'll pine away and go into a gradual decline," said Will,
languishingly, trying, unsuccessfully, to put his head on Amy's
shoulder.

"Stop it!" she commanded.

"I have it!" cried Frank. "That girl wasn't--well, not to put too fine a
point upon it--she wasn't just right in her head. That's why she climbed
a tree."

"Poor girl!" spoke Amy. "I hope she found some friends, at any rate,"
and Amy thought of the mystery surrounding her own life, and how
fortunate she had been to find such a good home with Mr. and Mrs.
Stonington.

Talking of the recent happening, laughing and joking, the young people
were soon in Deepdale, and a little later had separated to their several
homes.

As Mollie had said, the details of the tour were now practically
settled. Mollie's cousin, Mrs. Jane Mackson, had arranged to accompany
the girls as chaperone, and on such times as she could not be with them
they were to stop over night at the homes of friends or relatives.

They did not arrange for any definite rules about their trips. It was to
be a pleasure jaunt, and at times they would cover more ground than
others. Nor were any fixed dates set as to when they would be at certain
places. As Mollie aptly expressed it:

"It's so much nicer not to know exactly what you are going to do, and
then if anything comes up to make you change your plans you're not
disappointed. We're going to be as care-free as we can."

And so the tour was laid out. The girls would take with them suit-cases
with sufficient change of raiment to do them until other things could be
forwarded from their homes to various designated points. Occasionally
they would take a run back to Deepdale to renew necessaries.

The farthest point they would reach would be to visit an aunt of
Mollie's in Midvale, about two hundred miles from Deepdale. But this
would come at the end of the tour.

"Well, I think we are all ready to start!" exclaimed Mollie one morning,
when the three girls, and her cousin, had assembled at her house. "Have
you everything you need?"

"Not nearly--but all I can carry," announced Betty.

"No, no, Dodo! Mustn't climb in the car!" admonished Mollie, for the
little girl was endeavoring to do so.

"Dot any tandy?" demanded Paul, possibly as the price of not following
his sister's example.

"Ess--us ikes tandy!" cried Dodo, climbing down.

"Oh, Grace, will you kindly oblige again!" begged Mollie, as she took
her place at the wheel.

"Certainly," said