sies, and rose to her feet. "Stay
where you are," she said mischievously, as she stooped down, and placed
a flower in the lapel of his coat. "That is to make amends for my
rudeness. Now get up."

But the major did not rise. He caught the two little hands that had
seemed to flutter like birds against his breast, and, looking up into
the laughing face above him, said, "Dear Mistress Thankful, dare I
remind you of your own words, that 'there be some things worth stooping
for'? Think of my love, Mistress Thankful, as a flower,--mayhap not as
gracious to you as your violets, but as honest and--and--and--as--"

"Ready to spring up in a single night," laughed Thankful. "But no; get
up, major! What would the fine ladies of Morristown say of your
kneeling at the feet of a country girl,--the play and sport of every
fine gentleman? What if Mistress Bolton should see her own cavalier,
the modish Major Van Zandt, proffering his affections to the disgraced
sweetheart of a perjured traitor? Leave go my hand, I pray you,
major,--if you respect--"

She was free, yet she faltered a moment beside him, with tears
quivering on her long brown lashes. Then she said tremulously, "Rise
up, major. Let us think no more of this. I pray you forgive me, if I
have again been rude."

The major struggled to rise to his feet. But he could not. And then I
regret to have to record that the fact became obvious that one of his
shapely legs was in a bog-hole, and that he was perceptibly sinking out
of sight. Whereat Mistress Thankful trilled out a three-syllabled
laugh, looked demure and painfully concerned at his condition, and then
laughed again. The major joined in her mirth, albeit his face was
crimson. And then, with a little cry of alarm, she flew to his side,
and put her arms around him.

"Keep away, keep away, for Heaven's sake, Mistress Blossom," he said
quickly, "or I shall plunge you into my mishap, and make you as
ridiculous as myself."

But the quick-witted girl had already leaped to an adjacent bowlder.
"Take off your sash," she said quickly; "fasten it to your belt, and
throw it to me." He did so. She straightened herself back on the
rock. "Now, all together," she cried, with a preliminary strain on the
sash; and then the cords of her well-trained muscles stood out on her
rounded arms, and, with a long pull and a strong pull and a pull all
together, she landed the major upon the rock. And then she laughed;
and then,