rstand.

Three or four persons came running towards them with ropes and planks,
while behind came another and larger group with their mother amongst them.
Stella could only hear their voices, and do as they bade her.

"How be 'ee going to get the little maid, now?" said a voice she
recognised as Farmer Minards'; "'er's the awkwardest of the two to get
'old on, by a long way. Hold up yer 'ead, missie dear, don't let yer face
touch the mud."

Stella raised her head as high as she could, but she was so exhausted that
it fell forward again, and she lost consciousness altogether.

"I can save the boy," said a voice, "if you'll give me a rope."
In a moment more a deftly thrown lasso quivered in the air, and falling
over Paul encircled his waist; then, by the aid of planks thrown across
the margin, long, strong arms soon dragged him into safety, and he lay
trembling, but safe, on solid ground, with his mother's arms around him,
and nothing but words of sympathy, and love, and kindness greeting him
instead of the sound scolding he so richly deserved. But she saw he was
in no state to be scolded then.

A few moments later another shout went up. Stella was safe. Paul raised
himself, and called to her as they carried her towards him, but no answer
to his joyful cry came from the limp and senseless little form lying in
Farmer Minards' arms. Her face was as white as the clouds above, her eyes
were closed. Paul gave a great cry of fear. "Stella, Stella," he called
in agony. "Stella, speak! She tried to save me, and--and it is all my
fault, and I've killed her." And he burst into an agony of tears, for he
really thought his sister was dead.

Mrs. Anketell, who had run to her little daughter, quickly came back to
him. "She is not dead," she said soothingly, great tears of thankfulness
in her own eyes. "Thank God, Paul. You cannot thank Him enough for
having spared you both. She has fainted, that is all, dear. Act like a
man now, and be ready to comfort her when she recovers. This is bound to
be a terrible shock to her."

Mrs. Anketell was herself faint and trembling from the shock and the
anxiety; her hands shook visibly as she laid them on Paul's hot brow, and
her head swam so she feared she would have fainted too, but for the sake
of others she made a great effort to control herself, and succeeded.

They laid the little maid on the grass, and loosened her clothes.
The sight of her little hands hanging so helpl