"You always take things up in the wrong way," she said—"I never thought you a bit like Pettigrew! Your hands are not really dirty!"
"They are!" he answered, obstinately. "Besides, you don't want my arm round your waist, do you?"
"Certainly not!" she replied, quickly.
"Then I'll stand," he said;—"You shall be enthroned like a queen and
I'll be your bodyguard. Here, wait a minute!"
He piled up the hay in the middle of the load till it made a high cushion where, in obedience to his gesture, Innocent seated herself. The men leading the horse were now close about the waggon, and one of them, grinning sheepishly at the girl, offered her a daintily-made wreath of wild roses, from which all the thorns had been carefully removed.
"Looks prutty, don't it?" he said.
She accepted it with a smile.
"Is it for me? Oh, Larry, how nice of you! Am I to wear it?"
"If ye loike!" This with another grin.
She set it on her uncovered head and became at once a model for a Romney; the wild roses with their delicate pink and white against her brown hair suited the hues of her complexion and the tender grey of her eyes;—and when, thus adorned, she looked up at her companion, he was fain to turn away quickly lest his admiration should be too plainly made manifest before profane witnesses.