gh. Arising from the sharp-pointed rock that had served him for
a pivot on which to eat his dinner, he stumbled, fell and rolled over
and over down the bank, and into the river, with a tremendous splash.

Every one jumped up in consternation.

"Oh, Clem! Jo!" shrieked Celeste, wringing her hands, and rushing down
to the water's edge. "Save him! Save my darling Ralfy!"

"Ralfy," however, was equal to saving his own life this time. The water
was only up to his waist, and he had already picked himself up and was
wading ashore.

"I--I am all right!" he said looking up at his anxious friends with a
reassuring smile. "I--I am used to it, you know!"

As Clem assisted him up the bank, the thought came into Cyn's head, why
would it not be a good idea to push Nat--accidentally--into the river,
so Clem might rescue her, and thus bring about that much to be desired
crisis? But remembering that water would run the colors of her dress,
and farther, how dreadfully unbecoming it was to be wet--a fact fully
demonstrated by the present appearance of Quimby--Cyn rejected the idea
as not exactly feasible.

They left Quimby drying on a sunny bank, with Celeste as guardian angel,
love, and the remains of the repast to cheer her, and the consciousness
that his clothes were shrinking on him as they dried, to divert _him_, and
wandered off through the woods, and over the hills, gathering on the way
so many flowers and green things, that Cyn declared they looked like
Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane.

At first they were all together, then straggled apart; Mrs. Simonson
being the first dereliction, as she was not quite equal to climbing as
fast as the young people. Thus it came about that Nattie found herself
alone with Clem, and suddenly stopping, with some embarrassment, but
steadily, said,

"There is something I wish to say to you. You have spoken several times
of late about my 'snubbing' you. I want to say, I have not intentionally
done so; that I have the same--the same friendship for you as always,
and that I wish you every happiness. What may have appeared to you as
strange or cold in my conduct of late, is due to secrets of my own."

Clem look at her scrutinizingly, as she spoke, and the flowers he had
gathered fell unheeded from his hands.

"It has never been _my_ wish that any coldness should come between us; you
know that, Nattie," he replied earnestly. "From our first acquaintance,
the old acquaintance over the wire, you hav