“He has his back to me, so I will just creep up and surprise him,” she said to herself with joy in her heart that she had found him so soon, “and never, no, never will I leave him again of my own accord.”
After drinking all he cared to, Billy waded out into the middle of the stream where the water was deep, to let it wash over his back to clean his long hair. He was so busy with his bath that the first he knew of her presence was when he saw a shadow in the water beside him.
Can you appreciate his surprise when he looked up and saw his little Nannie whom he had thought so far away standing beside him?
“Why, Nannie, my darling, how you surprised me! When I saw your shadow I thought you were some animal that had waded into the stream for a drink. Whatever brought you back? Oh, I don’t care what it was, so you are here, for I was so lonesome without you that I was about to turn back and coax you to come with us or stay behind myself.”
“Were you really, Billy? How nice! Now I know you will feel all right when I tell you I have decided to go with you and never be separated from you again if I can help it.”
“Have you really decided to do that, Nannie, and not just come to tell me something you forgot to say to me?”
“Indeed I never was more in earnest in my life! My fears are all gone, or rather they are as nothing to the lonesomeness I felt when I saw you going from me and I realized how long it might be before I saw you again.”
HE SUCCEEDED IN LIFTING THE BRIDE INTO A CROTCH
OF THE TREE, BUT BEFORE HE COULD CLIMB UP
THE BULL WAS UPON HIM.
(Page [94])
“Hurrah! Hurrah for you, you sweet little wife of mine!” and Billy began to prance around in the water so he nearly drowned her.