with new interest.

"Yes," gasped Bennington, astonished at so much feminine knowledge of
firearms.

"Oh! I'd like to see it. I never saw any of those. May I shoot it, just
once?"

"Of course you may. More than once. Shall I come up?"

"No. I'll come down. You sit right still on that rock."

The sunbonnet disappeared, and there ensued a momentary commotion on
the other side of the dike. In an instant the girl came around the
corner, picking her way over the loose blocks of stone. With the
finger-tips of either hand she held the pink starched skirt up,
displaying a neat little foot in a heavy little shoe. Diagonally across
the skirt ran two irregular brown stains. She caught him looking at
them.

"Naughty, naughty!" said she, glancing down at them with a grimace.

She dropped her skirt, and stood up beside him with a pretty shake of
the shoulders.

"Now let's see it," she begged.

She examined the weapon with much interest, throwing down and back the
lever in a manner that showed she was accustomed at least to the
old-style arm.

"How light it is!" she commented, squinting through the sights.
"Doesn't it kick awfully?"

"Not a bit. Smokeless powder, you know."

"Of course. What'll we shoot at?"

Bennington fumbled in his pockets and produced an envelope.

"How's this?" he asked.

She seized it and ran like an antelope--with the same _gliding_
motion--to a tree about thirty paces distant, on which she pinned the
bit of paper. They shot. Bennington hit the paper every time. The girl
missed it once. At this she looked a little vexed.

"You are either very rude or very sincere," was her comment.

"You're the best shot I ever saw----"

"Now don't dare say 'for a girl!'" she interrupted quickly. "What's the
prize?"

"Was this a match?"

"Of course it was, and I insist on paying up."

Bennington considered.

"I think I would like to go to the top of the rock there, and see the
pines, and the skull-stones, and the prairies."

She glanced toward him, knitting her brows. "It is my very own," she
said doubtfully. "I've never let anybody go up there before."

One of the diminutive chipmunks of the hills scampered out from a cleft
in the rocks and perched on a moss-covered log, chattering eagerly and
jerking his tail in the well-known manner of chipmunks.

"Oh, see! see!" she cried, all excitement in a moment. She seized the
rifle, and taking careful aim, fired. The chattering ceased; the
chipmunk d