he
pretty, bright little Irish Betty! Why, it would be like starting all
over again!

Hazel was fingering Cora's guitar. The chords of the "Gypsy's Warning"
just floated through the room. Walter hummed, Jack almost whistled, Ed
looked the part, but Cora!

Cora, brave, beautiful and capable--Cora jumped up and seemed to find
some flowers in the vases absolutely absorbing. Cora did not take any
part in rendering even the subdued "Gypsy's Warning."

CHAPTER XVI

THE DISAPPEARANCE

"But it is lonely, and I think we had best keep close together."

"But I want to----"

"Show Betty how beautiful it is to be lonely. Wallie Pennington, you
are breaking your contract. No one was to get----"

"Personal. Oh, all right--take Betty," and Walter emitted a most
unmusical brawl. "Of course, you and Ed are keeping the contract. You
are doing as you please. Behold Ed now, carrying Cora over a
pebble----"

"That's because Ed loves _me_," declared Jack, "and he is saving Cora's
boots."

"All the same, I simply won't carry Bess. She might melt in my arms."

The young men were exploring the woods in the White Mountains. The
girls were racing about in absolute delight over the ferns, while Mr.
Rand, who had actually taken the "jaunt" from the hotel afoot, sat on a
huge stone comparing notes with his muscles, and with the inactive
years of discretion and indiscretion.

"They're like a lot of young animals," he was saying to any one near
enough to hear, "and I--I am like something that really ought to know
better."

"Just suppose," said Jack to Ed, "that a young deer should spring out
just there where Belle and Hazel are sitting. What do you think would
be the act?"

"Hazel would try to catch the deer, and Belle would go up a tree. Give
me something harder."

"Well, then, suppose a tramp should come along the path and ask Betty
for the thing that hangs around her neck. What would happen then?"

"Walter would get mixed up with his trampship. That, too, is easy."

"Cora says we have got to get back to earth in time for the Chelton
fair. Now, I never thought that Cora cared about that sort of thing,"
Walter remarked.

"But it's the home town, and Cora knows her name is on some committee,"
replied Ed. "I guess we will get enough of these wilds in a week. At
any rate, all Cora does care for is the car--she would rather motor
than eat."

Betty had taken some wild berries to her father. "I say, sis,"