astonished. No more astonished, however, than were the young couple who
had been sitting upon the church steps and were now standing, staring
down at him.

Galusha spoke first.

"Oh, dear!" he observed. "Dear me!" Then he added, by way of making the
situation quite clear, "I must have fallen, I think."

Neither of the pair upon the church steps seemed to have recovered
sufficiently to speak, so Mr. Bangs went on.

"I--I came after my hat," he explained. "You see--Oh, there it is!"

The brown derby was stuck fast in the bare branches of an ancient lilac
bush which some worshiper of former time had planted by the church door.
Galusha rose and limped over to rescue his truant property.

"It blew off," he began, but the masculine half of the pair who had
witnessed his flight from the top to the bottom of the bank, came
forward. He was a dark-haired young man, with a sunburned, pleasant
face.

"Say, that was a tumble!" he declared. "I hope you didn't hurt yourself.
No bones broken, or anything like that?"

Galusha shook his head. "No-o," he replied, somewhat doubtfully. "No, I
think not. But, dear me, what a foolish thing for me to do!"

The young man spoke again.