happy. She put her arms round the most beautiful
elm-tree, and gave it a little hug, just to thank it for being so
stately and graceful, and for bending its branches over her so lovingly.
Then a butterfly came fluttering by. It was a Camberwell Beauty, and
Hildegarde followed it about a little as it hovered lazily from one
daisy to another.

"Last year at this time," she said, thinking aloud, "I didn't know what
a Camberwell Beauty was. I didn't know any butterflies at all; and if
any one had said 'Fritillary' to me, I should have thought it was
something to eat." This disgraceful confession was more than the Beauty
could endure, and he fluttered away indignant.

"I don't wonder!" said the girl. "But you'd better take care, my dear. I
know you now, and I don't _think_ Bubble has more than two of your kind
in his collection. I promised to get all the butterflies and moths I
could for the dear lad, and if you are too superior, I may begin with
you."

At this moment a faint creak fell on her ear, coming from the direction
of the garden. "As of a wheelbarrow!" she said.
"Jeremiah!--boat!--river!--_now_ I know what I was wanting to do." She
ran round to the garden; and there, to be sure, was Jeremiah, wheeling
off a huge load of weeds.

"Oh, Jeremiah!" said Hildegarde, eagerly, "is the--do you think the boat
is safe?"

[Illustration: "'DO SAY IT'S ALL RIGHT, JEREMIAH!'"]

Jeremiah put down his load and looked at her with sad surprise. "The
boat?" he repeated. "She's all safe! I was down to the wharf this
mornin'. Nobody's had her out, 's I know of."

"Oh, I didn't mean that!" said Hildegarde, laughing. "I mean, is she
safe for me to go in? Miss Bond said that I could go out on the river,
if _you_ said it was all right. _Do_ say it's all right, Jeremiah!"

Jeremiah never smiled, but his melancholy lightened several shades.
"She's right enough," he said,--"the boat. She isn't hahnsome, but she's
stiddy 's a rock. _She_ don't like boats, any way o' the world, but I'll
take ye down and get her out for ye."

Rightly conjecturing that the last "her" referred to the boat,
Hildegarde gladly followed the Ancient Mariner down the path that sloped
from the garden, through a green pasture, round to the river-bank. Here
she found the boat-house, whose roof she had seen from her window, and
a gray wharf with moss-grown piers. The tide was high, and it took
Jeremiah only a few minutes to pull the little green boat out, and set