' to wrap him in while his things are a-dryin', that'll be all
right.'

'Ay, sure, anythin' I've got ye're more than welcome to,' said the
miller. 'I'll niver forget what ye've a-done this day. How I could
ha' faced my son if aught had happened I don't know, an' that's truth.'

He took the scouts into the mill, and then hurried away to the house.
Dick stripped off his dripping clothes, and the comrades wrung out all
the wet they could before they hung them over the kiln.

'I can manage as soon as my shorts are dry,' said Dick. 'I chucked
away the coat and haversack with the spare things in them, and they're
dry now.'

The miller came in with a big blanket, and Dick wrapped himself in it,
while Chippy ran off to collect the traps they had flung aside at the
moment of the rescue. When he came back he began to laugh at sight of
Dick.

'Now, Wolf,' he said, 'if yer 'ad a few feathers to stick in yer hair,
ye'd look just like some big Injun sittin' outside his tent.'

'Outside his wigwam,' grinned Dick. 'Well, it's jolly comfortable
inside a blanket, anyhow. You're pretty wet, Chippy.'

'Yus; the water run on to me a bit off the little gell,' said Chippy.
'I'll stand up to the kiln, and soon get dry.'

The miller had gone away again, and this time he returned with a jug of
steaming tea, two cups and saucers, and a plate heaped high with food.

A drap o' meat an' hot drink will do ye good,' he said, an' ye can peck
away while the clo'es do dry.'

Chippy chuckled. 'How's yer tender conscience?' he murmured to the
Wolf. 'Fair enough for us to tek' this, ain't it?'

'Fair enough?' cried the astonished miller, who had caught the remark.
'Well, what a man ye must think me! I'd give a bite an' a sup to
anybody; an' after what ye've done, I'd pull the house down to please
ye.'

'It's aw' right,' cried the Raven hastily. 'I don't mean wot you mean.
It was only a bit of a joke wi' my pardner.'

'Oh, ay, a joke--well,' said the miller; 'but ye're welcome, an' more
than welcome.'

'How's the little girl coming on?' cried Dick, in order to turn the
subject.

'Bravely, bravely,' cried the old man. 'She'd swallowed a tidy drap o'
water, an' felt pretty queer. But she's comin' round now. How did ye
come to see her?'

Dick related the story of the child's fall, and the old man declared
he'd put more rails to the bridge.

''Twor' the runnin' water carried her beyond herself,' he said. 'Ay,
sure, that wor'