The glance lasted only a second, then Alix, who had been carefully
removing burrs from the soft tangle of the dog's tasselled ears,
took the trail again with great, boyish springs of her bloomered
legs.

"Father," said she, "am I to understand that you disapprove of my
choice?"

"I hope," her father answered, seriously, "that when you do marry
you will get a man half as good as Peter!"

"Thank you!" Peter said, gravely, more as a rebuke to the
incorrigible Alix than because he was giving the conversation much
attention.

Alix had time for no comment, for at this moment she placed her
foot upon an unsubstantial root and slid down upon the two men
with such an unpremeditated rush of heavy boots, wet loam,
loosened rocks, and cascading earth, that the footing of them all
was threatened, and it was only after much shouting, staggering,
balancing, and clutching that they resumed their climb. Peter was
then nursing a wrist that had been wrenched in the confusion,
looking away from it only to give the loudly singing Alix an
occasional resentful glance.

"You could omit some of those cries!" he presently observed.

"I thought you liked 'The Lotos Flower'?" Alix called back.

"I just proved that I do," Peter said neatly, and the doctor, and