Because I ran after it, and it ran; and, one by one, a whole herd of the cunning little things sprang out of the hemlock scrub and went off bucking and bucketing in all directions, and I, like a simpleton, hard after one of them----" "Little idiot," said her brother solicitously.

"Are you stark mad ?" "No, I'm just plain mad.

Because, before I knew it, there came a crash in the underbrush and the biggest, furriest, and wickedest wild boar I ever saw halted in front of me, ears forward, every hair on end----" "Lord save us, you jumped the sow!" groaned her brother.

"She might have torn you to pieces, you ninny!" "She meant to, I think.

The next thing I knew she came headlong, mouth open, fairly screaming at me; and I turned and jumped clean into the Gray Water.