gly. "I love to read what you write and I never
make fun of it, you know that. Please do." After a little more
coaxing Migwan relented and handed Hinpoha the page she had just
written. Hinpoha spread it out on her knee and read:

"I was sitting in the woods rather pensively the other day when I
suddenly became aware of two merry eyes fixed on me from the
ground beside me. There was something so irresistibly roguish in
their expression that my sadness leaked out of me unceremoniously.
As I looked the eyes disappeared behind a leaf, only to appear an
instant later on the other side, and a tiny, round red face nodded
cheerfully at me. Visions of wood sprites went through my head and
I sat perfectly still, so as not to frighten him away. He had
retired behind his leaf after that last nod, but as I made no sound
he soon looked out again to see if I was still there. This time I
got a good look at him. He was no elf, but a berry; a brilliant
round red berry with two little holes in him that looked just like
eyes. 'Such a cheerful berry, I thought, 'deserves a whole face,'
so I made him a nose and mouth with my pencil. When last I saw him
he was still playing peek-a-boo among the leaves, enjoying the world
for all he was worth."

"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Hinpoha, when she had read that far,
"you must let the other girls read this. Wouldn't you like me to
illustrate it for you? I'm just itching to paint that little red
berry."

"That will be fine," said Migwan, and Hinpoha sped after her
paint box. Hinpoha could not have written that little sketch if
her life depended upon it, but her talent with the brush was
unmistakable. With a few deft strokes she pictured Migwan
sitting in the woods and beside her the little red berry with its
comical face. Now it was Migwan's turn to admire. Hinpoha went
on to the next paragraph:

"I walked on through the wood, admiring the little green moss
stars that twinkled up from the ground. 'Oh, I must get a closer
view,' I said, half aloud, and immediately my wish was granted,
for a pine tree put out his foot and tripped me and I fell with
my face right in the moss."

"How I should like to have seen you!" laughed Hinpoha as she
painted Migwan sprawling on the ground. "Haven't you some more
stuff I can illustrate? There's such a lot of paint mixed up.
Oh, here's another one," she said, turning over the pages:

"I am sitting in the woods near Sandy Beach. Have been gather