If he had been on the plains he would have been seen from a distance in a few hours." "I quite agree," said Sam.

"Let us go down this side till we are opposite the hut, and search for marks by the river side." So they agreed; and in half an hour were opposite the hut, and, riding across to it to ask a few questions, found the poor mother sitting on the door-step, with her apron over her head, rocking herself to and fro.
"We have come to help you, mistress," said Sam.

"How do you think he is gone ?" She said, with frequent bursts of grief, that "some days before he had mentioned having seen white children across the water, who beckoned him to cross and play; that she, knowing well that they were fairies, or perhaps worse, had warned him solemnly not to mind them; but that she had very little doubt that they had helped him over and carried him away to the forest; and that her husband would not believe in his having crossed the river." "Why, it is not knee-deep across the shallow," said Cecil.
"Let us cross again," said Sam: "he MAY be drowned, but I don't think it." In a quarter of an hour from starting they found, slightly up the stream, one of the child's socks, which in his hurry to dress he had forgotten.

Here brave Rover took up the trail like a bloodhound, and before evening stopped at the foot of a lofty cliff.
"Can he have gone up here ?" said Sam, as they were brought up by the rock.
"Most likely," said Cecil.

"Lost children always climb from height to height.