There are
times when I feel the stirrings of my wild nature."

Mrs. Budlong regarded him attentively. She never had thought of him as a
faun but now she noticed that his ears _were_ peculiar.

Nobody could have been more obliging and interesting than Mr. Hicks as
he guided her to the beaver dam and explained its construction. It had
long since been abandoned by the industrious animals that had built it,
but their work had been so well done that it was in as good condition as
when they had left it.

There was nothing to fear from beavers; anyway, Hicks assured her, he
never had known a beaver to attack anybody. In this isolated spot she
was as safe from intrusion as if she were in her own bathroom, and,
after tramping down a spot in the brush for her to stand on, he went
away declaring that he was sure she would have an experience she always
would remember.

Left alone, Mrs. Budlong felt of the water. It was, as Hicks had said,
even warmer than tepid from standing--an ideal temperature. The brush
grew high around the pond formed by the back-water and made a perfect
shelter. No fear of prying eyes need disturb her.

Then a daring thought came to her which made her black eyes sparkle.
Suppose she did not wear any bathing suit! What an adventure to relate
to her intimate friends when she returned to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania!
It laid hold of her imaginative mind, and the result was that Mrs.
Budlong hung her suit on a bush and went in _au naturelle_.

She waded in cautiously, for the bottom was soft and oozy and there were
little patches of green floating on the surface that she did not so much
like the looks of. Otherwise conditions were perfect, and Mrs. Budlong
submerged like a submarine when she reached the middle of it. She came
up and stood looking at the sky above her, enjoying the feeling of the
sunshine on her skin, and the soft, warm breeze that caressed her. She
smiled at an interested blue-jay, then submerged again, deeper, and the
tide rose so that the water lapped bushes and pebbles that had not been
wet all summer.

Her smile grew wider as she thought what the others were missing, and
was considering how much she dared embellish the adventure without being
detected, when, suddenly, a look of horror came to her face and stayed
there, while screams that sounded more like the screeches of a lynx or
mountain-lion than those of a human being scared the blue-jay and
brought those in camp up standing. Pierci