arefoot over sharp pebbles and, when on a smooth
ledge of rock, sat him down in water to his shoulders. He rejoiced at
Bradford's absence and that no other man had seen her loveliness,
half-hidden, half-revealed.

They soon had a bucket of minnows and as they drove up the river were
overtaken by Bradford, who, mistaking the road, had ridden quite a
distance down the main stream.

Miss Clay, Dorothy and Bradford had no trouble in landing a nice catch,
but Cornwall's eyes were never on his float, which the fish converted
into a submarine when baited and after the minnow had been stolen
reposedly floated upon the surface, the resting-place of a big,
lace-winged snake doctor.

"Mr. Cornwall, why don't you rebait your hook and try to catch
something? What was the good of my going to all that trouble in helping
you seine if you will not use the minnows? You look everywhere, except
at your float; first at me, then over the treetops as though you wished
I were at home or in Heaven."

"That's right, I look first at you. The minnows have helped you land the
fish. I feel like a crappie on a dusty turnpike. You have caught more
than one variety today! Let's go home. And I am not going to drive those
sleepy, old plow horses unless you sit on the front seat." And so they
rode home together.

The next afternoon they planned to climb the mountain, but when Bradford
and Cornwall came to the house, he said to Rosamond: "Let us drive up
the river to Helen Creech's; Bradford and Dorothy can find something
else to do," to which she assented.

Driving slowly along the narrow, shaded road that bordered the river
bank, he held her hand and called her "dear," and told her the love
story that Kentucky boys tell the girls with whom they go; and she
parried and checked him as she had several times before been called upon
to do with other boys.

Thus each day, either paddling on the river or riding horseback, or
fishing, or bathing, or mountain-climbing, the four were together or
paired off; he with Rosamond and Bradford with Dorothy; and each
repeatedly declared that they had never before had so glorious a
holiday.

Cornwall, at the end of two weeks, made up his mind to propose; and
Rosamond, expecting it, had decided she would accept--if he would
consent to defer the marriage a couple of years.

Strange that Cornwall and Bradford should each have decided to propose
at the same time and place; that is, the night of his dance and on the