o friendly, and nodded in such a cheerful way,
that she soon felt acquainted with them.

"You dears!" she cried; "have you been waiting there, just for me to
come and see you?"

The harebells nodded, as if there were no doubt about it.

"Well, here I am!" Hildegarde continued; "and it was very nice of you to
come. How do you like living on the rock there? He must be very proud of
you, the old brown giant, and I dare say you enjoy the water and the
lights and shadows, and would not stay in the woods if you could. If I
were a flower, I should like to be one of you, I think. Good-by, dear
pretties! I should like to take you home to Rose, but it would be a
wickedness to pick you."

She kissed her hand to the friendly blossoms, and they nodded a pleasant
good-by, as she floated slowly down stream. A little farther on, she
came to a point of rock that jutted out into the river; on it a single
pine stood leaning aslant, throwing a perfect double of itself on the
glassy water. Hildegarde rested in the shadow. "To be in a boat and in a
tree at the same moment," she thought, "is a thing that does not happen
to every one. Rose will not believe me when I tell her; yet here are the
branches all around me, perfect, even to the smallest twig. Query, am I
a bird or a fish? Here is actually a nest in the crotch of these
branches, but I fear I shall find no eggs in it." Turning the point of
rock, she found on the other side a fairy cove, with a tiny patch of
silver sand, and banks of fern coming to the water's edge on either
side. Some of the ferns dipped their fronds in the clear water, while
taller ones peeped over their heads, trying to catch a glimpse of their
own reflection.

Hildegarde's keen eyes roved among the green masses, seeking the
different varieties,--botrychium, lady-fern, delicate hart's-tongue;
behind these, great nodding ostrich-ferns, bending their stately plumes
over their lowlier sisters; beyond these again a tangle of brake running
up into the woods. "Why, it is a fern show!" she thought. "This must be
the exhibition room for the whole forest. Visitors will please not touch
the specimens!"

She pulled close to the bank. Instantly there was a rustle and a flutter
among the ferns; a little brown bird flew out, and perching on the
nearest tree, scolded most violently. Very carefully Hildegarde drew
the ferns aside, and lo! a wonderful thing,--a round nest, neatly built
of moss and tiny twigs; and in it four whi