“Heavens alive, Mona, where did you get all that mud?” asked John in some pardonable astonishment. “Have you been playing catch-as-catch-can with the pigs? You’re splashed up to the eyes in it.”

“I slipped into a pond,” said Mona.

“What, into the horsepond?” asked John.

“No, a pond out in one of the woods,” she explained.

“I didn’t know there was such a thing for miles round,” said John.

“Well, perhaps it would be an exaggeration to call it a pond,” said Mona, with a faint trace of resentment in her voice; “it’s only about an inch and a half deep.”