the Chilano's water-buckets, the spring again revealed itself in a thin,
clear trickle down the hollowed surface of a rock which closed the narrow
passage of the canon. Young sycamores and cottonwoods shut out the sun
above; their tangled roots, interlaced with vines still green and growing,
trailed over the edge of the rock, where a mass of earth had fallen; green
moss lined the hollows of the rock, and water-plants grew in the dark pools
below.

The strollers had left behind them the heat and glare; only the breeze
followed them into this green stillness, stirring the boughs overhead and
scattering spots of sunlight over the wet stones. Nicky, after enjoying
for a few moments the schoolmistress' surprised delight, proposed that she
should wait for him at the spring, while he went "down along" in search
of his cow. Nicky was not without a certain awe of the schoolmistress, as
a part of creation he had not fathomed in all its bearings; but when they
rambled on the hills together, he found himself less uneasily conscious of
her personality, and more comfortably aware of the fact that, after all,
she was "nothin' but a woman." He was a trifle disappointed that she showed
no uneasiness at being left alone, but consoled himself by the reflection
that she was "a good un to 'old 'er tongue," and probably felt more than
she expressed.

The schoolmistress did not look in the least disconsolate after Nicky's
departure. She gazed about her very contentedly for a while, and then
prepared to help herself to a drink of water. She hollowed her two hands
into a cup, and waited for it to fill, stooping below the rock, her lifted
skirt held against her side by one elbow, while she watched with a childish
eagerness the water trickle into her pink palms. Miss Frances Newell had
never looked prettier in her life. A pretty girl is always prettier in
the open air, with her head uncovered. Her cheeks were red; the sun just