"I'm coming right back, and it is the only way. You must get home.
Only think how your father and mother are worrying!"
Hannah said no more after that mention of her parents, and Ann
started.
[Illustration: "A CONVEYANCE IS FOUND."]
She was not gone long. When she came in sight she was laughing, and
Hannah, weak as she was, laughed, too. Ann had torn her blue apron
into strips, and tied it together for a rope, and by it she was
leading a red cow.
Hannah knew the cow, and knew at once what the plan was. "O, Ann! you
mean for me to ride Betty?"
"Of course I do. I just happened to think our cows were in the
pasture, down below here. And we've ridden Betty, lots of times, when
we were children, and she's just as gentle now. Whoa, Betty, good
cow."
It was very hard work to get Hannah on to the broad back of her novel
steed, but it was finally accomplished. Betty had been a perfect pet
from a calf, and was exceedingly gentle. She started off soberly
across the fields, with Hannah sitting on her back, and Ann leading
her by her blue rope.
It was a funny cavalcade for Captain Abraham French and a score of
anxious men to meet, when they were nearly in sight of home; but they
were too overjoyed to see much fun in it.
Hannah rode the rest of the way with her father, on his gray horse;
and Ann walked joyfully by her side, leading the cow.
Captain French and his friends had, in fact, just started to search
Bear Swamp, well armed with lanterns, for night was coming on.
It was dark when they got home. Mrs. French was not much more
delighted to see her beloved daughter Hannah safe again, than Mrs.
Polly was to see Ann.
She listened admiringly to the story Ann told.
"Nobody but you would have thought of the wool or of the cow," said
she.
"I do declare," cried Ann, at the mention of the wool, "I have lost
the cards!"
"Never mind the cards!" said Mrs. Polly.
* * * * *