the lake, and at the edge of the lake there is a waterfall, and
over it we will go, and, splash! splash! splash! I took a girl there
once; she was my governess, but I was quite tired of her, and knew the
fright she would get in when I took her out in the boat. I never take
those who are dead sick with fright; but I took her, and she was nearly
drowned--not quite, for I can swim in almost any water, and I held her
up and brought her safe to land. But she left that evening. She was a
poor thing, absolutely determined to stop. I hated her the moment I saw
her face, it was so white and pasty; and she wasn't at all interesting.
She couldn't tell stories; she didn't believe in changelings. She had
never read the _Arabian Nights_. She knew hardly any history; but she
was great at dates. Oh, she was a horror! She was rather fond of
grammar, too, and odds and ends of things that aren't a bit interesting.
And needlework! Oh, the way she worried me to death with her needlework!
She did criss-cross and cross-criss, and every other stitch that was
ever invented. So I said to myself, 'Miss Carter must go,' and I took
her out on a rather stormy day, and we got into mid-current. Mother and
the servants came shouting to us to get out of it; but of course we
couldn't, and poor Miss Carter, how she did shriek! And I said, 'We are
certain to go over the fall; but we won't get drowned, for I won't let
you, if you will promise faithfully to give notice the very instant you
get back to the house.' Oh, poor thing, didn't she promise! Her very
teeth were chattering. She was in a most awful state. Now, we can go
over the waterfall to-day if you don't mind. You wouldn't be frightened,
would you?"

"Frightened? Not I! But I don't intend to go over the waterfall, all the
same."

"Now, what on earth do you mean by that remark?" asked Irene.

"I am quite as strong as you, and if it comes to a fight I can take the
oars. The current is not yet very strong; but I wish to get out of it,
for the see-sawing up and down makes me a little bit sea-sick. I am not
your governess. I am just a girl who has come to live at the Merrimans',
and I can make myself very pleasant to you if you make yourself pleasant
to me, or I can take not the slightest notice of you. There are heaps
and heaps of other girls about. There are all the Singletons."

"Oh, for primness!" began Irene. "Oh, those Green Leaves! they are
positively detestable. But you shall have your way, Ro