d threaded
chains of great length, and hung them about each other's necks. And so
deft and dainty was their touch that the chains never broke in the
making or, what is still more delicate a matter, in the hanging. But
Martin's chains always broke before he had joined the last daisy to the
first, and the girls jeered at him for having no necklace to match
their necklaces of pearls and gold, and for failing so contemptibly in
his boast. And he appeared so abashed by their jeers that little Joan
relented and made a longer chain than any that had been made yet, and
hung it round his neck. At which he was merry again, and confessed
himself beaten, and the girls became very gracious, being in their
triumph even more pleased with him than with themselves. Which was a
great deal. And by then it was dinner-time.

After dinner Martin proposed that as they had sat all the morning they
should run all the afternoon, so they played Touchwood. And Martin was
He. But an orchard is so full of wood that he had a hard job of it. And
he observed that Jennifer had very little daring, and scarcely ever
lifted her finger from the wood as she ran from one tree to another;
and that Jane had no daring at all, and never even left her tree. And
that Joscelyn was extremely daring when it was safe to be so; and that
Jessica was daring enough to tweak him and run away, while Joyce was
more daring still, for she tweaked him and did not run. As for little
Joan, she puzzled him most of all; for half the time she outdid them
all in daring, and then she was uncatchable, slipping through his very
fingers like a ray of sunlight a child tries to hold; but the other
half of the time she was timidity itself, and crept from tree to tree,
and if he were near became like a little frightened rabbit, forgetting,
or being through fear unable, to touch safety; and then she was snared
more easily than any.

By supper, however, every maid had been He but Jane. For no man can
catch what doesn't run.

"How the time has flown," said Joscelyn, when they were all seated
about the middle tree after the meal.

"It makes such a difference," said Jennifer, "when there's something to
do. We never used to have anything to do till Master Pippin came, and
now life is all games and stories."

"The games," said Joscelyn, "are well enough."

"Shall we," said Martin, "forego the stories?"

"Oh, Master Pippin!" said Jennifer anxiously, "we surely are to have a
story to-night?"