The boy laughed. "I would have come earlier if I could," Then, dismissing
the little horse, he turned eagerly, "Have you been there yet--to that
place up the river?"
"Indeed I have not," said the Doctor, "I have been waiting for you to
show me."
He was delighted at this, and very soon was leading the way along the
foot of the bluff to his favorite fishing ground.
It is too much to attempt the telling of that day: how they lay on the
ground beneath the giant-limbed cottonwoods, and listened to the waters
going past; how they talked of the wild woodland life about them, of
flower and tree, and moss and vine, and the creatures that nested and
denned and lived therein; how they caught a goodly catch of bass and
perch, and the Doctor, pulling off his boots, waded in the water like
another boy, while the hills echoed with their laughter; and how, when
they had their lunch on a great rock, an eagle watched hungrily from his
perch on a dead pine, high up on the top of the bluff.
When the shadow of the mountain was come once more and in answer to the
boy's whistle the black pony had trotted from the brush to be made ready
for the evening ride, the Doctor again watched his young companion
wistfully.
When he was ready, the boy said, "Father and mother asked me to tell you,
sir, that they--that we would be glad to have you come to see us before
you leave the hills." Seeing the surprise and hesitation of the Doctor,
he continued with fine tact, "You see I told them all about you, and they
would like to know you too.
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