ensued, in
which the foam flew left and right, and the smooth water was churned
into a thousand eddies.

"I am the Plesiosaurus!" cried Hildegarde, giving a mighty splash.
"Beware! beware! my flashing eyes, my floating hair!"

"Shade of Coleridge, forgive her!" exclaimed Rose, dashing a return
volley of pearly spray. "And the Plesiosaurus had no hair; otherwise, I
may say I have often observed the resemblance. Well, I am the
Ichthyosaurus! You remember the picture in the 'Journey to the Centre of
the Earth'?"

Hildegarde replied by plunging toward her, rearing her head in as
serpentine a manner as she could command; and after a struggle the two
mighty saurians went down together in a whirlpool of frothing waves.
They came up quite out of breath, and sat laughing and panting on the
willow root, which in one place curved out in such a way as to make a
charming seat.

"Look at Grandfather Bullfrog!" said Rose. "He is shocked at our
behavior. We are big enough to know better, aren't we, sir?" She
addressed with deep respect an enormous brown bullfrog, who had come up
to see what was the matter, and who sat on a stone surveying the pair
with a look of indignant amazement.

"Coax! coax! Brek-ke-ke-kex!" cried Hildegarde. "That is the only
sentence of frog-talk I know. It is in a story of Hans Andersen's. Do
you see, Rose? He understands; he winked in a most expressive manner.
Whom did you get for a wife, when you found Tommelise had run away from
you; and what became of the white butterfly?"

The bullfrog evidently resented this inquiry into his most private
affairs, and disappeared with an indignant "Glump!"

"Now you shall see me perform the great Nose and Toe Act!" said
Hildegarde, jumping from the seat and swimming to the end of the wharf.
"I promised to show it to you, you remember." She seized the great toe
of her left foot with the right hand, and grasping her nose with the
left, threw herself backward into the water.

Rose waited in breathless suspense for what seemed an interminable time;
but at length there was a glimmer under the water, then a break, and up
came the dauntless diver, gasping but triumphant, still grasping the
nose and toe.

"I didn't--let go!" she panted. "I didn't--half--think I could do it, it
is so long since I tried."

"I thought you would never come up again!" cried Rose. "It is a dreadful
thing to do. You might as well be the Great Northern Diver at once. Are
you sure there isn'