n the
leaves struck her, and she called out, laughing--

"If it were not so late in the fall, Ralph, I should think there was a
locust singing in the leaves."

That moment Ben, who had tied his boat, came scrambling up the hill. He
took his place by Ralph upon a shelf of the rock, and began to sniff the
air with his flat, pug nose, like a watch-dog scenting an enemy. The
noise which interested Lina was over now, and he only heard her
observation about the locust.

"Ain't there a strong smell of honey about here, Mister Ralph?" he
said, looking anxiously around; "something between the scent of an old
bee-hive and a wasp's nest?"

"There is a singular scent I fancy, Ben," answered the young man,
following Lina with his eyes. "Not disagreeable, though!"

"Do you begin to guess what it means?" inquired Ben, anxiously.

"Not at all," answered Ralph, waving his hand and smiling upon Lina, who
held up a branch of richly shaded leaves she had just taken from a maple
bough, laughing gaily as the main branch swept rustling back to its
place. "Not at all, Ben; it may be the frost-bitten fern-leaves--they
sometimes give out a delicious odor. Everything in the woods takes a
pleasant scent at this season of the year, I believe."

Lina, who was restless as a bird, changed her position again, and the
movement was followed by another quick, hissing sound from a neighboring
rock.

"So that is Miss Lina's idea of a locust, is it," muttered Ben, looking
sharply around. "If that's a locust, Mister Ralph, the animal has got a
tremenjus cold, for he's hoarse--yes, hoarse as a rattlesnake--do you
hear, Mister Ralph? Hoarse as a rattlesnake!"

Ben was intensely excited, and looked eagerly around, searching for
danger.

"Look!" he whispered, after a moment; "the sunshine on the red leaves
dazzles the eyesight--but look stiddy on the rock there, where the green
moss is fluttered over with them red leaves--don't you see the moss
kinder a stirrin'?"

Ralph looked, and there, about six feet from Lina, he saw what seemed at
first a mass of gorgeous foliage, quivering upon the green moss, for a
glow of warm sunshine fell athwart it and dazzled his eyes for the
moment. But anxiety cleared his vision, and he saw that the glowing
mass was a serpent drawn from a cleft of the rock by the warm sun.
Disturbed by Lina's approach, he was that instant coiling itself up for
a spring. His head was erect, his tongue quivered like a thread of
flame,