“You certainly are the most comforting girl!” she said. “I don’t wonder everybody does what you want them to.”
Winona didn’t know what to say. It’s pleasant to have people say such things to you, but it is embarrassing, too.
“People like you just as much as they do me,” said she. “Come on, let’s go see if we can find the river we’ve heard so much about.”
They caught hands and ran on through the trees.
The river was not hard to find. Above them it was a broad stream, but just here it wasn’t very wide, just a pretty, clear, clean-looking stream, with green banks and some sort of a dock to be seen a little way beyond them. On the dock, when they reached it, was seen to be an elderly native with a pipe, and beside him was moored a rowboat which looked as if it could be rowed. He looked up from his fishing as the girls appeared.
“Morning,” he said sociably, “you little girls going down to the village?”
“Good-morning,” said Winona. “No, we hadn’t thought of it. We might, though. Is there anything we could get for you if we went?”
“Well,” said the old man, jerking in his line with a good-sized fish on it, “ye-es, there is. I want an ad put in the paper. I guess I could trust you with a quarter to do it with.”
“I guess you could,” said Winona, smiling. “Will this afternoon do? I don’t believe we’d have time now to get there and back before dinner-time.” She looked at her wrist-watch. “No, we won’t,” she said. “It’s eleven now.”
“Well, this afternoon would do,” he said.