Vadie had been found, unharmed and in remarkably good spirits. She had been in the woods with Lucy for just over 48 hours. She was less than a mile from the house where she was last seen in Lee County, Ala., which is about 60 miles east of Montgomery.

“It was such an amazing sight,” said Col. Edward D. Casey, the commander of the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, who was among the first volunteers to find Vadie. “She woke up, stood up and we saw it was her. It was so, so surreal and so amazing. And what’s more amazing was how calm she was.”

Volunteers gave Vadie orange Gatorade, and a bite of a banana and a granola bar, he said.

“I figured after two nights alone in the woods, she would be panicked and distraught and crying,” Colonel Casey said, adding that instead, Vadie had exclaimed, “Oh, I can’t wait to tell my mommy about my two nights out here.”

“She was just talking, talking, talking,” he said.

Jay Jones, the Lee County sheriff, said that other than some scratches and dehydration, Vadie was in good condition.

“She made a couple of comments to the effect of, ‘Why are there so many people in the woods?’” he said.