up!" she finally announced in a whisper, and
the quartette proceeded to the corner below, to be in readiness for
the car.

Juanita Sterling appeared to have lost her weak nerves somewhere on
the way, as the four left the road behind them and made a path
through the clover into the distance.

"I want to sit right down and enjoy it!" she exclaimed, dropping
among the blossoms. "Hear that bird! It's a bobolink--it is! Oh,
me! Oh, my! I haven't heard a bobolink for--I'm not going to
bother to think how long. It is glorious!"

"This isn't anything compared to the woods and the brook," asserted
Polly.

She put down her lunch-basket and snipped off some clover heads.

"Those are full of honey, Miss Nita,--taste! They aren't buggy a
mite."

Like bees they sipped and sipped, and laughed and said foolish
things like children at a merry-making.

Suddenly Miss Sterling sprang to her feet.

"The day is going," she cried, "and we must get there quick! Come!"

The "just a little way" of Polly's lengthened on and on until the
three who were not accustomed to country fields looked in dismay
toward the long line of trees which seemed so very far off.

"Are you fearfully tired?" Polly would reiterate, and "Not a bit!"
Miss Sterling would lie with complacency, while Mrs. Albright grew
wondrously jolly in her effort to keep everybody from realizing the
truth.

When, finally, they stepped into the dim, cool wood, melodious with
the gurgle and splash of hurrying water and the lilting of unseen
birds, nobody remembered the hot, weary way she had come.

Miss Sterling, stretched upon a bed of vines and moss, announced
that she was in "heaven."

Little Mrs. Adlerfeld looked across in answering sympathy.

"It makes me so glad and happy, it hurts," she said, her hand upon
her breast.

"I knew you'd love it!" exulted Polly, dropping lightly between the
two and laying a hand upon each. "Let's come out here every week!"

Nobody objected. Mrs. Albright wagged an approving smile, Mrs.
Adlerfeld continued her dreamy gaze into the brook, the invalid was
too drowsy to speak.

"Go to sleep, all of you!" Polly commanded gayly. "I'll have a
red-and-green luncheon for you when you wake up!"

She bounded off along the slippery pine-needled path and
disappeared behind a curtain of foliage.

Miss Sterling awoke with a start--where was she? Then the events
of the morning flashed into view, and she smiled contentedly.

Mrs.