Daisy laughed at him, but she could not conceive how they should get to the bottom. It was very steep, and strewn with dead leaves from the trees which grew thick all the way. Rolling down was out of the question, for the stems of the trees would catch them; and to keep on their feet seemed impossible. Daisy found, however, that Captain Drummond could manage what she could not. He took hold of her hand again; and then Daisy hardly believed it while she was doing it, but there she was, going down that bank in an upright position; not falling nor stumbling, though it is true she was not walking neither. The Captain did not let her fall, and his strong hand seemed to take her like a feather over the stones and among the trees, giving her flying leaps and bounds down the hill along with him. How he went and kept his feet remained always a marvel to Daisy; but down they went, and at the bottom they were in a trifle of time.
"Do you think he will come down there after us?" said the
Captain.
"I am sure he won't," said Daisy.
"So am I sure. We are safe, Daisy. Now I am your prisoner, and you are my prisoner; and we will set each other at any work we please. This is a nice place."
Behind them was the high, steep, wooded bank, rising right up. Before them was a little strip of pebbly beach, and little wavelets of the river washing past it. Beyond lay the broad stream, all bright in the summer sunshine, with the great blue hills rising up misty and blue in the distance. Nothing else; a little curve in the shore on each side shut them in from all that was above or below near at hand.
"Why, this is a fine place," repeated the Captain. "Were you ever here before?"
"Not in a long time," said Daisy. "I have been here with
June."
"June! Aren't we here with June now?"
"Now? Oh, I don't mean the month I mean mamma's black June," said Daisy, laughing.
"Well, that is the first time I ever heard of a black June!" muttered the Captain. "Does she resemble her name or her colour?"