PLATTE RIVER, BELOW ROUND LAKE 



But no. Far more wild and attractive 

 views await us four miles northward, over 

 miserable roads of sand and boulders. 

 Platte calls. And here is " Uncle Bill" 

 Thompson, of the Lakeside House at Platte, 

 wearing the smile that "does not come off." 

 His kindly Irish brogue is music to us as we 

 hand him the checks for our modest lug- 

 gage. He yet chews his favorite "spearhead 

 tobacco," wears the same cap and coat, and 

 tells us of "good fishin' all this week." 



The old white horse and dreary buck- 

 board wagon take us into the wooded lane 

 northward, and his voice trembles as he 

 mentions his daughter: 



"Pearl wanted tew kum; but she's fin- 

 ishin' that outing dress, an' plum crazy t' 

 see ye." 



Six years ago we met Pearl — a child of 

 ten, dressed in a single calico garment — ■ 

 bare-footed, wild as her native woods, a 

 vision of black eyes and curling hair, merry 

 dimples and unconscious grace of motion 

 as she raced with her dog, whose barks 



mingled with her joyous voice as they 

 romped together. And how she loved to 

 hold the trawling-line as a gray-haired 

 angler rowed for her and watched her de- 

 light as she hauled in the bass and pickerel. 

 Pearl, who "fell out" of the apple tree 

 where she had perched and hidden to. note 

 the stranger from far-off Tennessee, who 

 had come to fish in Platte; and whose face, 

 with its tan and freckles, was always guilt- 

 less of the shade of even a sunbonnet ! That 

 face was scratched and made bloody by the 

 fall; but she did not even whimper, and 

 faced me and found a friend who was soon 

 interested in her rag doll ("Annie Rooney ") ; 

 who haunted the wild meadows picking 

 strawberries, and made shortcakes for me 

 and my daughter, six years older than her- 

 self. The blood of Irish kings flows in her 

 veins. Even then, she was longing for 

 books, and to know the great outside world, 

 chafing at lack of school privileges and at 

 her own ignorance, and beating the bars of 

 her forest prison. But she knew where the 



