“Good-morning,” she returned, giving him a careless nod.

“It’s a long walk for a girl,” he remarked.

“Oh,” said Max, laughing, “she’s half boy; ain’t you, Lu?”

“I s’pose; if you mean in walking, jumping and running.  Aunt Beulah calls me a regular tomboy.  But I’d rather be that than stay cooped up in the house all the time.”

They had now left the town behind, and presently they turned from the highway and took a narrow path that led them deep into the woods, now in the very height of their autumnal beauty.

The sun shone brightly, but through a mellow haze; the air was deliciously pure, cool, and bracing.

The children’s pulses bounded, they laughed and jested; the boys whistled and Lulu sang in a voice of birdlike melody.

“O Max,” she said, “I wish Gracie was well and with us here!”

“Yes, so do I,” he answered; “but ’tisn’t likely she can ever be strong like you and me, Lu.”

“Well, I’ll tell her all about it and take her all the pretty things I can find.  Oh, what a lovely place!” as they came out upon the shore of the pond, a tiny sheet of clear still water surrounded by woods and hills except where a rivulet entered it on one side and left it on the other.

“Yes,” assented Jim, “it’s a right nice place, is Miller’s Pond, and has lots of nice fish in it.”

The boys laid down their rods, Lulu her basket, and all three fell to digging for earth-worms.

When they deemed that they had a sufficient quantity of bait, the lads seated themselves on the roots of a fallen tree close to the water, each, with fishing-rod in hand, and Lulu, picking up her basket, wandered off among the trees and bushes.

“Don’t go too far away and get lost,” Max called after her.

“No,” she answered, “I’ll not go out of sight of the pond; so I can easily find my way back.  But don’t you go off and leave me.”

“No; if you’re not here, I’ll hallo when we’re ’most ready to start.”

What treasures Lulu found as she wandered here and there, every now and then turning to look for the pond, and make sure that she was not losing herself, there were acorn-cups, lovely mosses, beautiful autumn leaves—­red, orange, golden and green; there were wild grapes too, and hazel-nuts, brown and ripe.  Of all these she gathered eagerly until her basket was full, thinking that some would delight Gracie, others propitiate Aunt Beulah.

And now she made her way back to the spot where the boys still sat, each with his line in the water.

“Have you caught any?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Max, “I’ve caught six and Jim has eight.  There!  I’ve got another!” giving his line a jerk that sent a pretty speckled trout floundering in the grass.

“I’ll take it off the hook for you,” said Lulu, springing forward and dropping on her knees beside it.  “And then you’ll let me try, won’t you?”