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Page 17
As the two young men slumbered, the lamps spluttered and
sizzled like bacon in a frying-pan, a stone rolled noisily
down the bank, a white owl, both appalled and fascinated by
the dazzling eyes of the monster blocking the road, hooted,
and flapped itself away. But the men in the car only shivered
slightly, deep in the sleep of utter weariness.
In silence the girl and Winthrop followed the chauffeur. They
had passed out of the light of the lamps, and in the autumn
mist the electric torch of the owner was as ineffective as a
glow-worm. The mystery of the forest fell heavily upon them.
From their feet the dead leaves sent up a clean, damp odor,
and on either side and overhead the giant pine trees whispered
and rustled in the night wind.
"Take my coat, too," said the young man. "You'll catch cold."
He spoke with authority and began to slip the loops from the
big horn buttons. It was not the habit of the girl to
consider her health. Nor did she permit the members of her
family to show solicitude concerning it. But the anxiety of
the young man, did not seem to offend her. She thanked him
generously. "No; these coats are hard to walk in, and I want
to walk," she exclaimed.
"I like to hear the leaves rustle when you kick them, don't
you? When I was so high, I used to pretend it was wading in
the surf."
The young man moved over to the gutter of the road where the
leaves were deepest and kicked violently. "And the more noise
you make," he said, "the more you frighten away the wild
animals."
The girl shuddered in a most helpless and fascinating fashion.
"Don't!" she whispered. "I didn't mention it, but already I
have seen several lions crouching behind the trees."
"Indeed?" said the young man. His tone was preoccupied. He
had just kicked a rock, hidden by the leaves, and was standing
on one leg.
"Do you mean you don't believe me?" asked the girl, "or is it
that you are merely brave?"
"Merely brave!" exclaimed the young man. "Massachusetts is so
far north for lions," he continued, "that I fancy what you saw
was a grizzly bear. But I have my trusty electric torch with
me, and if there is anything a bear cannot abide, it is to be
pointed at by an electric torch."
"Let us pretend," cried the girl, "that we are the babes in the
wood, and that we are lost."
"We don't have to pretend we're lost," said the man, "and as I
remember it, the babes came to a sad end. Didn't they die,
and didn't the birds bury them with leaves?"
"Sam and Mr. Peabody can be the birds," suggested the girl.
"Sam and Peabody hopping around with leaves in their teeth
would look silly," objected the man, "I doubt if I could keep
from laughing."
"Then," said the girl, "they can be the wicked robbers who
came to kill the babes."
"Very well," said the man with suspicious alacrity, "let us be
babes. If I have to die," he went on heartily, "I would
rather die with you than live with any one else."
When he had spoken, although they were entirely alone in the
world and quite near to each other, it was as though the girl
could not hear him, even as though he had not spoken at all.
After a silence, the girl said: "Perhaps it would be better
for us to go back to the car."
"I won't do it again," begged the man.
"We will pretend," cried the girl, "that the car is a van and
that we are gypsies, and we'll build a campfire, and I will
tell your fortune."
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