"You should give him an answer, dear, one way or the other." These wise words were spoken by Mrs. Fenwick to her friend as they sat together, with their work in their hands, on a garden seat under a cedar tree. It was an August evening after dinner, and the Vicar was out about his parish. The two elder children were playing in the garden, and the two young women were alone together. [Illustration: "You should give him an answer, dear, one way or the other."] "Of course I shall give him an answer. What answer does he wish?" "You know what answer he wishes. If any man was ever in earnest he is." "Am I not doing the best I can for him then in waiting--to see whether I can say yes?" "It cannot be well for him to be in suspense on such a matter; and, dear Mary, it cannot be well for you either. One always feels that when a girl bids a man to wait, she will take him after a while. It always comes to that. If you had been at home at Loring, the time would not have been much; but, being so near to him, and seeing him every day, must be bad. You must both be in a state of fever." "Then I will go back to Loring." "No; not now, till you have positively made up your mind, and given him an answer one way or the other. You could not go now and leave him in doubt. Take him at once, and have done with it. He is as good as gold." In answer to this, Mary for a while said nothing, but went sedulously on with her work. "Mamma," said a little girl, running up, followed by a nursery-maid, "the ball's in the water!" The child was a beautiful fair-haired little darling about four-and-a-half years old, and a boy, a year younger, and a little shorter, and a little stouter, was toddling after her. "The ball in the water, Flo! Can't Jim get it out?" "Jim's gone, mamma." Then Jane, the nursery-maid, proceeded to explain that the ball had rolled in and had been carried down the stream to some bushes, and that it was caught there just out of reach of all that she, Jane, could do with a long stick for its recovery. Jim, the gardener, was not to be found; and they were in despair lest the ball should become wet through and should perish. Mary at once saw her opportunity of escape,--her opportunity for that five minutes of thought by herself which she needed. "I'll come, Flo, and see what can be done," said Mary. "Do; 'cause you is so big," said the little girl. "We'll see if my long arms won't do as well as Jim's," said Mary; "only Jim would go in, perhaps, which I certainly shall not do." Then she took Flo by the hand, and together they ran down to the margin of the river. There lay the treasure, a huge red inflated ball, just stopped in its downward current by a short projecting stick. Jim could have got it certainly, because he could have suspended himself over the stream from a bough, and could have dislodged the ball, and have floated it on to the bank.