Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/118

 It was only chance, of course, but the sun was mild and clear, the blue lake was like a mirror  and the flaming trees in the forest unstirred by  any wind. Even though he knew better, he felt that, if he listened intently enough, he might hear  church bells ring.

“Aren’t you ever mistaken when you think it feels like a Sunday?” Hugh asked curiously.

“Oh, yes,” Oscar admitted, “I feel that I should know, but I don’t. Last year when I went down to Rudolm I found that I was three days out and  had been having Sunday on a Wednesday for a  month. How Linda laughed at me!”

“Did you ever know how you happened to lose count?” Hugh inquired idly.

He had sat down upon the doorstep also, where he could see, on one side, the open sunlit valley  and, on the other, the narrow ravine with its little  stream that ran between them and Jasper Peak.

“Yes, I knew how I missed count,” Oscar answered, smiling a little queerly as he looked  down at one of his big rough hands. Whether he would have gone on to explain is not certain,