212 THE FANTASIES OF FERNS 



face, quite different from his usual expression of 

 cheerful serenity. I wondered what it meant. 



"He has something on his mind that he wants 

 to tell you," said Flower Hat. "I 've seen it in 

 his face ever since that day when we were hunt- 

 ing for the flowers escaped from old gardens. I 

 spoke of it then, you may remember, but you 've 

 never been here alone of late, and I 've surely 

 frightened him off. He never has passed by like 

 that before. See, now, he is looking back." 



Secretly I resolved to come that way again as 

 soon as possible, without my bright companion, for 

 the old man's sad look went to my heart, and his 

 was a nature that if it told a trouble at all, must 

 do it privily, with the same mystery that he said, 

 " Come and see ! " in leading me to a rare flower. 



In regaining the road, the chaise wheel caught 

 in a hidden rut dug deep beside the track to carry 

 off the rain water that often gullied the hillside as 

 it tore down. A jerk, and we should have tipped 

 over had not clever Nell stopped short. As it was, 

 we found ourselves laughing and the chaise leaning 

 awkwardly almost against what ? One of the 

 most beautiful Fern pictures that I had ever seen. 



The bank here retreated in a sort of bay that 

 was part rock, part loamy leaf -mold. Beech sap- 



