Just now, Jack was a good deal sobered, and appeared at his very
best. The teaching of Dr. Paul and the companionship of Geoffrey had
done much for him, while the illness of his sister Elsie, who was the
darling of his heart, acted constantly as a sort of curb upon him;
for he loved her with all the ardour and passion which he gave to
everything else. You might be fearful of Jack's high spirits and
riotous mirth, of his reckless actions and heedless jokes, but you
could scarcely keep from admiring the boy; for he was brave and
handsome and winsome enough to charm the very birds off the bush, as
Aunt Truth acknowledged, after giving him a lecture for some
misdemeanour.
The three girls made their way a short distance up the canyon to a
place which they called Prospect Pool, because it was so entirely
shut in from observation.
'Dear old Geoff!' said Bell, throwing her shawl over a rock and
opening her volume of Carlyle. 'He has gone all through this for me,
and written nice little remarks on the margin,--explanations and
things, and interrogations where he thinks I won't know what is meant
and had better find out,--bless his heart! What have you brought,
Margery? By the way, you must move your seat away from that clump of
poison-oak bushes; we can't afford to have any accidents which will
interfere with our fun. We have all sorts of new remedies, but I
prefer that the boys should experiment with them.'
'It's the softest seat here, too,' grumbled Margery.
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