d long in coming. For more than a mile their path lay
close to the water's edge, through bogs and upon rocks, over rough and
smooth, with the bluff rising steeply on their right and the stream
preventing their crossing to the farm lands on its left. But at length
they emerged upon a wider level and a view that was worth walking far to
see.

Here the lad dismounted. He was so much too large for the beast he
bestrode that he had been obliged to hold his feet up awkwardly, while
riding. Besides, deep in his clouded heart there had arisen a desire to
please this girl who so pleased him.

"Hmm. If you like leaves, there's some that's pretty," he said, pointing
upward toward a brilliant branch, hanging far out above the stream.

"Yes, those are exquisite, but quite out of reach. We can get on faster
now; and tell me, please, what are all those buildings yonder? How
picturesque they look, clustered amid the trees on the river's bank."

Her answer was a rustle overhead. She fancied that a squirrel could not
have climbed more swiftly; for, glancing up, she discovered the witless
youth already upon the projecting branch, moving toward its slender
tips, which swayed beneath his weight, threatening instant breakage.
Below him roared the rapids, hurrying to dash over the great dam not
many yards away.

"Oh! how dare you? Come back--at once!"

"Scare you, do I? Sho! This is nothing. You just ought to see what I can
do. Catch 'em. There you are. That's prettier than any. Hello! Yonder's
a yellow-robin's nest. Wait. I'll get it for you!"

Amy shut her eyes that she might not see; though she could not but hear
the snapping of boughs, the yell, and the heavy splash which followed.

CHAPTER II.

THE MILL IN THE GLEN.

"Hi! ducked myself that time, sure!"

Amy ventured to open her eyes. There, dripping and grinning, evidently
enjoying the fright he had given her, stood her strange new
acquaintance. His hand still clutched the scarlet branch with its
swinging nest that he had risked his safety to secure, nor would
relinquish for so trivial a matter as a fall into the water.

"You--you might have been drowned!"

"But I wasn't."

"I should have felt that it was all my fault!" she exclaimed, now that
her fear was past, growing angry at his hardihood.

He stared at her in genuine surprise; all the gayety of his expression
giving place to disappointment.

"Don't you like it? They always build far out."

"Oh, yes. It