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[Illustration: The Girls Made Camp and Ate Supper.]




                 The Meadow-Brook Girls Across Country

                                   OR

                 The Young Pathfinders on a Summer Hike

                                   By

                             JANET ALDRIDGE

             Author of The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas,
                  The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat, etc.

                              Illustrated

                              PHILADELPHIA
                         HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY




                          Copyright, 1913, by
                           Howard E. Altemus




                                CONTENTS

        CHAPTER                                               PAGE
             I. A Night of Excitement                            7
            II. The Red Eye in the Dark                         30
           III. A Blessing and a Threat                         39
            IV. The Coming of Crazy Jane                        50
             V. Catching the Speckled Beauties                  62
            VI. The Call of the Dancing Bear                    69
           VII. Discovering Midnight Prowlers                   79
          VIII. Caught in a Morass                              90
            IX. The Tramp Club to the Rescue                   102
             X. In the Hands of the Rescuers                   112
            XI. A Contest of Endurance                         124
           XII. Meadow-Brook Girls up a Tree                   134
          XIII. A Serious Predicament                          146
           XIV. Harriet Is Resourceful                         152
            XV. A Race for Life                                163
           XVI. A Treat That Was Not a Treat                   173
          XVII. Trying out the Gipsy Trail                     186
         XVIII. The Queen Takes a Hand                         196
           XIX. Delving Into the Mysteries                     206
            XX. Getting Even With George                       217
           XXI. Harriet Plans to Outwit the Tramp Club         225
          XXII. A Combietta Concert                            230
         XXIII. The Harmonica Serenade                         236
          XXIV. Conclusion                                     244




THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY




CHAPTER I--A NIGHT OF EXCITEMENT


"Oh, where can Crazy Jane be!" wailed Margery Brown.

"It isn't so much a question of where Jane may be as where we ourselves
are, Buster," answered Harriet Burrell, laughingly. "However, if she
doesn't come, why, we will make the best of it. This will not be the
first time we have spent the night out of doors."

"Are we lost?" gasped Hazel Holland.

"It looks very much as though we had gone astray," replied Miss Elting,
who was acting as guardian and chaperon to the Meadow-Brook Girls.

"Oh, thave me!" wailed Grace Thompson, her impish little face appearing
to grow several degrees smaller.

"Girls! Please do not become excited," urged the guardian. "There is no
cause for alarm. Even if we have lost our way we shall find it again on
the morrow. Harriet, you have the map. Suppose we examine it again and
see if we can find out where we are. We surely must be near human
habitation, and the country is so open that really getting lost is quite
impossible."

Harriet Burrell unslung the pack that she carried over her shoulder,
then felt about in it until she found that for which she was looking.
She spread the map out on the ground at one side of the road, her
companions gathering about and gazing down over her shoulder. Miss
Elting sat down beside the map.

"Here! Trace our day's route with the pencil," she said. "This should be
Harmon's Valley. That being the case, the village of Harmon should be
not more than a mile farther on."

"There is no village anywhere near us, according to the route we have
traveled since this morning," answered Harriet.

"Oh, that can't be possible," exclaimed Miss Elting.

"Please look for yourself, Miss Elting," Harriet replied earnestly.
"After leaving Granite Mountain we swung to the left as you will see by
the line I have marked."

"Hm-m-m," murmured the guardian as she scanned the map.

"It looks to me very much as though we had taken the wrong valley," said
Harriet, as she paused in her scrutiny of the map to glance up at the
hills that shut in the valley where they now were. "See! There isn't a
town marked on this map anywhere in this valley."

"I believe you are right. In order to get to our stopping place for the
night we shall have to cross those hills to the right. How far is it
across?"

"Five miles," answered Harriet, after making some brief measurements.

"Five mileth?" wailed Grace. "Oh, thave me!"

"Tommy, will you be quiet?" begged Margery. "You make me nervous. Miss
Elting, you aren't going on, to-night, are you? I simply can't walk
another mile. My feet are so numb that I can't feel them."

"I can feel mine. They are ath big ath elephantth," declared Tommy.

"What do you say, girls? Shall we go on or make camp for the night?"
questioned the guardian. "Remember, Jane McCarthy is no doubt waiting
with her car for us over in the other valley. She will not know where to
go if we do not get in touch with her to-night."

Grace, Hazel and Margery begged Miss Elting to go no farther. They
already had made ten miles that day, which they declared was quite
enough.

"What do you say, Harriet?" asked Miss Elting.

"Of course I am a little footsore, but I could walk another ten miles if
necessary. However, the other girls do not wish to go farther, so I vote
with them to remain here for the night. But won't Jane be puzzled where
to go in the morning!"

"She will find us, my dear," smiled the guardian.

"If you think best I will cross the ridge, after supper, and see if I
can find her," suggested Harriet Burrell.

"No. I could not think of permitting you to do that, Harriet. Jane will
be sure to wait at the meeting place we agreed upon until noon to-morrow
before starting on to the next stopping place."

"But we haven't any plathe to thleep," protested the lisping Tommy. "I
can't thleep on the ground, can I?"

"No. You are going to sleep standing up like a horse," answered Margery
petulantly.

"No, I'm not. I'm going to lie down jutht like I alwayth do," lisped the
little girl.

"Girls, stop your disputing. We have other things to think of," rebuked
Harriet. "Let's try to make the best of our unpleasant situation."

Miss Elting, shading her eyes with her hand, gazed inquiringly at the
surrounding country. It was barren of buildings except for a large barn
and a number of stacks and sheds, some distance away in a field to the
west. Still beyond this was a clump of trees and bushes. There was
nothing else--no house, no human beings other than themselves in sight.

"Girls, let's investigate that miniature forest over yonder," called the
guardian. "It looks as though it might be an excellent place in which to
cook supper, provided we are able to find water."

"Supper!" cried the girls in chorus. They realized all at once that they
were hungry. With one accord they snatched up their packs, heavy as they
were, slung them over their shoulders and laboriously climbed the
roadside fence. Tommy caught her foot on the top rail in attempting to
jump to the ground on the other side.

"Look out!" warned Miss Elting sharply.

"Thave me!" wailed the lisping Tommy and sprawled on all fours on the
other side of the fence, kicking frantically as she fell.

"Are you hurt, dear?" cried Harriet, springing over to her companion.

"Hurt? I gueth I am. Don't you thee, I've thkinned my nothe. Oh, I withh
I were home!"

"No, you don't. Think what a lot of fun you are having," comforted
Harriet. "There! You are all right now."

"Am I all right?"

"Of course you are."

"All right, if you thay tho," nodded Tommy, gathering up her pack and
moving away with Harriet Burrell's arm about her. Miss Elting and the
other girls had started for the clump of trees. Arriving, they quickly
flung down their packs. The guardian began hunting for water. She found
a stream of cold water just inside the clump of trees beyond the field,
as she had anticipated. The greenness of the foliage about the spot had
told her that water was near. In other parts of the valley the leaves
were turning. There was a strong suggestion of Autumn in the air, which
at night was crisp and bracing, though the days thus far on their long
tramp, had been unusually warm for so late in the Fall.

It was Harriet's duty to build the fire. She went about this task at
once. There was some difficulty in finding wood that would burn. After
searching she found some pieces of old fence rails. These were of pine,
and as they were too long for a fire over which to cook food, Harriet
got out her hatchet and began to chop them into smaller pieces. It was a
hard task to chop through a rail, sharp though the hatchet was. However,
within fifteen minutes, the girl had accomplished the task and the fire
was burning.

"I am afraid I can't promise a great variety or quantity of edibles for
supper," announced Miss Elting, "though what there is to eat will be
appetizing."

"If there is enough, it will answer," Margery declared.

"Enough?" repeated Tommy wisely. "Buthter, you thurely ought to diet--a
girl ath thtout ath you are."

"I think I've heard you remark something of the sort before," sighed
Margery wearily. "I wish you would forget that I weigh--well, never mind
how much! The subject is a distressing one. I'm almost too hungry
to-night to think of anything except eating."

Tommy's mischievous glance roved about, resting first on Harriet, who
with flushed face was bending over the fire, then on Miss Elting, who
was slicing bacon. In addition to the bacon there was to be coffee,
supplemented by a few biscuits. There was nothing very hearty about that
repast for healthy girls who had tramped for hours under a warm
September sun. Still, there were no complaints, save as Tommy and
Margery had voiced their disgust with their present life.

Though none of these young women could guess it, they were destined,
before morning, to encounter enough excitement to make them all wish
they had never started on this long walk from Camp Wau-Wau, where they
had spent the summer, to their homes in Meadow-Brook.

Surely the Meadow-Brook Girls need no introduction to the readers of
this series who will recall how, under