id at that moment, remembering them in her banishment.

"F-f-fudge! Q-q-quit it! If we're goin' to get scolded for part, might's
well b-b-be for the w-w-w-whole. 'Tain't far to the pool. We can go
f-f-fishin', after all, if you behave. I th-th-thought you was good as a
boy, an'--Will you?"

Kate dried her eyes. She didn't enjoy grief, and the prospect of any
novelty was delightful. She forgot that she was cold, that it was late
and she was where she should not have been at such an hour, and
exclaimed, with an eagerness equal to Montgomery's own:

"Oh, let's! I never went fishing in my life!"

"Come on, t-th-then!" cried the relieved lad, now readily taking her
cold hand and setting off with all the speed he could attain.

The moon was shining brilliantly, making every object as distinct as
day, and to the city-reared girl the scene was like fairy-land. Her
spirits rose to the highest, and none the less, it may be, because all
the time she was conscious of a certain daring and danger in their
escapade; and her pace more than outstripped Monty's as they crossed the
short distance to the river, warming themselves by their own speed, and
listening intently for the sound of voices which should have reached
them long before.

"Oh, I'm so delightfully goose-fleshy! This is the most thrilling
adventure of my life! I begin to feel as if I were part of a story-book
myself, like all the rest of Marsden!" said Kate, half-breathless with
running, when her mate came to a sudden halt among the shadows of the
trees beside the famous pool.

"S-s-s-sh!" warned the other, leaning forward at the risk of a tumble
into the still, deep water, listening and peering up and down the
stream. Then, with disappointment depicted in every line of his
suddenly weary body, he gloomily stammered: "Th-th-th-they've gone
home!"

There was nothing left but for themselves to follow; but surely, there
were never fields so wide and rough as these over which Master
Sturtevant now guided Katharine; herself, also, so tired from her day of
travel and her night of adventure; and finally, feeling as if the
stubble pierced every inch of her thin shoes, and that she could endure
the discomfort no longer, she begged:

"Oh! please do go by some road, and not on this grass any longer."

"Huh! 'T-t-tain't grass. Oat-st-st-stubble," he explained, doggedly
keeping on his way, which he knew was shorter, and for the further
reason that he could rid himself of her