ame in last,
leaving the cat-boat at anchor far out.

Even after the joy of sailing it was very pleasant ashore under the
shady pines, and Mr. Leicester found a delightfully comfortable place
for Aunt Barbara to sit in, while the girls were near by. "What an
interesting morning we have had!" Betty heard Aunt Barbara say. "Sailing
down the river brings to mind so many things in the past. The beginnings
of history in this part of the country always have to do with the river.
I wish that I could remember all the stories of the early settlements
that I used to hear old people tell in my childhood."

"See that little green farm in the middle of the sunburnt pastures
across the river," said Mr. Leicester, who had been looking that way
intently. "Look, Betty! what a small green spot it makes with its
orchard and fields among the woods and brown pastures, and yet what toil
has been spent there year after year!"

Betty looked with great interest. She had seen the green farm, but she
had not thought about it, and neither had Mary Beck, who could not tell
why she kept looking that way again and again, and somehow could not
help thinking how good it would be to make a green place like that by
one's own life among dull and difficult surroundings. Betty was her
green place; by and by she could do the same thing for somebody else,
perhaps.

"What a lovely place this is!" said Aunt Barbara, still enthusiastic.
"There is such sweet air here among the pines, and I delight in the wide
outlook over the river. I begin to feel as young as ever. I thought that
I was almost too old to enjoy myself any more, last winter. It is such
a mistake to let one's self make great things out of little ones, as I
did, and carry life too heavily," she added.

"You must feel ever so much older inside than you look outside," said
Betty, who was in famous spirits.

Mr. Leicester laughed with the rest, and then looked over his shoulder
with a droll expression, as if something was causing him great
apprehension. "Aunt Barbara!" he began, and then hid his face with his
arm, as if he were about to be well whipped.

"What mischief now?" said she.

"I have played you a trick: you are not leaving your home and friends
for one day, but for two."

Miss Leicester looked puzzled.

"You were very good not to say that I was foolish to carry two extra
sails."

"I did think it was nonsense, Tom," he was promptly assured, "but then I
remembered that you had onl