real mean!" apparently drowned the sound of his canter in the soft dust.
Checking his speed to a gentle trot, and pressing his horse close beside
the opposite fence, he passed them with gravely uplifted hat and a
serious, preoccupied air. But in that single, seemingly conventional
glance, Mr. Hamlin had seen that they were both pretty, and that one had
the short upper lip of his errant little guide. A hundred yards farther
on he halted, as if irresolutely, gazed doubtfully ahead of him, and
then turned back. An expression of innocent--almost childlike--concern
was clouding the rascal's face. It was well, as the two girls had drawn
closely together, having been apparently surprised in the midst of a
glowing eulogium of this glorious passing vision by its sudden return.
At his nearer approach, the one with the short upper lip hid that
piquant feature and the rest of her rosy face behind the other's
shoulder, which was suddenly and significantly opposed to the advance
of this handsome intruder, with a certain dignity, half real, half
affected, but wholly charming. The protectress appeared--possibly from
her defensive attitude--the superior of her companion.

Audacious as Jack was to his own sex, he had early learned that
such rare but discomposing graces as he possessed required a certain
apologetic attitude when presented to women, and that it was only a
plain man who could be always complacently self-confident in their
presence. There was, consequently, a hesitating lowering of this
hypocrite's brown eyelashes as he said, in almost pained accents,--

"Excuse me, but I fear I've taken the wrong road. I'm going to Green
Springs."

"I reckon you've taken the wrong road, wherever you're going," returned
the young lady, having apparently made up her mind to resent each of