The little party rested at the old sycamore, and then started up the slope to the ledge. Jasmine and Myrtle climbed sturdily to the top, but little Ivy had to be carried most of the way by Etta-Belle, and Roxy dragged the basket of lunch, lifting it to rocks above her, or pulling it up from shelving ledges over which she had climbed.
They were all tired when they reached the scrubby oak tree, where they found “Dinah” safely resting in her own house. The squirrels could be heard scolding, and soon ventured from their hiding-places when Roxy called their names and put bits of gingerbread where they could see it.
Ivy was delighted when one of the squirrels was coaxed near enough to nibble a piece of gingerbread that she held toward him on the end of a stick, and wanted Roxy to catch him and carry him home. But Roxy shook her head.
“That would make him a prisoner, and I wouldn’t do that,” she said, and told the story of the Yankee boy whom she had fed and helped on his way. “The squirrel would hate being shut up just as much as that Yankee soldier did,” she said soberly.
“Oh, Roxy, what wonderful things happen to you!” exclaimed Jasmine admiringly. “Just think, finding the Yankee soldier, and being taken away from this ledge by a Confederate scout, and then riding to Sharpsburg with Union soldiers!” and Jasmine gave a little sigh. “Why do you s’pose, Roxy, so much happens to you?”
But Roxy shook her head soberly; she was thinking that none of her adventures had been very pleasant ones, excepting helping the Yankee soldier.
“I don’t know,” she replied, and as both the squirrels at that moment made a flying leap to Jasmine’s shoulder the little girl was too well entertained to ask any more questions; but Roxy wondered, as she often did, if her Yankee soldier had reached safety and if she would ever see him again.
The little Hinham girls thought the ledge a fine playhouse, and when Roxy opened the basket and spread the luncheon on a smooth rock near Dinah’s house they danced around it happily, singing the song they had sung on the day that Roxy had made her unexpected visit to the Hinham place:
“I heard fairy bells ringing— And fairies were singing, And dancing and bringing Fairy honey to the one Who wore the gold crown.”