At last there was a longer disappearance than usual. After a time Zaidee and Helen, with Kenneth lagging after, came disconsolately around to the front piazza. Zaidee's soft, silky, black hair lay in wet streaks, plastered down on her forehead, while Helen's golden locks were as tightly curled as grape-tendrils.
"We can't find Cricket any more, for she's runned away," announced Zaidee, aggrieved.
"We've hunted and hunted," said Helen. "We heard her calling once, but when we got where she was, she wasn't there any more."
"She'll be back in a moment," said Eunice, mopping off the little hot head with a practised hand. "You sit still and get cool. Really, 'Liza ought not to let you run around this way, in the hot sun."
"Just what I came out to say," said auntie, appearing in the doorway. "I came down to tell you, my dear little girls, that it is much too hot to run around this way any more. You must sit down and rest till after dinner. Where's Cricket?"
"She's hided, and we can't find her anywhere," repeated Zaidee.
"She will come out presently, when she finds you aren't looking for her any more," said auntie, sitting down. "How fares our noble editor?"
"Your noble editor has most finished," said Eunice, surveying, with pride, her neatly printed pages. "If you could only stay next week, Hilda, we'd let you print a number."
"I would just as soon as not," said Hilda. "I can print very nicely. I'd like to. I'd put big, beautiful fancy capitals for the 'Echo,' and the names of the stories in fancy capitals also, and I'd draw tail-pieces."
"It's a very great pity you can't stay," said Edna, with marked politeness. "We can't do tail-pieces." The two little girls, Hilda and Edna, were just enough alike to clash very often, though Edna was never given to bragging, as Hilda sometimes was, and she was much more unselfish.
"I can draw very well," said Hilda, serenely, and with perfect truth. Like Edna, she had a dainty touch.
The minutes passed by, and still Cricket did not appear. Presently auntie raised her head, and listened.
"I thought I heard Cricket calling," she said, "but I don't hear it again."
"There certainly is some one calling. Is it Cricket?" She stood up to listen better. A muffled cry was certainly heard.