in her face, and
she'll be bright as a new dollar long before we get across."

The look of relief that came to the face of Ralph Harrington was like a
flash of sunshine. A grateful smile lighted his eyes, but instead of
resigning Lina to the stout arms held out by Ben Benson, he gathered her
close to his bosom, saying in a proud voice,

"Why, Ben, I want no help to carry Lina."

Then he bore her down the hill, looking now and then upon her face so
tenderly, that Ben, who was eyeing him all the way with sidelong
glances, made a hideous face to himself, as if to capitulate with his
dignity for wanting to smile at anything so childish.

"Sit down there," said Ben, pointing to the stern of his boat, "sit down
there, Mister Ralph, and kinder ease her down to the seat; your face is
hot as fire a carrying her. Now I'll fill my hat with water and give her
a souse that'll bring the red to her mouth in a jiffy."

"No, no," said Ralph, arresting Ben as he stooped to fill his little
glazed hat, "don't throw it, hold your cap here, Ben, and I'll sprinkle
her face. How pale it is! How like a dear lifeless angel she looks?"

Ben stooped to the water, and Ralph trembling and flushed, bent over the
pale beautiful face on his bosom, closer, closer, till his lips drew the
blood back to hers, and her eyelids began to quiver like shadows on a
white rose.

Ben had slowly risen from the water with the glazed hat dripping between
his two great hands; but when he saw Ralph's position, the good fellow
ducked downward again, and made a terrible splashing in the river, as he
dipped the brimming hat a second time, while that grotesque suppression
of a smile convulsed his hard features.

It was wonderful how long it took Ben to fill his hat this time. One
would have thought him fishing for pearls in the depths of the river, he
was so fastidious in finding the exact current best calculated to
restore a young lady from faintness. When he did arise, everything about
the young people was, to use his nautical expression, ship-shape and
above-board. The color was stealing back to Lina's face, like blushes
from the first flowering of apple blossoms, and a brightness stole from
beneath her half-closed eyelids, that had something softer and deeper
than mere life in it.

"It is not necessary, Ben; she is better, I think," said the young man,
looking half-timidly into the boatman's face. "Don't you think she looks
beauti----I mean, don't you think sh