oss-roads, a rough trail led
into the woods. Sydney turned into it, and rode between bushes of
laurel and rhododendron, whose glossy leaves shone dark above her head
even as she sat upon her horse. Patches of vivid green moss crept
confidingly to the foot of the oaks, and a bit of arbutus, as pink as
the palm of a baby's hand, peered from under its leathery cover. A few
daring buds tentatively were opening their tiny leaves to the world,
and some stray blades of grass pricked, verdant, through the general
brownness.

This was but a deserted lane, which Sydney had chosen as affording a
short cut to Melissa's, and, of a sudden, the passage was closed by a
snake fence eight rails high. It was beyond Johnny's jumping powers,
but his rider was undaunted. Leaning over the right side of the horse
she dexterously pulled apart the top rails where they crossed, and
Johnny cleverly stepped back in time to avoid their hitting his legs in
their fall. Pressing forward again, she dislodged the next pair, and
then Johnny took the breach neatly, and picked his discriminating way
through the brush on the other side.

Though their cabins were a mile apart, the Yarebroughs were Baron von
Rittenheim's nearest neighbors, and Sydney thought that Melissa would
know if he were ill, as she feared.

But as she rode on in sinuous avoidance of protruding boughs and
upstart bushes, she was seized by a shyness quite new to her. It seemed
as if she could not bear to question Melissa about the Baron. She
fancied she saw the girl's possible look of amusement. It became
suddenly a position which she stigmatized as "horrid!"

Beside her a big white pine spread an inviting seat of heaped-up tags,
and she slipped off the horse and leaned against the broad trunk.
Johnny, at the bridle's length, nibbled at the enamelled green of the
lion's tongue with equine vanity,--for he knew that it would beautify
his coat,--and pushed his muzzle down among the dry leaves beyond the
radius of the pine-needles, lipping them daintily in search of
something more appetizing beneath.

The sunshine forced its way through the thick branches of the pine and
frolicked gayly with Sydney's ruddy hair, as she tossed aside her hat
and sat down to recover her composure, so suddenly and extraordinarily
lost. Perhaps five minutes, perhaps ten, had passed thus in reflection
which she called to herself "disgustingly self-conscious," when Johnny
lifted his head and pointed his ears to