Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-25

well as Dennis. could climb better than
he, and bowled unusually well "for q
girl" Madge withdrew, from time to
time, into q world Of her own. She
had gawky girl friends, with long.
black-stockinged legs and severe pig
tails, with whom she spent hours in
mysterious conversations, and at tea
time, when girls and boys met round
a table laden with heavy homemade
currant, walnut, or seed cakes, she
would giggle about nothing at all. So
that Dennis Stanhope, who had looked
upon her almost as his best friend, be-
came sulky d bad-tempered, and
alternately blushed or was rude when
he met these little girls from neigh
boring houses. 1t seemed to Linn that
they made jokes about him behind his
back, and when he saw one coming
down the village street he would do his
best to, turn off into q side lane which
led him to places he had no wish to
visit, such as the courtyard Of the
Bank House, or Morden Farm, or the
butchers stables.
"Pity Madge is getting such q silly
kid" he remarked once to Jimmy.
That's the worst of girls-always
giggling"
And Jimmy, who had much to put
up with in this respect, agreed
fervently.
Probably 1t was this feeling that
Madge was no longer so frankly under
standable which made Dennis confide
so much in the younger boy, despite the
three years that separated them. Be-
sides, he was a born leader, and a
leader needs followers, so that Jimmy
and Pat, the fox-terrier, were always
welcome company.
One day they persuaded cook to give
them some cold sausage sandwiches,
onions and apples (since some bigger
boy at Barford had assured Dennis that
you could walk all day on onions and
apples, and 1t was felt that something
OF the sort was needed to counteract
the heaviness of the sausages), and
they set out on their great exploration.
Half a mile beyond Crabtree Farm ran
the Highland stream, and nobody-at
any rate, nobody in the house-had
ever followed 1t up to its source. The
North and South Poles, Central Africa,
New Guinea and South America were
all too far away, but the Highland
brook was not bad substitute for the
Amazon.
It, ran, first. past the blackened moor
land they had set on fire year before,
and through the jungle of Wilman's
Wood. The osiers here were so thick
through them as they might have done
through what Chums or the Boys Own
Paper would have called "primeval
forest" And Pat became so excited by
the presence of rabbits that he had to
be put on his lead and dragged un-
willingly along at their heels-as Dennis
pointed out, If he were allowed to
wander they would lose him, or. even
worse. he might betray their presence
to tribes OF head hunters, who would
shoot at them with darts stepped in
deadly poison, and would stun their
heads as trophies.
The water flowed rapidly over brown
shiny pebbles, and small ferns dropped
over it, just touched the surface, swayed
away shivering, and touched again. On
the top of the bank were patches Of
deep green moss. When you lay down
with your ear to the ground tc hear If
you were being pursued, it had all the
appearance of a real tropical jungle;
with busy life of its own going on,
quite Indifferent to the presence of two
boys who were 50 gigantic that they
were beyond the compass Of an insects
vision. BY treading carefully on this
moss, footsteps were almost soundless,
and, when Pat could be persuaded not
to whimper, there were frequent rus
things among last years dried leaves
which told or some animal or blrd sur.
prised. 1t was hot here in the woods,
and over the less hurried stretches Of
water thousands of gnats hung, glinting
like gold dust in the shafts of sunlight.
Every now and then Dennis, who led,
| started back as a silk thread of cobweb
broke across his face. Sometimes they
| found webs, perfectly symmetrical, sag
| ging q little beneath the weight Of a
| gross spider at least as alarming and
as venomous. they decided, as any
tarantula. Though neither of them
said anything, they were both glad
when the character Of the wood chang
ed, and they reached a cathedral-like
| grove Of beech trees, with holly bushes
clustering round their smooth, straight
trunks A little later they were out
on the moor, with springy, rabbit
bitten turf near the waters edge, and
heather, cut here and there by sheep
or rabbit tracks, stretching on either
side of them almost as far as they
could see.
Pat was let off his lead. and he
jumped, stiff-legged. over the purple
heather, as though he were on springs
His barking disturbed skylarks and
meadow pipits, and kestrel hawk
lowering overhead. swerved away In
alarm at the sight of this mad creature
Of black and white dashing to and frc
after real or imaginary quarry and %
confident that She 1whole moor had