ook the basket in her lap and loosened the cover, crooning
softly as she did so. Instantly a whiskered, brown snub-nose,
sniffing and twitching with interrogation, appeared at the edge. A
round brown head, with little round ears and fearless bright dark
eyes, immediately popped over the edge. With a squeak of satisfaction
a fat young woodchuck, nearly full-grown, clambered forth and ran up
on Mandy Ann's shoulder. The bateau, under the influence of the sudden
weight in the stern, floated clear of the gravel and swung softly at
the end of its rope.

Observing that the bateau was afloat, Mandy Ann was delighted. She
felt doubly secure, now, from pursuit. Pulling a muddy carrot from
her pocket she held it up to the woodchuck, which was nuzzling
affectionately at her curls. But the smell of the fresh earth reminded
the little animal of something which he loved even better than
Mandy Ann--even better, indeed, than a juicy carrot. He longed to
get away, for a little while, from the loving but sometimes too
assiduous attention with which his little mistress surrounded
him--to get away and burrow to his heart's content in the cool brown
earth, full of grass-roots. Ignoring the carrot, he clambered down in
his soft, loose-jointed fashion, from Mandy Ann's shoulder, and ran
along the gunwale to the bow. When he saw that he could not reach
shore without getting into the water, which he loathed, he grumbled
squeakingly, and kept bobbing his round head up and down, as if he
contemplated making a jump for it.

At these symptoms Mandy Ann, who had been eyeing him, called to him
severely. "Naughty!" she cried. "Come back this very instant, sir!
You'd jes' go an' tell Granny on me! Come right back to your muzzer
this instant!" At the sound of her voice the little animal seemed to
think better of his rashness. The flashing and rippling of the water
daunted him. He returned to Mandy Ann's side and fell to gnawing
philosophically at the carrot which she thrust under his nose.

This care removed, Mandy Ann took an irregular bundle out of the
basket. It was tied up in a blue-and-white handkerchief. Untying it
with extreme care, as if the contents were peculiarly precious, she
displayed a collection of fragments of many-coloured glass and
gay-painted china. Gloating happily over these treasures, which
flashed like jewels in the sun, she began to sort them out and arrange
them with care along the nearest thwart of the bateau. Mandy Ann was