daylight, so beware! I may do something very desperate and rash
this afternoon."

"Spare us," pleaded Madaline. "I have seen some of our courage
worked out in the woods before. Remember the time you nearly set
fire to the river? Well, don't, please, go try anything like that
today."

"No, it must be something for which I should receive a badge of
courage, if I were in the first class. I want to blush with
fitting modesty when Captain Clark invests me with the next
degree, and I shall only blush when reminded of my noble deed this
afternoon."

"Since you are not particular about what deed shall be the noble
one, won't you just give me a hand, and help me save this heel of
mine from a blistering shoe? The shoe was all right in school, but
just now it has picked up a snag, somehow, and between the shoe
and the snag, my life is not worth living."

"Poor Madie," soothed her chum. "Let us sit right down here and
diagnose the case. I'm first rate at diagnosing anything but why
my bureau can't stay fixed. It has chronic upsettedness, and all
my operations are of no avail. There go the girls down into the
hazel nut gully. Let's sit on this lovely mossy couch, and look
after the heel. Doesn't moss grow beautifully smooth under the
cedars? I wonder how it ever gets so velvety?"

At the twined and natural woven seat, wrought from the uncovered
roots of a great hemlock, the girls caressed and patted the velvet