We must try another way." He stooped as if to secure the erring buskin, but suddenly lifted her like a child to his shoulder.

"There," he continued, placing her arm around his neck, "you are clear of the ferns and brambles now, and we can go on.

Are you comfortable ?" He looked up, read her answer in her burning eyes and the warm lips pressed to his forehead at the roots of his straight dark hair, and again moved onward as in a mesmeric dream.

But he did not swerve from his direct course, and with a final dash through the undergrowth parted the leafy curtain before the spring.
At first the young girl was dazzled by the strong light that came from a rent in the interwoven arches of the wood.

The breach had been caused by the huge bulk of one of the great giants that had half fallen, and was lying at a steep angle against one of its mightiest brethren, having borne down a lesser tree in the arc of its downward path.