hand down to
the boy.

"Get hold! Grab me!" she called, gaspingly.

"I--I'll pull you in," he replied, in a strangled tone.

"Do what I tell you!" she cried, angrily.

She flung herself farther out just as his left arm was unhooked from the
inflated tire. She seized his wrist; he had presence of mind enough to
seize hers in return.

"Let go of the tire!" she sang out to the chauffeur, and he obeyed.

He was a strong young man. As the tire went whirling down the stream he
drew them both up the bank--the girl first, clinging with desperation to
the wrist of the half-drowned boy.

Wet, spattered, with mud, and exhausted, Nancy got a footing on firm
ground once more. The chauffeur grabbed at the boy's other arm, and he
was quickly lying on the bank, too.

"It--it almost got me!" gasped the boy.

His face was streaked with mud, and he was altogether a sorry spectacle.
But through it all he had clung to the bunch of water-lilies.

"Here! Take 'em!" he panted, thrusting the blooms into Nancy's hand.
"You--you're all right! Say! wha-what's your name----"

Nancy heard the other girls coming down the path now. The danger was
over and she suddenly realized that she must look a perfect fright.

"N-never mind! Thanks!" she blurted out, and turning sharply, dashed
into the cover of the thicket and was almost instantly out of sight--out
of sound, as well.

But she was so excited that she did not think again how she looked until
she appeared before Miss Trigg.

The short-sighted teacher looked up at her--stared, evidently without
identifying her charge for the moment--and then gave voice.

"Nancy! Nancy Nelson! Whatever have you been doing to yourself?"

"I--I----"

Nancy had already heard the motor get under way. She knew that the boy
and his friends were now out of hearing, or reach.

"Aren't these lilies pretty?" she asked, holding out the flowers as a
peace-offering to Miss Trigg.

"_What?_" screamed the teacher, getting up nimbly, and backing away from
the mud-bedaubed figure of the girl. "Your feet are wet! Did--did you
_dare_ get into such a mess, just to get those--those _weeds_?"

Nancy nodded. It was true. Her bedrabblement had been the forerunner of
the gift of flowers from the boy.

"Well! of all things!" gasped Miss Trigg.

"I--I believe you've taken leave of your senses. Why--why, whatever
will people think of you, going home? We--we can't ride in the car. They
wouldn't let you get on. And I'd