“Go back!  Go back!” cried Mollie, now again on the verge of tears.  “Oh, you bad children!  What shall I do?  Mamma will be dreadfully worried, and if we take them back we’ll lose a lot of time.  What shall we do, girls?”

“We go back for tandy—­lots of tandy,” spoke the inexorable Dodo.  “We ’ikes tandy; don’t us, Paul?”

“Yes,” said Paul, simply.

“The easiest way out of it is to give them some candy,” said Grace, in a low voice, but, low as it was, the twins heard.  Their eyes brightened at once, and they came eagerly forward.

“Oh, dear, I suppose it is the only thing to do,” affirmed Mollie.  “Will you go straight back if you get some candy?” she asked.  “Straight home to mamma?”

“Ess—­we bofe go,” promised Dodo, who usually led her small brother.  “We ’ikes tandy,” she reiterated.

“Me tan shoot bears to-morrow,” said Paul, philosophically.  “Where is tandy?” With him evidently the prospect of present enjoyment was preferable to the future possibility of becoming a great hunter.

“Here you are!” cried Grace, as she took out some chocolates.  “Now be good children.  Do you think it safe for them to go back alone, Mollie?”

“That’s so, I never considered that.  I wonder if we’ll have to go with them?  Oh, isn’t this annoying, and we’re behind time now!  We’ll never get to Rockford to-night.  What shall I do?”

“We take ’em back if oo dive us some tandy!” mocked Will, who, with his chums, had been an interested observer of the little scene.

“Smarty!” exclaimed his sister.  “But I’ll take you at your word just the same.  Here, Frank—­Allen—­you see that he performs his part of the contract,” and she held the candy box out to the other two, who laughingly accepted the bribe.

Then with the hands of the trusting, and now contented, twins in theirs, Will and Frank bade the girls good-speed and led away the two small ones on their homeward way, Allen following them after a farewell to Betty.

“At last we are off!” murmured Mollie.  “I’m so sorry it happened, girls!”

“Why, the idea!” cried Betty.  “It was just a little pleasant episode, and we’ll remember it all day, and laugh.”

“But it may make us late,” suggested Mollie, anxiously.

“Not much,” went on the Little Captain.  “It wasn’t your fault, anyhow.  We can just walk a little faster to make up for it—­that is, if, Grace thinks she can stand it.”

“Oh, you won’t find me complaining,” declared the girl whose footwear had been the subject of comment.  “I’m not as comfortable as you, perhaps,” she admitted, “but I will be when I get my other shoes.  And now, let’s give ourselves up to the enjoyments of the way—­and day.  Oh, isn’t it just lovely!”

Indeed, a more auspicious start—­barring the little delay caused by the twins—­could not have been provided.  The day was one of those balmy ones in June, when it is neither too hot nor too blowy, when the breeze seems fairly laden with the sweet scent of flowers, and the lazy hum of bees mingles with the call of birds.