o come a few steps farther and tackle me,
come ahead! I can take it or return it, as I choose.'"

"Go on!" said the Princess.

"That's all," said Laddie, "or at least almost all."

"Did he strike?"

"He did not. He stared at me a second, and then he rode around me; but
he was making forceful remarks as he passed about 'country clods,' and
there was an interesting one about a 'gross clown.' What you read made
me think of it, that is all."

The Princess stared into the beech branches for a time and then she
said: "I will ask your pardon for him. He always had a domineering
temper, and trouble he had lately has almost driven him mad; he is
scarcely responsible at times. I hesitate about making him angry."

"I think perhaps," said Laddie, "I would have done myself credit if I
had recognized that, and given him the road, when he made a point of
claiming it."

"Indeed no!" cried the Princess. "To be beaten at the game he started
was exactly what he needed. If you had turned from his way, he would
have considered you a clod all his life. Since you made him go around,
it may possibly dawn on him that you are a man. You did the very best
thing."

Then she began to laugh, and how she did laugh.

"I would give my allowance for a quarter to have seen it," she cried.
"I must hurry home and tell mother."

"Does your mother know about me?" he demanded. "Does she know that you
come here?"

The Princess arose and stood very tall and straight.

"You may beg my pardon or cease to know me," she said. "Whatever led
you to suppose that I would know or meet you without my mother's
knowledge?"

Then she started toward the entrance.

"One minute!" cried Laddie.

A leap carried him to her side. He caught her hands and held them
tight, and looked straight into her eyes. Then he kissed her hands
over and over. I thought from the look on her face he might have
kissed her cheek if he had dared risk it; but he didn't seem to notice.
Then she stooped and kissed me, and turned toward home, while Laddie
and I crossed the woods to the west road, and went back past the
schoolhouse. I was so tired Laddie tied the strings together and hung
my shoes across his shoulders and took me by the arm the last mile.

All of them were at home when we got there, and Miss Amelia came to the
gate to meet us. She was mealy-mouthed and good as pie, not at all as
I had supposed she would be. I wonder what Laddie said to her. But
then