I am inclined to think that herein lay the secret of it.
Then Gypsy never "preached." If she happened to be right, and another person wrong, she never put on superior airs, and tried to patronize them into becoming as good as she was.

She made her suggestions in such a straightforward, matter-of-fact way, as if of course you thought so too, and she was only agreeing with you; and was apt to make them so merrily withal, that there was no resisting her.
Therefore Tom, while pretending to carry his point, really yielded to the influence of Gypsy's kind feeling, in saying,-- "On the whole, Winnie, I've come to the conclusion to take you, on condition that you always do as I tell you in future.

And if you don't stop crying this minute, you sha'n't go." This rather ungracious consent was sufficient to dry Winnie's tears and silence Winnie's lungs, and the three seated themselves in the little boat, and started off in high spirits.

It was a light, pretty boat, painted in bright colors, and christened _The Dipper_, it being an appropriate and respectful title for a boat on the Kleiner Berg _Basin_.
Moreover, the air was as sweet as a May-flower, and as warm as sunshine; there was a soft, blue sky with clouds of silver like stately ships sailing over it, and such a shimmering, bright photograph of it in the water; then Tom was so pleasant, and rowed so fast, and let Gypsy help, and she could keep time with him, and the spray dashed up like silver-dust about the oars, and the bees were humming among the buds on the trees, and the blue dragon-flies, that skipped from ripple to ripple, seemed to be having such a holiday.

Altogether, Gypsy felt like saying, with famous little Prudy,-- "Oh, I'm so glad there happened to be a world, and God made me!" After a while Tom laid down his oars, and they floated idly back and forth among the lily-stems and the soft, purple shadows of the maple-boughs, from which the perfumed scarlet blossoms dropped like coral into the water.