"Yes, there; we will give that place a new association." But she was glad to reach the seat, for she trembled so she could hardly stand. Then he told her how he purposed to surprise her, and answered every eager question. "O, Annie!" he concluded, "how I have longed for this hour! Never did that dreadful ocean seem so wide before." She looked at him more fondly than she knew, and said, "Ah, Walter! your blood is not on my hands after all." "Let me see," he said. "I know it is not," she replied, putting them behind her back; "don't I see you there well and happy?" "I don't know but it will be on your hands yet," he said, half-tragically, springing up. She gave him a swift look of inquiry, but her eyes dropped as quickly beneath his eager gaze, while her deep blush caused her to vie with the sugar-maple on the lawn in very truth. But he said after a moment, "Annie, dear, won't you let me interpret another chestnut burr for you?" "Certainly, Walter," she tried to say innocently, "all that are on the tree." "Now don't make fun of me, because I'm desperately in earnest. I don't want one like that I chose with a great lonely worm-infested chestnut in it. What a good, wholesome lesson you gave me then! Thank you, Annie, darling." "Brothers don't use such strong language toward their sisters," said Annie, looking on the ground. "I can't help it. To tell the honest truth I'm not much of a brother. Neither do I want one like that which you chose with three chestnuts in it. _Three_, faugh! I've had enough of that. I want to find one like that which you brought me the first day I met you here." "You will never find it if you stand talking forever." "You won't go away?" "Perhaps not." He looked at her doubtfully, but she would not meet his eye. Then he started on his search, but kept looking back so often that she laughed, and said, "I'm not a chestnut burr." "I'm afraid of you." "Then you had better run away." "Sisters shouldn't tease their brothers." "Well, forgive me this time." He caught a branch full of half-open burrs, and peered eagerly in them till he found one to his mind, and pulled it off regardless of the pricking spines, then came and kneeled at her side, and said, "Now, Annie, dear, look into it carefully. This is nature's oracle. You see two solid, plump chestnuts." "Well?" she said, faintly. "And you see this false, empty form of shell between them?" "Yes"--with a touch of sadness. "That's Hunting, poor wretch! How unspeakable was his loss!" and he tossed the worthless emblem away. "And now, Annie, loved beyond all words I can ever find to tell you, see how near these two chestnuts are together--as near as you and I are in heart, I trust. Surely my poor pretence of brotherly character has not deceived you for a moment. Won't you please put your dainty fingers down into the burr and join the two together?" She lifted her drooping eyes a moment to the more eloquent pleading of his face, but they fell as speedily.