Three speckled beauties already lay in a basin of water at my side, and I was thinking what a pleasant world this would be were there no girls in it, when suddenly I heard a burst of silvery laughter! Looking up, there, on the opposite side of the brook, stood two young ladies! They were evidently city girls.

Their morning toilets were the perfection of simple elegance--hats, parasols, gloves, dresses, the very cream of style.
Both of them were pretty--one a dark, bright-eyed brunette, the other a blonde, fair as a lily and sweet as a rose.

Their faces sparkled with mischief, but they made a great effort to resume their dignity.
I jumped to my feet, putting one of them--my feet, I mean--in the basin of water I had for my trout.
"Oh, it's too bad to disturb you, sir," said the dark-eyed one.

"You were just having a nibble, I do believe.

But we have lost our way.