one a wish to float in them on warm
summer mornings and evenings, along flower-covered banks of the river,
where the trees dip their branches into the water, where the rushes are
continually rustling in the breeze, and where the swift kingfishers
dart about like flashes of blue lightning.

The whole family looked at them with great respect.

"They are indeed two swell boats," Monsieur Dufour repeated gravely,
and he examined them closely, commenting on them like a connoisseur. He
had been in the habit of rowing in his younger days, he said, and when
he had that in his hands--and he went through the action of pulling the
oars--he did not care a fig for anybody. He had beaten more than one
Englishman formerly at the Joinville regattas. He grew quite excited at
last, and offered to make a bet that in a boat like that he could row
six miles an hour, without exerting himself.

"Lunch is ready," said the waitress, appearing at the entrance to the
boathouse. They all hurried off, but two young men were already
lunching at the best place, which Madame Dufour had chosen in her mind
as her seat. No doubt they were the owners of the skiffs, for they were
dressed in boating costume. They were stretched out, almost lying on
chairs, and were sunburned, and had on flannel trousers and thin cotton
jerseys, with short sleeves, which showed their bare arms, which were
as strong as blacksmiths'. They were two strong young fellows, who
thought a great deal of their vigor, and who showed in all their
movements that elasticity and grace of limb which can only be acquired
by exercise, and which is so different to the awkwardness with which
the same continual work stamps the mechanic.

They exchanged a rapid smile when they saw the mother, and then a look
on seeing the daughter.

"Let us give up our place," one of them said; "it will make us
acquainted with them."

The other got up immediately, and holding his black and red boating-cap
in his hand, he politely offered the ladies the only shady place in the
garden. With many excuses they accepted, and so that it might be more
rural, they sat on the grass, without either tables or chairs.

The two young men took their plates, knives, forks, etc., to a table a
little way off, and began to eat again. Their bare arms, which they
showed continually, rather embarrassed the young girl, who even
pretended to turn her head aside, and not to see them. But Madame
Dufour, who was rather bolder, te