The crowd loves daring, and so it welcomed Stephen with braves,
but it knew, as he knew, that he was only doing his duty by the
Company, only showing the Saco that man was master, only keeping
the old Waterman name in good repute.

"Ye can't drownd some folks," Old Kennebec had said, as he stood
in a group on the shore; "not without you tie sand-bags to'em an'
drop 'em in the Great Eddy. I'm the same kind; I remember when I
was stranded on jest sech a rock in the Kennebec, only they left
me there all night for dead, an' I had to swim the rapids when it
come daylight."

"We're well acquainted with that rock and them rapids," exclaimed
one of the river-drivers, to the delight of the company.

Rose had reason to remember Stephen's adventure, for he had
clambered up the bank, smiling and blushing under the hurrahs of
the boys, and, coming to the wagon where she sat waiting for her
grandfather, had seized a moment to whisper: "Did you care
whether I came across safe, Rose? Say you did!"

Stephen recalled that question, too, on this August morning;
perhaps because this was to be a red-letter day, and sometime,
when he had a free moment,--sometime before supper, when he and
Rose were sitting apart from the others, watching the logs,--he
intended again to ask her to marry him. This thought trembled in
him, stirring the deeps of his heart like a great wave, almost
sweeping him off his feet when he held it too close and let it
have full sway. It would be the fourth time that he had asked
Rose this question of all questions, but there was no perceptible