er. Beth was in such a hurry to show
Julia she was not afraid, that she had great difficulty in starting.
Julia mounted, and walked out into the water as proudly as a peacock.
Beth followed, but, of necessity, more slowly, and she kept near the
wharf. Julia skimmed through the water for a minute or two almost as
easily as she went on land. But alas, pride goes before a fall.

The river bed near the shore is of hard sand, but a little way out it
becomes marshy.

Suddenly Julia's stilts stuck. She tried to raise them, but they would
not budge. Now, as every stilt walker knows, it is impossible to stay
motionless on stilts. Over Julia went into the water, headforemost.

Beth was so startled that she herself almost lost her balance, but,
fortunately, she grabbed the wharf, and scrambled up on that. Away
floated her stilts.

"Hello, what have we here?" and Harvey's boat darted towards them from
under the bridge.

"Oh, Harvey, save her," cried poor Beth, almost in tears but somewhat
reassured now that her boy friend was near.

"The water is hardly deep enough to drown a flea," he answered.

However, he rowed up to Julia, and held out his hand.

"You had better step into my boat; you might be a worse stick in the
mud than ever if you waded ashore."

"I prefer to walk."

Julia tried to look dignified, but the attempt was an utter failure.
Dirty water dripped from her matted hair, while her face and clothes
were streaked with mud.

Harvey could not keep back his laughter at the odd sight, and it made
Julia very indignant. She said nothing to him, however, but instead
seemed to be angry with her innocent little girl friend.

Beth ran to meet her and Julia gave vent to her feelings by crying:

"Beth Davenport, are you laughing at me too? Well, I'd rather be
laughed at than be a 'fraid cat like you."

Now Beth thought this was very mean, especially when she had considered
herself so brave. She therefore could not resist the temptation of
saying:

"Well, anyway, I told you that stilts weren't boats."

"I'm going home, Beth Davenport."

Poor Julia looked so forlorn that Beth relented.

"Julia, really I didn't laugh. Please come home with me."

"Beth," called Harvey from the river, "I wish you'd get Miss
Stick-in-the-Mud's picture for me. It would be the funniest thing I
ever saw."

"What a horrid boy," exclaimed Julia.

By the time the children reached the house, Julia had been persuaded to
rem