tween the two damsels, and seemed quite as
content with Betsy's lively sallies as with Abby's gentler, more
dignified conversation. As for the two gay youths, Thomas Hinkson and
William Smith, who sat opposite, if Abner thought of them at all, it
was only to pity them that the width of the table-cloth divided them
from the angelic being at his right; although they had for their
companions, Molly Trabue and Sally Bledsoe, who in their own buxom
style were accounted beauties.

Later, the young people started on a ramble through the woods. Dudley
offered his arm to Miss Patterson, thus separating them in a measure
from the rest of the company, who finally joined other groups of
strollers, until at last he found himself alone with her.

The air, odorous with the elusive fragrance of bark and crisping leaf,
breathed a delicious languor. The summer green of the chinquapin burrs
had given place to a richer coloring; the sumac and blackberry bushes
flushed red in the sunlight. Not even when clad in the tender freshness
of springtime beauty could the woods have been a more favorable place
in which to indulge in tender fancies than now when panoplied in
crimson and gold and burnished bronze, the scarlet fire of the maple
and the gaudy yellow of the hickory contrasting with the sober brown of
the beech, the dull red of the oak, and the dark gloss of the walnut. A
redbird arose from the grass at their approach and circled away into
the blue ether, and a rabbit, startled by the crackling of a twig,
scattered away into the deeper undergrowth.

Presently, Dudley and Abby reached a shady spot where a large spring,
clear as crystal, bubbled up from a hillside cleft. Outside this leafy
nook, myriads of gnats and bright-winged flies buzzed in the sunlight;
the soft breeze murmured faintly through the treetops, and the far-off
echo of laughter and merry shouts of other strollers accentuated the
quiet of this little retreat. They seated themselves upon the gnarled
roots of a big tree that guarded the spring. Abby, untying her bonnet,
tossed it upon the grass, and the sunlight glinted upon her lavender
gown and gave a warmer radiance to the wavy masses of her hair.

"To-day is not the first time I have seen you, Miss Patterson," Abner
said presently; "I recognized you the instant I saw you in church this
morning."

"Indeed!" she exclaimed, looking at him searchingly. "Are you not
mistaken? I have no recollection of ever seeing you befor