the mile and a half of intervening valley
That inflammable knot was not hard to
find. Split with the toy axe which the
girl who had won an honor bead for signaling
carried at her belt--a modern Maid
Marion, at home in all woodcraft--it
blazed, transplendent, a foot-long flambeau,
searching the Pinnacle's darkest
nooks, winning sleepy birds from their
slumbers, calling upon them to follow
too, as Tomoke, nimble of foot as her
aerial namesake, presently dashed up the
hill, with it held high!

Brilliant as a starshell--where near-by
objects were concerned--it counted the
needles upon the little, awed pine trees.
It painted the wild excitement upon leaping
girls' faces, lit dancing Jack-o'-lanterns
in their eyes as, scrambling, they followed
the light-shod leader--gold-slippered
by the torch--in a breathless
tumble-up over rock and needled carpet,
amid scandalized bough and shamefaced
crag and little, blinking torrent.
[[126]]

p125 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p126w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p127

v?