over
the forest-clad hills and dales to where Lake Oro's shining expanse
sparkled through the jagged outline of the treetops. Her lips moved,
"_He called her to Him_," she whispered, "an' He said unto her, 'Woman,
thou art loosed from thine infirmity.'" She lay very still, a happy
light shining in her eyes; the children waited a moment, and then
slipped softly out of doors.

When he found himself alone once more with his new acquaintance, Scotty
suddenly became shy again. But his diffidence was put to flight in a
summary manner. The young lady gave him a smart slap in the face and
darted away. "Last tag!" she screamed back over her shoulder. Scotty
stood for an instant petrified with indignation, and then he was after
her like the wind. As they tore through the little barnyard Kirsty
called to them not to go near the well, but neither of them heard.
Into the woods they dashed, over mossy logs and stones, tearing through
the undergrowth and crashing among fallen boughs. In spite of her
fleetness Scotty caught his tormentor as she dodged round a tree; he
held her in a sturdy grip and shook her for her impudence until her
sunbonnet fell off. He was somewhat disconcerted to find her accept
this treatment with the utmost good humour. Betty would have wailed
dismally, but this girl wrenched herself free and laughed derisively.

"You can't hurt like Hal," she said rather disdainfully, "he pulls my
hair."

"Well, I'll be doing that too if you slap me again," said Scotty,
grateful for the suggestion.

"No, you won't," she declared triumphantly, "'cause then I wouldn't
play with you. I'd just go right back to Granma MacDonald and leave
you all alone in the bush. An' I wouldn't show you all the places
here. There's a king's castle an' a hole where the goblins comes out
of, an' a tree where a bad, bad dwarf lives, an'--an'," she was
whispering now, "an' heaps of dreadfuller things than that 'way down
there." She pointed into the green depths with an air of
proprietorship. Scotty felt a deep respect rising in his heart.

He had thought he knew the forest as the chipmunks know it, but here it
was in a new and romantic aspect.

"Where are they?" he inquired quite humbly; and, satisfied with his
demeanour, his mentor led the way. Though the royal castle proved to
be only a rock and the other enchanted places equally familiar to
Scotty, she clothed them with such an air of mystery and related such
amazing tales