“Ungrateful Moppet,” she said, as she tied both horses to the tree beside her, “did I not rescue you from punishment for dire naughtiness in the pantry and beg Aunt Euphemia to pardon you, and then go for the horses, which Reuben was too busy to saddle.

“Yes, my own dear Betty,” cried the small sinner, emerging suddenly from the shelter and seizing her round the waist, “but you know this soberness is but ‘skin-deep,’ as Chloe says, and you need not cease to be merry because you are sixteen since yesterday.  Come, let’s find the herbs,” and joining hands the two ran swiftly off to the shore, Betty tucking up her habit with easy grace as she went.  The occupant of the covert raised his head carefully and looked after the pair, the sound of their voices growing faint as they pushed their way through the undergrowth which intercepted their progress.

“What a lovely creature!” he ejaculated, raising himself on one elbow.  “I wonder who she is, and how she comes in this wild neighborhood.  Perhaps I am not so very far off my road after all; they must have come from a not very distant home, for the horses are not even wet this warm day.  Egad, that mare looks as if she had plenty of speed in her; ’t would not be a bad idea to throw my leg over her back and be off, and so distance those who even now may be pursuing me.”  He half rose as the thought occurred to him, but in an instant sank back under the leaves.

“How would her mistress fare without her?” he said ruefully “’Tis not to be thought of; they may be miles from home, even here, and I am too much a squire of dames to take such unkind advantage.  There must be some other way out of my present dilemma than this,” and rolling over on the mixture of grass and dry leaves which formed his resting-place he lay still and began to ponder.

Half an hour passed; the shadows began to deepen as the sun crept down in the sky, and the horses whinnied at each other as if to remind their absent riders that supper-time was approaching.  But the girls did not return, and the thoughts which occupied the young wanderer were so engrossing that he did not hear a cry which began faintly and then rose to a shriek agonized enough to pierce his reverie.

“Good heavens!” he cried, springing to his feet, as borne on the summer wind the frantic supplication came to him—­

“Help, help! oh, will nobody come!” and then the sobbing cry again—­“help!”

Tim tall muscular form straightened itself and sped through the bushes, crushing them down on either side with a strong arm, as he went rapidly in the direction of the cries.

“Courage!  I am coming,” he cried, as, gaining the shore of the pond, he saw what had happened.  Just beyond his halting-place there was a jutting bank, and overhanging it a large tree, whose branches almost touched the water beneath.  At the top of the bank stood the elder of the two girls; she had torn off the skirt of her riding-habit, and was about to leap down into the water where a mass of floating yellow hair and a wisp of white gown told their story of disaster.  As he ran the stranger flung off his coat, but there was no time to divest himself of his heavy riding-boots, so in he plunged and struck out boldly with the air of a strong and competent swimmer.