r a walk in the
pine-woods. How I longed for Charlie! I would have given anything if he
could have been there, warmed through by the hot sun, refreshed by the
smell of pines, resting his poor back in the deep moss, and getting
excited over the strange flowers that grew wild all round our feet. One
never forgets the first time one sees unknown flowers growing wild; and
though we were not botanical, like Charlie, we had made ourselves very
hot with gathering nosegays by the time that Dennis summoned us to sit
down and talk seriously over our affairs. Our place of council was by
the side of a lake, which reflected a sky more blue than I had ever
seen. It stretched out of sight, and all about it were pines--pines. It
was very lovely, and very hot, and very sweet, and the little black
flies which swarmed about took tiny bits out of our cheek, and left the
blood trickling down, so cleverly, that one did not feel it--till
afterwards. We did feel the mosquitoes, and fought with them as well as
we could, whilst Dennis O'Moore, defending his own face with a big bunch
of jack-in-pulpits striped like tabby cats, explained his plans as
follows:

Of course we had no notion of going home awhile. Alister and I had come
away on purpose; and for his own part it had always been the longing of
his soul to see the world. Times out of mind when he and Barney were on
board one of these emigrant ships, that had put into the bay,
GOD-speeding an old tenant or acquaintance with good wishes and whisky
and what not, he had been more than half inclined to give old Barney and
the hooker the slip, and take his luck with the outward bound. And now
he was here, and no blame for it, why would he hurry home? The race of
the O'Moores was not likely to become extinct for the loss of him, at
the worst; and the Squire wouldn't grudge him a few months' diversion
and a peep at the wide world. Far from it; he'd send him some money, and
why not? He (Dennis) was a bit of a favourite for his mother's sake, and
the Squire had a fine heart. The real difficulty was that it would be at
least a month before the Squire could get a letter and Dennis could get
his money; but if we couldn't keep our heads above water for a month
we'd small chance of pushing our way in the world.

It is needless to say that I was willing to fall in with Dennis
O'Moore's plans, being only too thankful for such companions in my
wanderings. I said so, and added that what little money I had wa