They sat, thus, side by side, dangling their feet like happy children, seeking to fathom with their eyes how soon the water got deep enough to drown them, should they step out farther, and watching idly the patterns made by the sea-weed strands near the shore.
“What if a fish should come?” cried Katherine suddenly, and laughed at the expedition with which Peggy’s feet came glistening up out of the water. “Don’t be silly, Peggy,” she giggled, “fish can’t bite anything but flies and worms.”
“Maybe the kind that would live in a mill-pond could,” said Peggy, comfortably sliding the reassured feet back into the still water. “And anyway, who wants to dispute habitation with a fish?”
With all manner of the gayest and most idiotic prattle they whiled away that endless hour, and if any one had stood just outside the fringe of little trees and had heard their voices without seeing them, he would never in the world have guessed that such inconsequential conversation was being indulged in by two freshmen in good standing of the largest woman’s college in America; girls who would be candidates for the degree within four years and who were even now in the process of being moulded into “intelligent gentlewomen.”
“Hasn’t that bird a funny whistle?” asked Katherine suddenly. “Listen! He whistles just like a person!”
And as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she was covered with confusion, for the realization came to her that it was a person,—somebody going by on the road, probably, and they had so far forgotten the world outside their own green hedge that it had startled them.
“I’m going to peek out,” said Peggy. Thrusting the leaves aside, she made a tiny opening,—large enough for her eyes to get a clear view of the road.
And then all of a sudden she sprang up, her face hot with excitement, and made as if to burst through the thicket to the road itself. She would have accomplished this had not Katherine caught her dress and dragged her back so violently that she sat down, breathless, on the bank of the pond, exclaiming over and over in gladness, “It’s Jim! Katherine, it’s Jim!”
“Your shoes and stockings, child,” urged Katherine. “Put them on, quick.”
But Peggy seized one grey and one tan stocking and on they went over her wet feet. Then she stepped into her tan oxfords and flew out from shelter.