Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/383

 rest of the next morning along the river-bank, just above the old Captain's orchard. There, while looking over the ground and perfecting his plans, he came unexpectedly upon Pauline Augusta Persons, sailing chip-boats at the river-edge.

"You 'd better get home out o' this!" he commanded, scowling darkly down at her. "Git!" he repeated.

Pauline Augusta, beholding her old-time enemy thus threatening her, fled pell-mell to the near-by shelter of a clump of burdocks, amid which she pushed and squatted, quite motionless, somewhat after the fashion of a very young robin. Her enemy scowled over toward her once or twice; but vaster concerns preoccupied his mind. A raft of elm logs lay close in to the shore, waiting for the screaming mill-saw to rip them up into two-inch planks. Watching his chance, when the mill-men were away at dinner, he quietly loosened the piece of logging-chain which held the lower end of the boom, and then silently poled the raft downstream. Opposite the upper corner of the old Captain's orchard he worked it close in to the bank again, making it fast to a young willow.