re
to go down the river to-day. Hear the birds?"

"Hear them?" cried Rob. "Why, they are ten times as lively to-day."

"That they are, sir. They're having a regular feast on the things
washed out of their holes by the rain. As for the flowers, Mr Brazier
will have no end of beauties to pick. They'll come out like magic after
this rain. He won't want to go on to-day."

"Yes, I shall, Naylor," said Brazier, stepping out from under the
awning. "We may as well go on, beautiful as all this is. Ah," he
continued as he gazed round and took a long, deep breath, "what
gloriously elastic air! What a paradise! Rob, my lad, there can be
nothing fairer on earth."

"Don't you be in a hurry, sir!" growled Shaddy. "I'm going to show you
places as beat this hollow."

"Impossible, my man!" said Brazier.

"Well, sir, you wait and see. Bit o' breakfast before we start?"

"Yes," said Brazier, and the men just then stirred the fire together,
and called from the shore that the water was boiling and the cakes in
the embers baked.

The sensation of delicious comparative coolness after the storm as they
sat under the trees, and the fragrance borne from myriads of flowering
plants was so delightful to the senses that Rob looked with dismay at
the idea of leaving the place for the present. The thirsty ground had
drunk up the rain, and only a little moisture remained where the sun
could not penetrate, while the sky was of a vivid blue, without a speck
of cloud to be seen.

But, though Brazier did not notice it, there was a jarring element in
the concord of that glorious morning, for the young Italian was heavy
and gloomy, and hardly spoke during the _alfresco_ meal.

"What's that?" said Rob suddenly as there was a slight rustling among
the boughs and undergrowth a short distance away.

"Might be anything, sir," said Shaddy. "Some little animal--monkey
praps. It won't hurt us. Maybe it's a snake."

In spite of an effort to seem unconcerned, Rob could not resist the
desire to glance at his comrade at the mention of the monkey, and, as he
fully expected, even though he could not check it, there was Joe glaring
at him fiercely.

Rob dropped his eyes, feeling that Joe fully believed he was doing it to
annoy him, and that Shaddy had the same intention.

Meanwhile the sound had ceased, and was forgotten by the time they were
all on board once more, the rope which had moored them to a tree being
cast off.

"Now, my lads,