uation that he yielded to its charm, and did not go at
once. The moonlight found bright threads in her wavy hair; it shone
caressingly on her quiet face, and tried to steal under the downcast
lashes.

Joe made a movement to rise with her, when she muttered indistinctly
as if speaking to some one. He remembered then she had once told him
that she talked in her sleep, and how greatly it annoyed her. He
might hear something more with which to tease her; so he listened.

"Yes--uncle--I will go--Kate, we must--go. . ."

Another interval of silence, then more murmurings. He distinguished
his own name, and presently she called clearly, as if answering some
inward questioner.

"I--love him--yes--I love Joe--he has mastered me. Yet I wish he
were--like Jim--Jim who looked at me--so--with his deep eyes--and
I. . . ."

Joe lifted her as if she were a baby, and carrying her down to the
raft, gently laid her by her sleeping sister.

The innocent words which he should not have heard were like a blow.
What she would never have acknowledged in her waking hours had been
revealed in her dreams. He recalled the glance of Jim's eyes as it
had rested on Nell many times that day, and now these things were
most significant.

He found at the end of the island a great, mossy stone. On this he
climbed, and sat where the moonlight streamed upon him. Gradually
that cold bitterness died out from his face, as it passed from his
heart, and once more he became engrossed in the silver sheen on the
water, the lapping of the waves on the pebbly beach, and in that
speaking, mysterious silence of the woods.

* * *

When the first faint rays of red streaked over the eastern
hill-tops, and the river mist arose from the water in a vapory
cloud, Jeff Lynn rolled out of his blanket, stretched his long
limbs, and gave a hearty call to the morning. His cheerful welcome
awakened all the voyagers except Joe, who had spent the night in
watching and the early morning in fishing.

"Wal, I'll be darned," ejaculated Jeff as he saw Joe. "Up afore me,
an' ketched a string of fish."

"What are they?" asked Joe, holding up several bronze-backed fish.

"Bass--black bass, an' thet big feller is a lammin' hefty 'un. How'd
ye ketch 'em?"

"I fished for them."

"Wal, so it 'pears," growled Jeff, once more reluctantly yielding to
his admiration for the lad. "How'd ye wake up so early?"

"I stayed up all night. I saw three deer swim