CHAPTER XXVI.
ADVENTURES MANIFOLD.
"I've et hearty," said the woman, saucily, as the breakfast, for which the birds furnished the music, was done.

And then he initiated her into the brief art of washing tin things in the gravel at the water's edge.

Then he informed her that target practice was about to begin, and brought out four guns from their cases.
Two of the pieces were rifles, and of each kind one was a light and dainty piece.

He said they would practice with the rifles; that when she became an expert rifle-shot the rest would all be easy, and then upon the boll of a tree at one side of the opening he pinned a red scrap of paper, and shot at it.
With the report half the scrap was torn away, and then he taught her how to hold the piece and how to aim.
She expressed, at last, a desire to shoot, and he gave her the little rifle loaded.

She aimed swiftly and desperately, and pressed the trigger, and the echoes had not died away when she let fall the gun upon the grass.
"I'm hurt," she said.
He sprang to her side, pale-faced, as she raised her hand to her shoulder, but he brightened a moment later.