; 'you are ever so much the bravest boy I ever knew.'

He could scarcely believe she meant it, but when he did believe he
screamed with joy.

'And if you want very much to give me a kiss,' Maimie said, 'you can do
it.'

Very reluctantly Peter began to take the thimble off his finger. He
thought she wanted it back.

'I don't mean a kiss,' she said hurriedly, 'I mean a thimble.'

'What's that?' Peter asked.

'It's like this,' she said, and kissed him.

'I should love to give you a thimble,' Peter said gravely, so he gave
her one. He gave her quite a number of thimbles, and then a delightful
idea came into his head. 'Maimie,' he said, 'will you marry me?'

[Illustration: 'My Lord Duke,' said the physician elatedly, 'I have the
honour to inform your excellency that your grace is in love']

Now, strange to tell, the same idea had come at exactly the same time
into Maimie's head. 'I should like to,' she answered, 'but will there
be room in your boat for two?'

'If you squeeze close,' he said eagerly.

'Perhaps the birds would be angry?'

He assured her that the birds would love to have her, though I am not
so certain of it myself. Also that there were very few birds in
winter. 'Of course they might want your clothes,' he had to admit
rather falteringly.

She was somewhat indignant at this.

'They are always thinking of their nests,' he said apologetically, 'and
there are some bits of you'--he stroked the fur on her pelisse--'that
would excite them very much.'

'They shan't have my fur,' she said sharply.

'No,' he said, still fondling it, however, 'no. O Maimie,' he said
rapturously, 'do you know why I love you? It is because you are like a
beautiful nest.'

Somehow this made her uneasy. 'I think you are speaking more like a
bird than a boy now,' she said, holding back, and indeed he was even
looking rather like a bird. 'After all,' she said, 'you are only a
Betwixt-and-Between.' But it hurt him so much that she immediately
added, 'It must be a delicious thing to be.'

'Come and be one, then, dear Maimie,' he implored her, and they set off
for the boat, for it was now very near Open-Gate time. 'And you are
not a bit like a nest,' he whispered to please her.

'But I think it is rather nice to be like one,' she said in a woman's
contradictory way. 'And, Peter, dear, though I can't give them my fur,
I wouldn't mind their building in it. Fancy a nest in my neck with
little spotty eggs in it!