"It was a bit stiff in one place!" Rose admitted. "I rather think we took the wrong turn, Peggy. Did you say left, after the big pine?"
"No, right; you didn't come up that bank? Poor little V.! no wonder she thinks she is killed. Let me take your hat off, V., and get you some water or something."
But Viola refused to part with her hat. She sat panting and crimson, and seemed really exhausted. Peggy eyed her with remorse. "I couldn't know that you would take the wrong turn, could I?" she said. "I'm awfully sorry!"
"Oh, but it was fine!" said Ethel Bird. "How do you find out all these places, Peggy? This is just lovely, isn't it?"
"By looking," said Peggy. "I like to poke about, and I came on this the other day. See, here's a little baby spring, trickling right out of the rock here. Isn't it pretty? and the water is clear and cold as ice. Shall I make you a leaf-cup, Viola? The best way, though, is to put your mouth down and drink, this way."
"Oh, I never would do that!" cried Clara Fair. "Why, a snake might go right down your throat, Peggy Montfort; truly it might. There was a man—"
"Oh, don't talk about a man!" cried Rose Barclay. "How could you, Clara? You remind me of my German lesson."
"I never said a word about your German lesson," said Clara, who was literal and matter-of-fact.
"No, but you reminded me," said Rose, who was imaginative and poetic. "All the morning I was saying to myself:
"'Der dickere Mann,
Des dickeren Mannes,
Dem dickeren Manne,
Den dickeren Mann.'"