Julia came on the promised morning, and, to the delight of Beth, she brought not only her own stilts, but bore an extra pair as a gift to Beth. Poor Beth was black and blue all over before she conquered those unruly stilts, but it took more than bruises to dampen her ardor. Julia was an expert in stilt walking. She could go up and down steps on hers; she could dance with them, and do other feats that appeared marvelous to Beth, and made her ambitious to do likewise. However, Beth persevered so faithfully that soon she was on the road to being an expert herself. Stilts took up a good share of the morning, and, by lunch time, both children had fine appetites, although Beth was very tired. Mrs. Davenport suggested that the children play in the house for a change. They soon tired, however, of the indoor sports, and Beth, although she was so lame that she could hardly move, declared that she had never felt better, and away they ran to their stilts again. Julia had already shown off about all of her stilt accomplishments, so she thought and thought to devise something new whereby to arouse Beth's admiration afresh. "Beth, I have it. We'll walk out in the river on our stilts. I've never tried that. It will be great." Beth looked somewhat doubtful. "Weren't stilts made for land? They're not boats." "Oh, pshaw. If you're afraid, you can watch me." Watch her indeed! Dragons could not have kept Beth from making the attempt if Julia did. They took their stilts to the river. Beth was in such a hurry to show Julia she was not afraid, that she had great difficulty in starting. Julia mounted, and walked out into the water as proudly as a peacock. Beth followed, but, of necessity, more slowly, and she kept near the wharf. Julia skimmed through the water for a minute or two almost as easily as she went on land. But alas, pride goes before a fall. The river bed near the shore is of hard sand, but a little way out it becomes marshy. Suddenly Julia's stilts stuck. She tried to raise them, but they would not budge. Now, as every stilt walker knows, it is impossible to stay motionless on stilts. Over Julia went into the water, headforemost. Beth was so startled that she herself almost lost her balance, but, fortunately, she grabbed the wharf, and scrambled up on that. Away floated her stilts. "Hello, what have we here?" and Harvey's boat darted towards them from under the bridge. "Oh, Harvey, save her," cried poor Beth, almost in tears but somewhat reassured now that her boy friend was near. "The water is hardly deep enough to drown a flea," he answered. However, he rowed up to Julia, and held out his hand. "You had better step into my boat; you might be a worse stick in the mud than ever if you waded ashore." "I prefer to walk." Julia tried to look dignified, but the attempt was an utter failure. Dirty water dripped from her matted hair, while her face and clothes were streaked with mud.