like to catch one of the smallest and carry it
home to her little baby-brother, all at once a soft shadow fell upon the
water, and the scented wind blew her smooth hair all into her eyes, and
as she put up both hands in a hurry to pull it away, she heard something
like a whisper close to her ear, saying, "_Twice! twice!_" and just then
the trailing branch of a tree swept over the turf, and filled the whole
air with a storm of blossoms, and she heard the same low whisper
repeated close at her ear, saying, "_Twice! twice!_" and then she
happened to look down into the water,--and what do you think she saw
there?

"Goody gracious, mamma! is that you?" said poor little Ruth; and up she
jumped, screaming louder than ever, and looking all about her, and
calling, "Mamma, mamma! I see you, mamma! you needn't hide, mamma!" But
no mamma was to be found.

"Well, if that isn't the strangest thing!" said little Ruth, at last,
after listening a few minutes, on looking all round everywhere, and up
into the trees, and away off down the river-path, and then toward the
house. "If I didn't think I saw my dear good mamma's face in the water,
as plain as day, and if I didn't hear something whisper in my ear and
say, "_Twice! twice!_"--and then she stopped, and held her breath, and
listened again,--"if I didn't hear it as plain as I ever heard anything
in my life, then my name isn't Ruth Page, that's all, nor Teenty-Tawnty
neither!" And then she stopped, and began to feel very unhappy and
sorrowful; for she remembered how her mother had cautioned her never to
go near the river, nor into the woods alone, and how she had promised
her mother many and many a time never to do so, never, never! And then
the tears came into her eyes, and she began to wish herself away from
the haunted spot, where she could kneel down and say her prayers; and
then she looked up to the sky, and then down into the still water, and
then she thought she would just go and take one more peep,--only
one,--just to see if the dear little fishes had got over their fright,
and then she would run home to her mother, and tell her how forgetful
she had been, and how naughty, and ask her to give her something that
would make her remember her promises. Poor thing! little did she know
how deep the water was, nor how wonderfully she had escaped! once, once!
twice, twice! and still she ventured a third time.

Well and so--don't you think, she crept along, crept along to the very
edg