Thereon the letters of the alphabet, large, ominous, suggestive to her
mind of nothing in the world but curlycues, loomed, mystifying. For the
first time it occurred to her that in securing the small volume she had
not, as she had thought to do, solved the problem of an education. The
characters, she saw to her dismay, meant nothing to her. In the absence
of a teacher she could not learn from them!

Alas, alas! The matter was a tragedy to her. How could she have been so
stupid as to fail to think of this at first? She stood there with
flushed face, despairing, looking at the mystic symbols with slowly
sinking heart.

Suddenly, though the crackling of the fire filled her ears, she was
aware, by some subtle sense, that she was now not wholly solitary there.
Without a sound to tell her, she was conscious that some other person
had within the moment come into the clearing. Hastily she looked about.
To her amazement, and, for a moment, to her great dismay, she saw,
standing on the clearing's edge, the young man who had, not long before,
unknowingly invaded her seclusion at the pool.

Instantly her body became fiercely conscious. Prickling thrills, not due
to bonfire heat, shot over it. Shame sent the blood in mantling blushes
to her cheeks, although she tried to stop it. Why should she blush at
sight of him? True, she had been there in the water, bare as any
new-born babe, when he had reached the pool's edge--but he had not seen
her. To him she, quite undoubtedly, was a mere strange mountain maid,
unrecognized. Self-consciousness then was quite absurd.

And this man was a stranger and was on her land. She must not forget her
mountain courtesy and fail to make him welcome.