wthin' 'bout these ledges, does he?" asked Benny
defensively.

"No," replied Edna. "That's right. You get us by the ledgy places and
out into the middle of the Sound, and then Mr. Dunham will take her."

"Oh, I don't know," remarked John, dropping down in the boat with a
sigh of content as the sail filled and they glided forward. "I don't
know that I want anything better than this." He leaned against the
gunwale and regarded Sylvia, who was sitting beside the mast. The
morning stars shone in her eyes. "Miss Sylvia looks as if she agreed
with me," he added.

She smiled and glanced away. Neither of these two suspected that she
was a spell-bound maiden skimming over the blue waves in an enchanted
shallop to some blest island, where waited a magical berry that would
set her free. How should they understand that this holiday picnic was
in reality a pilgrimage.

John continued to look at her. He wondered if Nat knew what he had
lost.

"A penny for your thoughts, Miss Sylvia," he said after a minute.

She shook her head at him. "This isn't bargain day," she returned.

"Are they that precious?"

"They're priceless," she answered.

"Really no use bidding?"

"Not the slightest." Sylvia looked off again.

"Well, one thing about them I know without paying. You've given it
away."

"What's that?"

"They're happy."

"Oh, yes." The girl smiled. How impossible it would be for either of
her companions to conceive the cause of her happiness. They need not
lack one day that which she had craved for weeks.

As they sailed on, Benny Merritt's stolid eyes glanced from time to
time toward Edna. He was guiltily aware that they had passed the
vicinity of dangerous ledges. The most uncomfortable feature of the
situation was that he knew Miss Derwent to be equally aware of it.

"If he was to sail, I don't know what they brought me fer," he
reflected gloomily.

He did know that it was necessary for some one to watch the boat and
keep her off the rocks while the others were ashore, but Benny's elders
have been known thus to fence with facts.

Edna caught his roving glance at last and raised her brows
questioningly.

"Well," said the boy reluctantly, "I s'pose Mr. Dunham can sail now if
he wants to."

The manner in which John received the sullen permission reminded Edna
of many a past occasion when her friend had not contented himself with
getting what he wanted, but managed to transform reluctance into grace.

"Dangerou