t be able so much
as to drop a line in the brown water all through the maddening spring
days. But that he should not want to--ache to--this we cannot
understand. We do know that it is not a thing to be argued about. It is
temperamental, it is in the blood, or it is not. Jonathan and I always
want to.

Once it was almost the end of April, and we had been wanting to ever
since March had gone out like a lion--for in some parts of New England a
jocose legislature has arranged that the trout season shall begin on
April Fool's Day. Those who try to catch trout on April first understand
the joke.

"Jonathan," I said over our coffee, "have you noticed the weather
to-day?"

"Um-m-pleasant day," he murmured abstractedly from behind his newspaper.

"Pleasant! Have you felt the sunshine? Have you smelt the spring mud? I
want to roll in it!"

Jonathan really looked up over his paper. "Do!" he said, benevolently.

"Jonathan, let's run away!"

"Can't. There's a man coming at--"

"I know. There's always a man coming. Tell him to come to-morrow. Tell
him you are called out of town."

"But you have a lot of things to-day too--book clubs and Japanese clubs
and such things. You said last night--"

"I'll tell them _I'm_ called out of town too. I _am_ called--we're both
called, you know we are. And we've got to go."

"Really, my dear, you know I want to, but--"

"No use! It's a runaway. Get the time-table and see which is the first
train to anywhere--to nowhere--who cares where!"

Jonathan went, protesting. I let him protest. A man should have some
privileges.

We took the first train. It was a local, of course, and it trundled
jerkily along one of the little rivers we knew. When the conductor came
to us, Jonathan showed him our mileage book. "Where to?" he asked
mechanically, but stiffened to attention when Jonathan said placidly, "I
don't know yet. Where _are_ we going, my dear?"

"I hadn't thought," I said; "let's see the places on the map."

"Well, conductor," said Jonathan, "take off for three stations, and if
we don't get off then, you'll find us here when you come around, and
then you can take off some more."

The conductor looked us both over. We were evidently not a bridal
couple, and we didn't look quite like criminals--he gave us up.

When we saw a bit of country that looked attractive, we got off. That
was something I had always wanted to do. All my life I have had to go to
definite places, and my memory i