"Yes, strong as that man's arms in mating season--hey, Molly?" And Nance punched Ann in the side. The girls laughed merrily. "Isn't 'Ole Bar' funny?" Ann said. "He's just back from an awful exciting trip to Arkansas, wherever that is. He'll have lots to tell." "Davy and father will get his stories. But say, Nance, do sounds make you think of smells?" "I never thought of such a thing." "Don't cow-bells make you think of hay and dandelions and grass and the smell of the cow-lot in the evening?" "They do go together." "And don't water running over roots make you think of willow blooms, and water dripping over stones sound like ferns when the stems are crushed? And the sound of crows--don't they bring the smell of the field furrows? And don't bees and honey-locust, and robins and apple blossoms, go together? I could name a hundred sounds that have smells for partners. "Yes, but you're funny, Ann, to think of such things." "Now I have a new pair. The sound of that horn, away off behind the trees, will always make me think of the first plum blossoms. The smell and the sound came together as I shook the branches, and the smell right here seemed to me exactly the same thing told in another way as the sound away over the water. O Nance--don't you love plum blossoms?" "I don't know as they're any better than dogwood or haw blooms and I'm not crazy about any of them." "You're just like John McNeil. John don't like plum blossoms. I nearly cried when he told me he was going to chop out all the plums and wild vines on his place. But those on our place will not be cut. Father has promised me the thicket and the dell on the creek for my flower garden forever." "I'd rather have a new belt-buckle. But let's go." "I'm ready--I'll race you to the top of the bill before the sun drops behind the trees. One--two--three--off," and with her spring flowers in her arms and her bonnet flying, Ann with Nance ran shouting up the hillside in the slanting rays of the April sun. CHAPTER II IN CLARY'S GROVE The evening of the day the imprisoned flat boat made its way successfully out of New Salem, the Clary Grove gang had a meeting. Windy Batts was expected to return from Springfield, where he had gone to prove his fitness for fellowship with the Clary Grove Boys by thrashing a Springfield strong man who had cast aspersions on his character as a pugilist. Clary Grove was a settlement of a few log houses near New Salem, so called for Bill Clary, the owner of the grove where the select met to swap stories, discuss news and partake of real liquor. Every new-comer to the vicinity was sized up. If Clary Grove was friendly, so much the better for the new-comer. He might not become a member of the gang. Indeed few were allowed to sit in close fellowship about the fire with the gang, but he would at least be let alone.