Sarah slowed Hudson to a walk. "Now, look for a flat place for our picnic spot," she told Mary."Why can't we just stop?" Mary asked. She was hungry. It was way past suppertime, and they were a long way from camp already.
"It has to be the right place," Sarah said. "It has to be flat, and we have to have somewhere to tether Hudson."
Mary fidgeted. She looked around. They were following the stream on the right, and there were woods ahead. Everywhere else was grassy and looked flat. Sarah was so fussy sometimes!
Finally, near the woods, her cousin pulled back on the reins and said, "Whoa." Hudson stopped obediently, and Sarah smiled.
As soon as he was stopped, Mary squirmed around so that both her legs were on one side. With one quick movement, she rolled to her stomach and slid down the side of the big black horse.
It felt good to be on the ground again!
Sarah tossed the saddlebag to her. Then she swung her right leg over Hudson's broad back, faced Mary, and jumped down. "Here's a tree limb to tether Hudson on, see?"
She wrapped his reins around the limb. Finally, satisfied, she said, "Now, let's eat!"
Mary was already spreading the blanket on the ground. Now she was taking out the food: her own supper and the goodies Sarah had promised. She took out a bag of caramels first, then set a pack of sugar cookies off to one side.She dug deeper. Were those chocolates? Mary loved chocolates. She took them out too, and then poured out the rest.
She knew she should eat apples first, or cheese and bread, or carrots. She actually reached for a piece of bread, but then she stopped with her hand still outstretched. Who would care if she started with the chocolates?
Sarah certainly wouldn't! She was already nibbling on one. She looked over at Mary, and asked, "What are you waiting for? I thought you were hungry!"
Well, okay then. And Mary grabbed a handful of chocolates -- cremes and nougats and truffles -- and took a bite out of each one to see which she liked the best.
Then she ate the whole handful, all at once.
It crossed her mind that they should have prayed before they ate. But really, just this once, what would it matter?
With her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk, and her mouth so full she could barely chew, Mary glanced over at Sarah.
Sarah looked back at her, and then started giggling. "You should see yourself! You look like this." And she puffed her own cheeks out and made exaggerated motions with her mouth.
Mary started to laugh, but she didn't want to lose the chocolates, so she snorted instead. And that sounded so funny, they both burst out in gleeful laughter. They couldn't help it. Mary had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep from losing what was in it.
She tried to chew up her chocolates, but her jaws ached from laughing. She rubbed them, with her hand still over her mouth.
Finally, the laughter slowed long enough for her to carefully chew and swallow. She avoided looking at Sarah, except for one quick sideways glance. And she noticed that Sarah was looking away from her, too.
She took a big, deep breath. If she wanted to finish eating, she'd have to think about something else. Something that wasn't funny.
Sarah must have been thinking the same thing. "Why did your papa put you in that wagon, anyway?" she asked.
Mary scowled. "He just doesn't understand."
"Was he mad at you because you didn't like the ribbons?"
"Yes, that was why," Mary answered.
But a wisp of a thought nagged at her. There was something else that Papa had said, or that she had said... She thought for a moment, then she shook her head. It didn't matter. Whatever it was, it proved he didn't understand.
She decided she was hungry for an apple and some bread with cheese after all, and she ate. She took smaller bites this time, just in case. Sarah munched on a carrot. She said she'd already eaten one supper, and didn't need another.
Finally, Mary was full. She stood up to shake the crumbs from her skirt, then sat down again.
"You know what I want?" she asked Sarah.
"What?" Sarah asked, as she started putting the food away.
"I want... everything I want," Mary said, simply.
"You mean, so whenever you see something you want, you can have it?"
"Yes." Mary sighed. "Then I'd be happy."
"I have that, most of the time," Sarah said. "You just have to know how to get your parents to give you things, like I've been telling you."
"I suppose so. But your parents have everything they want already. My parents..." Mary's voice trailed off and she shrugged. "When I'm all grown up, it'll be different."
They sat there for a bit, in silence, each thinking her own thoughts. Sarah sighed. "It's starting to get dark. We should probably go back before they notice you're gone."
She stood up and straightened out her dress. Then suddenly she shouted and pointed. "Mary! Hudson isn't tethered any more!"
And sure enough, there was Hudson.
He stood quietly beside the tree he had been tethered to, but his reins hung loose. At Sarah's shout, he looked up and twitched his ears, but that was all.Mary could tell he was a very good horse. Some of the horses they had had back in the village would have wandered off by now. She decided to give him an apple when they got back.
"We'd better go get him before we finish packing up the food." Sarah said.
As they neared the horse, Mary asked, "How will we get back up on him to ride him home? He doesn't have a saddle and we didn't bring anything."
"Try giving me a boost," Sarah answered. "Then I'll pull you up."
So Mary stood next to Hudson. Then she folded her fingers together, cupped them, and held them out to form a step for Sarah.
Sarah stepped up. Mary wobbled. Sarah wrapped her arms around Mary's head to try to balance them, but it was too late, and both girls went down.
"There's always something around," Sarah said, as she stood up and brushed herself off. "Just look."
But finding something was harder than Sarah thought it would be. The field was empty of large rocks or stumps.
Mary glanced nervously at the sky. The sun was getting lower and the shadows were getting longer. "Should we look in the woods?"
"Maybe..." Sarah replied. "Maybe a log or something."
She looked a little worried too. She tied Hudson securely to the limb before they left him to go look.
It was Mary who found the fallen log. Sarah was pleased.
"This is just right. I'll go get Hudson."
As the horse neared the log, he tossed his head and tried to turn away. Sarah grabbed his reins tightly and forced him to come. What was he afraid of, the woods? They didn't have time to drag the log out to the field, and it looked awfully heavy anyway.
Finally, they got Hudson over next to the stump. Mary held the reins while Sarah went around him to get on the log.
But as she stepped on the log, it hummed. They didn't have time to figure out why. Bees poured out of the open end of the log and began to swarm them.
Hudson bolted into the woods before Mary could stop him.
Sarah shrieked. "They're stinging me!"
Mary was already running.
"The stream!" she shouted, without stopping.
Sarah followed. They hit the water at almost the same time, and plunged in. Desperate to find the deepest spot, they pushed rocks and pebbles aside. They got as much of their bodies underwater as they could, and splashed whatever still showed. They slapped and swatted.
Finally, the bees gave up.
Mary shivered. It was no longer a warm day. Her arms and legs hurt where she'd been stung.
She glanced over at Sarah, who sat in the stream with her arms around her legs. Her face was puffy with welts, and she was crying.
"They don't hurt for very long," Mary offered.
"I know," Sarah answered between sobs. "That's not why I'm crying.""Then why are you crying?" Mary asked, confused.
Sniffling, Sarah pointed back toward the log where the bees had stung them.
Then she buried her face in her arms, her words muffled.
"Oh Mary! What are we going to do?"
Mary quickly turned her head toward the trees and the log. Her eyes widened as she realized why Sarah was so upset.
Hudson was nowhere to be seen! They had no way home.
And nobody knew where they were.
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