hich was, as Arnold had said, a
wonderful place for wild-flowers. It was a very small islet, overgrown
with bush vegetation; willow-boughs drooped down into the water; rushes,
sedges, and wild trailing things flourished in uncontrolled luxuriance.
Sometimes men and boys landed on it when they went fishing in a leaky
old boat, or pulled round it to get water-lilies; but it was rumoured
that Mr. Wayne would make improvements there.

Already, instead of the old boat, there was a new one, dark green with a
stripe of white, moored against the landing-stage at the end of the
meadow; and old Giles, who had worked on the Wayne estate for years, was
waiting to take anybody for a row.

Miss Kilner and Jamie were the first to come to the river-side. The
other people were still lingering over the remains of the feast, making
plans, proposing excursions, or chatting about nothing. Jamie had
already made the old man's acquaintance, and hailed him as a friend.

"Now carefully, young master. Sit steady," said Giles, as he put his
passengers in the stern.

The water under the banks was dark with shadows, but they floated out of
the shade into a strange stillness and glory. The voices and laughter in
the meadow grew fainter and fainter; they were going away from the
turmoil into a world of peace.

Jamie sat still, resting one dimpled hand on Elsie's knee, enjoying it
all in silence. It was a calm, full river, running still and smooth even
out in the middle current, but the sun shone down, and the oars struck
out diamonds.

Giles pulled close to the island, where there was a landing-place,
rotten and green with slippery water-weeds. Jamie asked to land and
search for the eggs of water-fowl; but Elsie reminded him that other
people would be wanting the boat.

As they rowed back again, Giles described the habits of the birds which
frequented this reedy spot. Jamie listened open-eyed to his accounts of
the moor-hen, flapper, coot, water-rail, dab-chick, and sand-piper, to
say nothing of rats in abundance, and an otter now and then. If you
crept upon the islet very quietly, you could hear the rats before you
saw them. Carefully listening to the sounds, you frequently discovered
the rat himself, generally on the stump of some old tree, or on the bare
part of the bank overhanging the water. There he would be, sitting upon
his hind-legs, holding in his fore-feet the root of a bulrush, and
champing away with his sharp teeth so as to be he