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he had to hide out alone. Maybe the less she knew, the better!

SIX
    Laura looked across the tall grass to where Mira was playing. She felt a little better as she looked at her younger sister. The picnic had turned out not badly, after all. She had managed to get rid of Elizabeth without even trying, and she had found Red again. It was strange how bad beginnings turned into happy endings at times. She sighed and smiled.
    “Well, milady, shall we be off?” Red had walked up behind her. “I’ve set the lads straight, and now I’m after a lodging place. Do you know of one hereabouts?”
    “For the likes of you? I wouldn’t count on it!”
    “Ha! Ha! Too late. I already have a reservation, you know. One night’s lodging in the finest cow stall in the county. It says right here.” Red pulled a handkerchief out of his right pocket and waved it in the air.
    “Oh, your handkerchief—the blue one I gave you—it’s lying in the grass, just a bit past my sister. Mira! Go pick up the blue handkerchief in the grass over there and bring it back to me.” As Laura watched Mira run, she noticed that someone else was in the field. She was disappointed to see Thomas Mayo. He was probably on his way to find out what Red was doing here. It wasn’t as if Red was her beau, but it would have been nice just to talk with him alone for a bit.
    “Well, hello there,” Thomas called as he ambled toward them. “If it isn’t my old potato hole companion!” He walked up to Red and clapped a hand on his shoulder. The two looked at each other in silence.
    “I’ve not forgotten what you did for me, you know,” Red said after a few seconds. “I mean, it’s not every host that lays out such a spread of spuds.”
    “Oh, it was nothing. We treat all our guests well.”
    “Laura, Laura, I found the handkerchief!” Mira yelled, running over to where Laura and the boys were standing.
    “Can I keep it?”
    “No, Mira, it’s Red’s.”
    “No, it’s mine! I found it! It’s mine!”
    “Mira, it belongs to Red. Just give it to me, and I’ll give it to him.”
    “No, no! You’ll have to catch me first!” Mira started running at full speed across the grass and onto the muddy pathway by the river’s edge.
    “Mira, come back! Come back right now!”
    But Mira heard nothing. She just kept running, right into the clump of pussywillows on the riverbank.
    Laura ran after her as fast as she could, but when she got to the pussywillows, Mira was nowhere in sight. Laura looked down to the river and saw what had happened. Mira had lost her footing and had rolled down the bank and into the river. Laura screamed, but when she started for the water, her knees suddenly gave out, and she sank to the ground. Then she heard a splash and saw Red jump into the river.
    Everything was a bit blurry, but Laura thought she saw Mira surface and Red grab her. Mira was choking, sputtering and hitting at Red. Laura could not believe her eyes. While Red held Mira, still struggling, they both disappeared under the splashing water. When they came up, Mira had stopped struggling. Red swam back to the riverbank, holding Mira’s head above the water.
    As soon as Red was out of the water, he started slapping Mira on the back. He was wet and shivering, but he didn’t seem to notice. He gazed intently into Mira’s face, the crease between his eyebrows getting deeper and deeper. Finally, Mira started to breathe and cough.
    “Here, put my coat on her,” said Thomas, who had set his gun, horn, and bag down on the ground and was standing above Red. “Turn her over and hit her again.”
    Red did that, and Mira spit up some more water. Then she started to breathe normally.
    “What is it? What are you two ruffians—” It was Father’s voice. He had returned home in the middle of the morning, and when Elizabeth had come to the house with a strange tale about a missing food basket, he had decided to investigate. He was only a few hundred feet away when he heard