It would seem, however, that Miss Mary had already established some acquaintance with this ex-drunkard.

Enough that he was soon accepted as one of the party; that the children, with that quick intelligence which Providence gives the helpless, recognized a friend, and played with his blond beard and long silken mustache, and took other liberties--as the helpless are apt to do.

And when he had built a fire against a tree, and had shown them other mysteries of woodcraft, their admiration knew no bounds.

At the close of two such foolish, idle, happy hours he found himself lying at the feet of the schoolmistress, gazing dreamily in her face, as she sat upon the sloping hillside weaving wreaths of laurel and syringa, in very much the same attitude as he had lain when first they met.

Nor was the similitude greatly forced.