w that they almost touched the water. It was very still in
these woods. I heard nothing but the gently rustling leaves, the faint
buzzing in the air, and an occasional tiny splash made by some small
fish skimming near the surface of the stream. When I sat down on the
root of the tree, I intended to think, reflect, make plans, determine
what I should do next; but I did nothing of the sort. I simply sat and
drank in the loveliness of this woodland scene.

The stream curved away from me on either hand, and the short stretch of
it which I could see to the left seemed to come out of the very heart of
the woods. Suddenly I heard in this direction a faint regular sound in
the water, as if some animal were swimming. I could not see anything,
but as the sounds grew stronger I knew that it must be approaching. I
did not know much of the aquatic animals in this region; perhaps it
might be an otter, a muskrat, I knew not what. But, whatever it was, I
wanted to see it, and, putting down my cigar, I slipped softly behind
the tree at whose foot I had been sitting.

Now the swimming object was in view, coming rapidly toward me down the
middle of the stream. There was but little of it above the water, and
the shadows were so heavy that I could see nothing but a dark point,
with a bright ripple glancing away from it on either side. Nearer and
nearer it came into the better lighted portion of the stream. It was not
a small animal. The ripples it made were strong, and ran out in long
lines; its strokes were vigorous; the head that I saw grew larger and
larger. Steadily it came on; it reached the spot in the clear light of
the sun. It was the head of a human swimmer. On the side nearest me, I
could see, under the water, the strokes of a dark-clad arm. Above the
water was only a face, turned toward me and upward. A mass of long hair
swept away from it, its blue eyes gazed dreamily into the treetops; for
a moment the sunbeams touched its features. My heart stopped
beating,--it was the face of Sylvia.

Another stroke and it had passed into the shadow. The silvery ripples
came from it to me, losing themselves against the shore. It passed on
and on, away from me. I made one step from behind the tree; then
suddenly stopped. On went the head and upturned face, touched once more
by a gleam of light, and then it disappeared around a little bluff
crowned with a mass of shrubbery and vines. I listened, breathless; the
sounds of the strokes died away