words Miss Cotton boldly drew off her gloves, and put them in
her pocket.

The young girls, slim in their blues flannel skirts and their broad
white canvas belts, went and came over the rocks. There were some
children in the party, who were allowed to scream uninterruptedly in the
games which they began to play as soon as they found their feet after
getting out of the wagons.

Some of the gentlemen drove a stake into the beach, and threw stones at
it, to see which could knock off the pebble balanced on its top. Several
of the ladies joined them in the sport, and shrieked and laughed when
they made wild shots with the missiles the men politely gathered for
them.

Alice had remained with Mavering to help the hostess of the picnic
lay the tables, but her mother had followed those who went down to
the beach. At first Mrs. Pasmer looked on at the practice of the
stone-throwers with disapproval; but suddenly she let herself go in
this, as she did in other matters that her judgment condemned, and began
to throw stones herself; she became excited, and made the wildest shots
of any, accepting missiles right and left, and making herself dangerous
to everybody within a wide circle. A gentleman who had fallen a victim
to her skill said, "Just wait, Mrs. Pasmer, till I get in front of the
stake."

The men became seriously interested, and worked themselves red and hot;
the ladies soon gave it up, and sat down on the sand and began to talk.
They all owned themselves hungry, and from time to time they looked
up anxiously at the preparations for lunch on the ledge, where white
napkins were spread, with bottles at the four corners to keep them from
blowing away. This use of the bottles was considered very amusing; the
ladies tried to make jokes about it, and the desire to be funny spread
to certain of the men who had quietly left off throwing at the stake
because they had wrenched their shoulders; they succeeded in being
merry. They said they thought that coffee took a long time to boil.

A lull of expectation fell upon all; even Mavering sat down on the rocks
near the fire, and was at rest a few minutes, by order of Miss Anderson,
who said that the sight of his activity tired her to death.

"I wonder why always boiled ham at a picnic!" said the lady who took a
final plate of it from a basket. "Under the ordinary conditions, few of
us can be persuaded to touch it."

"It seems to be dear to nature, and to nature's children," said