Helen noted the position of the sun which yet hung high. "Nothing will bite, now 'V.,'" she objected. "We came hours too soon. He said to fish at sundown. We had better go ash.o.r.e and wait."

Glad to get out of the burning sun, they rowed to the sh.o.r.e and, clambering up the bank, dropped down in a shady spot.

Suddenly Helen became restless. "I hear a strange humming noise," she worried.

Virginia was likewise nervously alert. "I hear it, too. It's a low buzzing--much louder than mosquitoes," she agreed.

"What can it be?" Helen troubled.

"It's my hornets' nest," cried a childish voice behind them.

With startled exclamations, the girls turned their heads.

Looking over the top of a granite bowlder a short distance away was a small boy. He was a very thin and delicate child about five years old, wearing a pair of faded khaki rompers and a shirt of the same material.

"Don't you know any better than to sit under a hornets' nest?" he exclaimed in disgust. "Do you want to get yourselves stung to death?"

The two girls raised their eyes. Partially concealed by the lower branches of the tree, a great cone of clay hung above them. From it and the insects flying about it came the buzzing sound.

"Crawl, Virginia, and don't you dare make a noise," whispered Helen.

From the top of the rock the infant witnessed the ignominious retreat from dangerous territory. "Come over here," he urged. "Much hornets never come near me."

Relying upon the superior judgment of the masculine mind, the girls turned and humbly crept towards this place of refuge.

"I guess you might stand up, now," the boy told them. "If the hornets had wanted to sting you, they'd have done it before."

They arose and forthwith began to dust their skirts.

"Stop!" commanded the child in a voice of alarm. "Haven't you got any sense? Want to get me stung? If you make a noise the hornets will come sneaking over to see what is going on." His manner changed to one of great politeness as he went on, "I have a house back here. You can come over there and dust yourselves if you want to." He slid down back of the rock. When he reappeared around its corner, he made funny little skips and for the first time they noticed that he used a crutch. One of his legs was flexed by distorted muscles until he carried it a couple of inches above the ground. Notwithstanding this handicap, he moved rapidly along a pathway ahead of him. Where the gra.s.s of the meadow began at the edge of the woods, he waited for them and pointed with pride to a small opening in a clump of birches. "This is my house," he told them.

Virginia dropped upon her knees and peeped in. "How lovely," she cried.

Before her the flat top of a rock projecting slightly above the surface of the ground served as a floor. A thick hedge of birch saplings grew about it, const.i.tuting the walls. The branches arching it had been cut away as high as a man's head. Above this they joined in a dense ma.s.s, forming the roof of the bower.

Following their little host, the girls entered.

"What a lovely house," said Helen. "Did you make it?"

"G.o.d made most of it," he answered with great solemnity. "Mother cut away the high branches and I cut the low ones and it was done. I didn't have it all, at first, though."

"How was that?" Helen inquired.

"Mr. Woodchuck lived in the cellar beneath the stone. There is his stairway." He pointed to an opening at the edge of the rock, surrounded by pebbles and clay. "As soon as I moved in Mr. Woodchuck moved out."

"Are you all alone now?"

"Oh, no indeed, a chipmunk lives over there, who is very friendly. Up in that tree is a bird's nest; but the young ones have gone away now.

Then there are the hornets and a snake lives under the rock over there."

"Snakes!" screamed both of the girls.

"Yes, a gra.s.s snake." The infant was openly disgusted at the display of feminine timidity. "Who's afraid of an old snake? I'm not. That snake is so afraid that I will catch him that he don't dare come out."

The neighborhood distrust relieved the fears of the visitors and they began to make themselves comfortable.

"Oh, 'V.,' this would be a grand place to eat our lunch," suggested Helen and to the boy she said, "We have something to eat in our boat.

May we bring it here and will you have lunch with us?"

"That would be fine," he agreed. "You get your lunch and I will get some milk for us to drink from my mother."

"Don't disturb her," protested Virginia. "We have plenty. And we have a thermos bottle of water, too."

"My mother won't care a bit. She loves to have me eat and she wants me to drink lots of milk so that I will grow big and strong to take care of her. I haven't any father, you see." Without further words the lad disappeared.

Taking care to avoid the hornets, the girls brought their lunch from the boat and were soon joined by the boy bringing a pitcher of milk and some tin cups.

"Mother said that she was glad for us to have the milk and that after lunch I am to bring you up to see her. Please come," he begged. "I want my mother to know both of you so that after you are gone I can talk to her about you and she will understand. I don't often have visitors at my house." In a burst of confidence, "I never had any before. Please do come."

The pleading face of the boy was very attractive to Virginia as she looked into it. Its wistfulness persuaded her. "We will go and see your mother," she promised.

A happy, satisfied smile came into his face. There was something familiar about that to Virginia. Her eyes became dreamy.

"I'm going to kiss you," Helen suddenly announced.

He resisted violently but was overpowered and force prevailed. "What do you want to do that for?" he objected, unappreciative of the favor so generously showered upon him by the fair Helen. "It spoils the fun.

Don't you know any better than to want to kiss a feller all the time?"

he complained.

The sight of food pacified the infant as the girls spread the lunch.

They all enjoyed the feast in the leafy bower and consumed a remarkable quant.i.ty of sandwiches, doughnuts, apple pie and milk. "My, but that was good!" he announced. "Don't you think that my house is a good place to eat in? I told my mother that if I could eat here all of the time I would get fat; but she said that I would become a worse little savage than I am."

The boy chattered on as he led them over the meadow towards the back of a weather-beaten farmhouse. "Moth-er, Moth-er," he shouted, as they approached the back door.

A middle aged woman of good appearance came to the door. Trouble had deeply marked her face. "Won't you come in?" she urged. "Charles Augustus," she reproved her son, "you should bring ladies to the front of the house, not to the kitchen door."

"What's the difference?" he argued. "You can get in either way, mother, and this is the nearest."

The girls, much amused at the reasoning of Charles Augustus, followed his mother through a spotless kitchen and dining room into a very plainly furnished front room.

For a time Charles Augustus sat most sedately in a chair, listening to the conversation of the girls with his mother; but as the minutes pa.s.sed; he became restless.

Recognizing this, his mother suggested that he get some sweet apples from a tree in front of the house for their guests.

Pa.s.sing out of the open front door, he paused upon the stoop and began a shrill little tuneless whistle. As he moved forward, his foot or his crutch slipped. He lurched forward as if about to plunge headlong down the flight of steps which led to the yard below.

The eyes of the women had followed the little fellow, and as he swung forward they were filled with alarm. With half suppressed screams they sprang to their feet, thrusting out their arms as if they might catch him.