Miss Letty did not answer though she was afraid he would hear her heart beat it was thumping so loudly, but looking about with a swift glance spied Tommy’s gun that had fallen unnoticed in the grass. Seizing it, she slipped it between the two furthest apart wires, managing to catch a barb in the muzzle, and pried, while with the handle of her riding crop she pulled back the two loose strands with all her strength. There was a sound of tearing cloth, a pocket burst open, throwing its contents in among the leaves, and Mr. Hugh crawled out on his hands and knees, literally at Miss Letty’s feet. Just as she stretched out her hand to help him, lest he slip backward, one of the papers that Tommy was cramming back into the letter-case caught her eye; it was the picture of herself that Anne had taken, and which had disappeared as if by magic. Mr. Hugh, if it was possible, turned redder than he was before he was released; but Letty, with quiet tact, quickly unfastened Brown Kate and, scrambling into the saddle by the aid of a stone at the fence corner, cantered off in the opposite direction to where Mr. Hugh’s horse was now quietly grazing. For a minute the big man and the little one stood eying each other curiously. Then Tommy broke the pause: “Now isn’t Miss Letty common sensible and useful enough to be your sweetheart, Mr. Hugh, even if she is pretty? And wouldn’t that red and black girl have shouted if she’d seen you in the fence?” “Yes, Tommy,” said Mr. Hugh, quietly; “you are a better judge than I was; but Miss Letty does not wish to be the sweetheart of an old bear like me.” “No,” said Tommy, candidly, “I guess not, for I’ve heard her say you were a bear, and so has Anne.” And though Tommy handed back the letter book containing the picture without further comment, he had seen, and when one has seen a thing, one can hardly unsee it again. Mr. Hugh secured his horse and regained the road, Tommy riding in front of him, before he overtook the others; and the beseeching look that the big man gave the little one as he swung him to the ground kept him quiet concerning the barbed wire episode, at least for some hours. * * * * * At the end of an afternoon spent in archery, and shooting clay pigeons, winding up with a great game of hide and seek, in which old and young, men and women, joined, the last one to be found receiving a prize of the beautifully painted head of a foxhound, supper and the fire warmth made the party good-naturedly drowsy.