!"

"Come with me," and he ran along the river-side, drawing her with him.
"There, sit down here and look up over Rosemount, towards the wood. Do
you see that ruined castle, all covered with ivy?"

"I don't see anything. Oh, yes, I do now! I can see an old, old tower";
and as she spoke the excited girl leaned backwards towards the river,
and she would certainly have fallen in, if Fani had not caught her and
held her fast.

"There, we will go back to the seat again," he said; "though the ruin
is scarcely visible from here," he added, as they reached the spot; "but
it is safer. It is the most beautiful ruined castle that you can
imagine. It is all covered with ivy, and the stones are moss-grown, and
the gray walls show through in places, and in the setting sun they flame
with crimson; you've no idea how beautiful it is! I saw it once from the
steamboat. It was splendid! Now listen! The last lesson I took, the
teacher asked me whether I was in earnest when I said that I wanted to
be a painter; and I said yes, but that I could never be allowed to; and
I told him just what I have told you. He understood at once; and he said
that I mustn't, of course, do anything to displease Mrs. Stanhope; but
that possibly she might in some way be led to have the same wish. He
advised me to make a drawing of something very beautiful; and he said
he would send it to Duesseldorf, where they do something or other with a
whole lot of drawings, and the best one gets a prize. If mine got a
prize, Mrs. Stanhope might change her mind; and if it didn't, I could
try again. I thought directly of the ruined castle, and how beautiful it
would be to draw! But there's no good view of it except from the middle
of the river, and it's quite impossible for me to get there."

To Emma there was no such word as impossible.

"Of course we can get there, Fani. What a delightful ideal" she cried.
"We can make a trip on the steamboat, and we can see the river, and you
must make a sketch of it as fast as you can."

"Oh, yes! I shall just get a few strokes on the paper, and
then--whizz!--we shall be past it like a flash of lightning. What good
would that do?"

Emma was not to be discouraged. If the only thing needful was a way to
take a sketch from the river, she would set herself to find such a way.

At this moment Fani interrupted her meditations by the exclamation: "Oh,
the bell! the bell!" and she heard the ringing of the supper-bell; and
the two children