Tom walked rapidly on, and Gypsy with him. A moment's reflection seemed to
convince Winnie that his company was not wanted, and he disappeared among
the hazel nut bushes.

Gypsy and Tom were fast walkers, and they reached the pond in a
marvellously short time. This pond was about a half-mile from the house,
just at the foot of a hill which went by the name of Kleiner Berg--a
German word meaning little mountain. There were many of these elevations
all along the valley in which Yorkbury was situated. They seemed to be a
sort of stepping-stones to the great, snow-crowned mountains, that towered
sharply beyond. The pond that nestled in among the trees at the foot of
the Kleiner Berg was called the Kleiner Berg Basin. It was a beautiful
sheet of water, small and still and sheltered, and a great resort of
pleasure-seekers because of the clouds of white and golden lilies that
floated over it in the hot summer months. Mr. Breynton owned a boat there,
which was kept locked to a tiny wharf under the trees, and was very often
used by the children, although Tom declared it was no better to fish in
than a wash-tub; as a Vermont boy, used to the trout-brooks up among the
mountains, would be likely to think.

"What's that?" asked Gypsy, as they neared the wharf.

"Looks as much like a little green monkey as anything," said Tom, making a
tube of his hands to look through. "It's in the boat, whatever it is."

"It's a green-and-white gingham monkey," said Gypsy, suddenly, "with a
belt, and brown pants, and a cap on wrong side before."

"The little----, he may just walk home anyhow," observed Tom, in his
autocratic style. "He ought to be taught better than to come where older