"Seems to me, Twink," said Chubbins, "that it isn't we that's lost. It's the path."

 

"It was here a minute ago," declared Twinkle.

 

"But it isn't here now," replied the boy.

 

"That's true," said the girl.

 

It really was queer. They had followed the straight path into the great forest, and had only stopped for a moment to sit down and rest, with the basket between them and their backs to a big tree. Twinkle winked¹ just twice, because she usually took a nap in the afternoon, and Chubbins merely closed his eyes a second to find out if he could see that long streak² of sunshine through his pink eyelids³. Yet during this second, which happened while Twinkle was winking⁴, the path had run away and left them without any guide or any notion which way they ought to go.

 

Another strange thing was that when they jumped up to look around them the nearest trees began sliding away, in a circle, leaving the little girl and boy in a clear space. And the trees continued moving back and back, farther and farther, until all their trunks were jammed tight together, and not even a mouse could have crept between them. They made a solid ring around Twinkle and Chubbins, who stood looking at this transformation⁵ with wondering eyes.

 

"It's a trap," said Chubbins; "and we're in it."

 

"It looks that way," replied Twinkle, thoughtfully. "Isn't it lucky, Chub, we have the basket with us? If it wasn't for that, we might starve to death in our prison."

 

"Oh, well," replied the little fellow, "the basket won't last long. There's plenty of starve in the bottom of it, Twinkle, any way you can fix it."

 

"That's so; unless we can get out. Whatever do you suppose made the trees behave that way, Chubbins?

 

"Don't know," said the boy.

 

Just then a queer creature dropped from a tree into the ring and began moving slowly toward them. It was flat in shape, like a big turtle; only it hadn't a turtle's hard shell. Instead, its body was covered with sharp prickers, like rose thorns, and it had two small red eyes that looked cruel and wicked. The children could not see how many legs it had, but they must have been very short, because the creature moved so slowly over the ground.

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