welve of us, with Miss Bickford and Miss Parr as leaders. Won't it be
ripping? It says Monte Pellegrino. Where's that? The big hill over
there? Oh, great! I love a climb! I'm just dancing to go! I feel as if I
had been boxed up inside these big walls for years and years. I only
wish Peachy and Delia had been on the list too."

"But we are!" exclaimed Delia's excited voice behind her. "Stella and
Marjorie both have colds, so we've swapped places with them, and they'll
go next time instead. Isn't it fine!"

"I'm tingling right down to my toes," agreed Peachy, her jolly little
freckled face one wide grin. "It's going to be an afternoon of
afternoons."

"If it doesn't rain," said Lorna, eyeing the sky suspiciously.

"Oh, don't be a wet blanket! It's no use courting trouble, honey, as
Willy Shakespeare says somewhere. Oh, well, if it wasn't Willy
Shakespeare it was somebody else who said it, and it's just as true
anyway. Take your umbrella and wait till the rain comes down before you
grumble. I've got an exeat and I didn't expect it, and I'm going off my
head a little. That's all! Don't worry yourselves about me. I'm sane at
the bottom."

With Peachy and Delia prancing about and hardly able to regulate their
satisfaction the expedition promised to be a lively one, though the
harum-scarum pair calmed down in the presence of Miss Bickford, and
assumed a deportment of due decorum. The favored twelve were half
seniors and half Transition, the remaining pair of the latter consisting
of Bertha Ford and Mabel Hughes. The Camellia Buds exchanged eloquent
glances at the sight of their arch-enemies, but wisely forbore to make
any provocative remarks; Delia indeed even murmured something pleasant
about the excursion to which Bertha grunted a reply, so the party
started off in apparent harmony.

Antonio, with his big key, unlocked the great gate, they filed through
into the eucalyptus-shaded road, and in ten minutes they had left the
quiet school behind them, and were down in the gay little town of
Fossato. It was new and wonderful to Irene. The wide main street with
its intense brilliant sunshine contrasting with the deep shade of the
narrow side streets, the open shop-fronts with their displays of
picturesque wares, the stalls of fruit and vegetables sold by quaint
country vendors, the balconies full of flowers, the kindly, dark-eyed,
smiling people, the pretty peasant children clattering about in heelless
wooden shoes, the bri