"Go," she said instantly.
"Then good by, Daisy; perhaps we never shall look in each other's faces again."
"What's that?" asked the sharp voice of the dame. "Foolish children! Don't you know that, when Maud is drowned, there will be no one to separate you, and, as long as she lives, she will not let you be married?"
"She is my sister," said Daisy. And Joseph, stepping boldly upon the ice, creeping from log to log,—lost now in the branches of a tree, dashed into the water, and struggling out again,—found his way to the bridge, and threw his strong arm about the form of the fainting Maud.
But here was new trouble; for she declared that she would never venture where Joseph had been, not if they both were swept away.
Finding her so unreasonable, the herdsman took Maud, like an infant, in his arms, and, though she shrieked and struggled, stepped from the bridge just as its straining beams parted, and fell, one by one, among the drift wood in the stream.
When Maud stood safely on the shore, she was so glad to find herself alive, that she took off every one of her jewels and offered them to Joseph.
But the herdsman told her that he did not wish to be paid for what had cost him nothing, and had he lost his life, the jewels would have been no recompense.
"So you want more, perhaps," said Maud, the haughty look coming again into her handsome face. "Well, what shall I give you for risking your precious life?"