"Oh--if you would!" she said, so eagerly that it seemed to him most
pitiful.

So, five minutes later, when all her clothing save her heavy outer
skirt, had been quite dried there by the fire, and that same fire's
abounding warmth had sent his temperature up to high discomfort mark,
they sat down, side by side, upon a log, the spelling-book between them,
and he began the pleasant task of teaching her her A, B, Cs.

"'A,'" said he, "is this one at the very start."

"The peaked one," said she.

"Yes, that one.

"And 'B,'" he went on, much amused, but with a perfectly grave face, "is
this one with two loops fastened, so, to a straight stalk."

"I know where thar _is_ a bee-tree," she remarked, irrelevantly.

"It will help recall this in your mind," said he, maintaining perfect
gravity, "imagine it with two big loops of rope fastened to one side of
it--"

"Rope wouldn't stick out that-a-way," said she, "it would just droop.
They'd have to be of somethin' stiffen"

"Well--" said he, and tried to think of something.

"You could use that railroad-iron that I saw 'em heat red-hot an' bend,