_Along the foot-path, leading in from the left, Oswald enters._ _He stops and looks back and for a time stands thus, as one_ _undecided, a forlorn expression upon his face. He then_ _turns and proceeds to the spring. Not finding the dipper,_ _he lays aside his staff and hat, and stretches himself out upon the flat stone at the entrance of the spring. While he is drinking, Selma leans cautiously from behind the trunk and raises her arm as if to drop something. Having evidently seen her shadow in the water, Oswald glances up, but seeing no one, lies down again and drinks. From behind the hole Selma tosses a burr into the spring. Oswald continues to drink. Finally he rises, and, taking up his hat and staff, goes up the slope and sits down upon the log. The girl moves stealthily around the trunk._ OSWALD--Selma. (_After a pause._) Selma. I saw you in the spring. SELMA--I'm there yet, then; you didn't take me out. (_She comes round the side of the trunk opposite the log and, stooping over, looks down into the spring._) O you should see the fishes! two, three, four, A troop of them! O Oswald, come and see! They're round a splash of sunlight in the spring. See how they twinkle and in the current stir Their little crimson fins. Ah, I've scared them. I really did; I scared them with my hair. See how it fell. (_She points to a mass of hair that has fallen past her cheek._) It would not hurt them, though. We must be still; we must not say a word. They never will play if they see us looking. (_Oswald points down into the spring._) That little green thing? That's a beech-nut burr. I threw it in to scare the water-sprite That looked up at you when you stooped to drink. You did not see her? Oh, I did. I peeped Like this, softly, over, over the edge, And saw her peeping from the mossy stones Down in the spring. Her hair was loose like mine And brown as buckeyes, and her lips were stained With juice of berries. Then I raised my hand. Thinks I: "I'll drop a beech-nut on his head." Then she raised hers as if to say: "Be still! I'll make the bubbles break against his nose." Was that what made you jump? You scared her so. I saw her hair fly up about her face As I leaped back. She lives down in the spring. This morning as I passed I stooped and said: "I'm going after berries; won't you come?" She beckoned to me, too, and seemed to say: "I can't leave home; my little fish will stray. You come down here; I have some pretty shells." Oh, look! Be still! She's let them come again. See them flash. OSWALD-- It's the green shell they're after.