o long time she began to settle quietly down, with the gentleness of
a snow-flake, and finally sank gracefully into the arms of a huge pear
tree, white with blossom; whereupon the aeronaut grappled her to the
tree, filled and lit a comfortable-looking pipe, and leaned carelessly
over the edge of the car, to spy out the nakedness of this foster land.
It was against his principles to seem otherwise than dispassioned on
these occasions.

[Illustration: "HE TOOK A CONTENTED SURVEY OF HIS FRUIT TREES."]

Below him he saw a big garden, full of yews, box, fruit trees, and
spring flowers, all hobnobbing with one another in the cheeriest manner
imaginable. At the far end of the garden stood a house, of ruddy
complexion, prosperous bulk, and Queen Anne architecture. Immediately
beneath him--the branches diverged considerately, so as to allow his
vision free play--a hammock was swinging gently from side to side, and
in the hammock reposed a maiden. Now the prospect of a speedy demise did
not excite Reginald Hampton, but a suggestion of feminine beauty had
never been known to fail in this. He nearly fell out of the car in his
eagerness to distinguish the details of the girl's appearance. A girl in
a hammock, he reflected, ought always to be pretty, and artistic
propriety demanded that she should be a veritable Peri when he had taken
the trouble to save his neck by falling into the very tree to which her
hammock was attached.

So eager was he, indeed, that his teeth lost their hold of the big
briar, which cannoned from branch to branch, and dropped, somewhat
forcibly, into the girl's hand. The prospective Peri was naturally a
little startled, and more than a little angry, because the pipe had hurt
her considerably. She slipped out of the hammock and stood looking about
her with an air of enraged bewilderment. And from the clouds there came,
as it were, a voice independent of any human tabernacle, a _vox et
preterea nihil_.

"I'm awfully sorry--upon my word, most careless of me--may I come down
and make my apologies in proper form?"

"Please, where are you?" demanded the girl. The tree was so constructed
that Hampton could more easily see her than she him; and moreover it is
one of the most difficult things in the world to locate an unexpected
sound.

"I'm tree'd," laughed the voice, "straight above your head."

"That sounds odd," returned the other, beginning to enter into the
spirit of the situation; "how on earth did you g