It was the second time Aggie and I had seen fire thus
carried through the wood; but whereas about the kettle
there had been a glow and radiance that was almost
triumphant, the brand we now watched seemed smouldering,
dejected, ashamed. Even Tish felt it.
“The wretch!” she exclaimed. “Daring
to come here like that! No wonder he’s
ashamed.”
But Aggie, who is very romantic, sat staring after
the distant torch.
“Mr. Wiggins suffered so from mosquitoes,”
she said softly.
The next morning we found more fish awaiting us, and
on the smooth sand of the beach was a message written
with a stick:—
If you will leave a wire hairpin or two
on this stone I can get
bigger fish. What do you mean to
do with all those rabbit skins?
(Signed) P.
Tish was touched by the fish, I think. She smoothed
off the sand carefully and wrote a reply:—
Here are the hairpins. Thank you.
Do you want the rabbit skins?
L.C.
All day we were in a state of expectancy. The
mosquitoes were very bad, and had it not been for
the excitement of the P—— person
I should have given up and gone home. I wanted
mashed potatoes and lima beans with butter dressing,
and a cup of hot tea, and muffins, and ice—in
fact, I cannot think of anything I did not want, except
rabbits and fish and puffballs and such blackberries
as the birds did not fancy. Although we were
well enough—almost too well—the
better I felt the hungrier I got.
Tish thought the time had now come to rest and invite
our souls. She set the example that day by going
out on a flat rock in the lake and preparing to think
all the things she’d been waiting most of her
life to consider.
“I am ready to form my own opinions about some
things,” she said. “I realize now
that all my life the newspapers and stupid people and
books have formed my opinions. Now I’m going
to think along my own lines. Is there another
life after this? Do I really desire the suffrage?
Why am I a Baptist?”
Aggie said she would like to invite her soul that
day also, not to form any opinions,—Tish
always does that for her,—but she had to
get some clothes in September and she might as well
think them out.
So it happened that I was alone when I met the P——
person’s young woman.
I had intended to wander only a short way along the
trail, but after I had gone a mile or two it occurred
to me as likely that the spring-wagon driver would
come back that way before long out of curiosity, and
I thought I might leave a message for him to bring
out some fresh eggs and leave them there. I could
tell Tish I had found a nest, or perhaps, since that
would be lying, I could put them in a nest and let
her find them. I’d have ordered tea, too,
if I could have thought of any way to account for
it.
“I’m going to do some meditating myself
to-day,” I remarked, “but I think better
when I’m moving. If I don’t come back
in an hour or so don’t imagine I’ve been
kidnaped.”
