the field beyond.

"I'll beat you there!" shouted Melvin; and "You can't do it!" yelled
Gerald; while Chloe clasped her hands in dismay, murmuring:

"Looks lak dere won't be much cweam lef' in de bucket if it comes
same's it goes!"

That visit to the farmhouse, short though it was, gave a turn to
affairs on the Water Lily. The farmer told the lads of a little branch
a few miles further on, which would be an ideal place for such a craft
to anchor, for "a day, a week, or a lifetime."

"It's too fur off for them village loafers to bother any. You won't
have to anchor in midstream to get shet of 'em, as would be your only
chance where you be now. I was down with the crowd, myself, last night
an' I was plumb scandalized the way some folks acted. No, sir, I
wasn't aboard the Water Lily nor set foot to be. I come home and told
my wife: 'Lizzie,' says I, 'them water-travellers'll have a lot o'
trouble with the Corner-ites and Jimpson-ites. It's one thing to be
civil an' another to be imperdent.' I 'lowed to Lizzie, I says: 'I
ain't volunteerin' my opinion till it's asked, but when it is I'll
just mention Deer-Copse on the Ottawotta Run. Ain't a purtier spot on
the whole map o' Maryland 'an that is. Good boatin', good fishin',
good springs in the woods, good current to the Run and no malary.
Better 'n that--good neighbors on the high ground above.' That's what
I says to Lizzie."

Jim's attention was caught by the name Deer-Copse. He thought Mrs.
Calvert would like that, it was so much like her own Deerhurst on the
Hudson. Also, he had overheard her saying to Mrs. Bruce: "I do wish we
could find some quiet stream, right through the heart of green woods,
where there'd be no danger and no intruders." From this friendly
farmer's description it seemed as if that bit of forest on the
Ottawotta would be an ideal camping-ground.

There followed questions and answers. Yes, the Water Lily might be
hauled there by a mule walking on the bank, as far as the turn into
the branch. After that, poling and hauling, according to the depth of
the water and what the Lily's keel "drawed," or required. They could
obtain fresh vegetables real near.

"I'm runnin' a farm that-a-way, myself; leastwise me an' my brother
together. He's got no kind of a wife like Lizzie. A poor, shiftless
creatur' with more babies under foot 'an she can count, herself. One
them easy-goin' meek-as-Moses sort. Good? Oh! yes, real good. Too
good. Thinks more o' meetin