thes. So she stood behind a little bush, pretending
not to be at all concerned, but amused at having her work done for her.
But Pet was too sharp to play cat's-paw for nothing.

"Smile, and say 'thank you,'" he cried, "or I won't do it. I am not
going up to my middle for nothing; I know that you want to laugh at me."

"You must have a very low middle," said Insie; "why, it never comes half
way to my knees."

"You have got no stockings, and no new gaiters," Lancelot answered,
reasonably; and then, like two children, they set to and laughed, till
the gill almost echoed with them.

"Why, you're holding the mouth of the pitcher down stream!" Insie could
hardly speak for laughing. "Is that how you go to fill a pitcher?"

"Yes, and the right way too," he answered; "the best water always comes
up the eddies. You ought to be old enough to know that."

"I don't know anything at all--except that you are ruining your best
clothes."

"I don't care twopence for such rubbish. You ought to see me on a
Sunday, Insie, if you want to know what is good. There, you never drew
such a pitcher as that. And I believe there is a fish in the bottom of
it."

"Oh, if there is a fish, let me have him in my hands. I can nurse a fish
on dry land, until he gets quite used to it. Are you sure that there is
a little fish?"

"No, there is no fish; and I am soaking wet. But I never care what
anybody thinks of me. If they say what I don't like, I kick them."

"Ah, you are accustomed to have your own way. That any one might know
by looking at you. But I have got a quantity of work to do. You can see
that by my fingers."

The girl made a courtesy, and took the pitcher from him, because he was
knocking it against his legs; but he could not be angry when he looked
into her eyes, though the habit of his temper made him try to fume.

"Do you know what I think?" she said, fixing bright hazel eyes upon him;
"I think that you are very passionate sometimes."

"Well, if I am, it is my own business. Who told you anything about it?
Whoever it was shall pay out for it."

"Nobody told me, Sir. You must remember that I never even heard of your
name before."

"Oh, come, I can't quite take down that. Everybody knows me for fifty
miles or more; and I don't care what they think of me."

"You may please yourself about believing me," she answered, without
concern about it. "No one who knows me doubts my word, though I am not
known for even five miles away."