ecstatic embrace, objected; but his magnanimity was lessened by
his explanation that he wasn't going to have any _girl_ pay
for him! This ruffled Elizabeth's pride for a moment; however,
she was not averse to saving her dollar, so everything was
arranged. David was to row her to Willis's, a country tavern two
miles down the river, where, as all middle-aged Mercer will
remember, the best jumbles in the world could be purchased at the
agreeable price of two for a cent. Elizabeth, who was still
congratulating herself on having "nicer hair than Nannie," and
who loved the river (and the jumbles), was as punctual as a clock
in arriving at the covered bridge where at the toll-house wharf
they were to meet and embark. She had even been so forehanded as
to bargain with Mrs. Todd for the hire of the skiff, in which she
immediately seated herself, the tiller-ropes in her hands, all
ready for David to take the oars. "And I've waited, and waited,
and waited!" she told herself angrily, as she sat there in the
faintly rocking skiff. And after an hour of waiting, what should
she see but David Richie racing on the bridge with Blair
Maitland! He had just simply forgotten his engagement! (Elizabeth
was so nearly a young lady that she said "engagement.")

"I'll never forgive him," she said, and the dimple hardened in
her cheek. Sitting in the boat, she looked up at the two boys,
David in advance, a young, lithe figure, in cotton small-clothes
and jersey, leaping in great, beautiful strides, on and on and
on, his face glowing, his eyes like stars; then, alas, he gave a
downward glance and there was Elizabeth, waiting fiercely in the
skiff! His "engagement" came back to him; there was just one
astonished, faltering instant; and in it, of course, Blair shot
ahead! It must be confessed that in his rage at being beaten