"Hi! ducked myself that time, sure!"
Amy ventured to open her eyes. There, dripping and grinning, evidently enjoying the fright he had given her, stood her strange new acquaintance. His hand still clutched the scarlet branch with its swinging nest that he had risked his safety to secure, nor would relinquish for so trivial a matter as a fall into the water.
"You—you might have been drowned!"
"But I wasn't."
"I should have felt that it was all my fault!" she exclaimed, now that her fear was past, growing angry at his hardihood.
He stared at her in genuine surprise; all the gayety of his expression giving place to disappointment.
"Don't you like it? They always build far out."
"Oh, yes. It's beautiful, and I thank you, of course. But I want to get home. You must show me the way."
"Make the donkey carry 'em."
"Very well."