How the laugh of the young thing rippled!

“‘Would I be knowing it?’” she mocked.  “You should see the swamps of Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four at a time!”

Freckles stood astounded.  She did know.  She was not in the least afraid.  She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the contract and rattle in time for her to move.  The one characteristic an Irishman admires in a woman, above all others, is courage.  Freckles worshiped anew.  He changed his tactics.

“I’d be pleased to be receiving you at me front door,” he said, “but as you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?”

He waved toward a bench.  The Angel came instantly.

“Oh, how lovely and cool!” she cried.

As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven by an impulse to worship.

“Did you arrange this?” she asked.

“Yis,” said Freckles simply.

“Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it,” she said.  “I never saw anything so beautiful!  How I wish I might remain here with you!  I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can spare the time, will you help me find the carriage?  If the Bird Woman comes back and I am gone, she will be almost distracted.”

“Did you come on the west road?” asked Freckles.

“I think so,” she said.  “The man who told the Bird Woman said that was the only place the wires were down.  We drove away in, and it was dreadful—­over stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs.  I suppose you know, though.  I should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired.  I never dreamed of getting lost.  I suspect I will be scolded finely.  I go with the Bird Woman half the time during the summer vacations.  My father says I learn a lot more than I do at school, and get it straight.  I never came within a smell of being lost before.  I thought, at first, it was going to be horrid; but since I’ve found you, maybe it will be good fun after all.”

Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing:  “It was so hot in there.  You couldn’t be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving.  I can take you around the trail almost to where you were.  Then you can sit in the carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman.”

“You’ll be killed if you do!  When she stays this long, it means that she has a focus on something.  You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she has it coaxed up—­why, she kills them.  If I melt, you won’t go after her.  She’s probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit until she is satisfied.”

“Then it will be safer to be taking care of you,” suggested Freckles.