the tent for some cartridges, after you left, and of course
he took Dick with him.
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