s then that she made the remark about the inventor of
tan khaki being a benefactor of humanity.

Slim tactfully agreed that the grass stains added to the artistic effect
of the dress, and added that he thought tan and green were Katherine's
special colors. It had just occurred to Slim that Katherine might be
persuaded to make a pan of fudge while they waited for the others to
return. He leaned back at a comfortable angle and waited for her to
digest the compliment. The lake seemed enchanted today, an iridescent
pool where fairies bathed. The water had a pale, silvery green tinge,
with here and there a great bed of deepest purple encircling a center
of bright blue--those contrasts of color which are the marvel of our
northern lakes.

"Where do those purple places come from?" asked Katherine, with a
rapturous sigh for the sheer loveliness of it. "There isn't a cloud in
the sky to throw a shadow." To Katherine's eyes, accustomed to unending
stretches of prairie, browning under a scorching sun, this blue, cool
lake was like a dream of Eden.

"Maybe the color comes from below," said Slim, yawning as the light on
the water made him sleepy again. "Wouldn't I like to go down underneath
the water and lie there, though," he continued dreamily. "On a bed of
nice soft sand that the fellows couldn't make collapse, and where you
couldn't come along and shove burrs down my neck."

"It was an acorn," corrected Katherine serenely.

"Wouldn't I have a grand sleep, though," continued Slim, not heeding her
interruption. "I'd stay there a week; maybe a month."

"Yes," said Katherine, "and come up all covered with moss and with
binnacles hanging all over you."

Slim suddenly sat upright and shouted. "Binnacles!" he repeated. "That's
good. You mean _barnacles_, don't you? Glory! Wouldn't I look great
with binnacles hanging all over me!" And Slim leaned against the tree at
his back and laughed until he was red in the face.

"Well, take whichever you please," said Katherine with dignity, and
turned her back on his mirth.

Slim saw his dream of fudge fading and realized that he had made a
misstep in laughing so loudly. "Don't get mad," he said pleadingly to
the back of her head, "I won't tell any of the others what you said. But
it was so funny I _had_ to laugh," he said in self-defense.

Katherine kept her head turned the other way and remained deaf to his
apologies. Slim sat back and looked sad. He hadn't meant to offend
Katherine