arn.

"Whoa!" said Peter to Terry.

"Oh, Mr. Peter!" The four little Blossoms rushed out to greet him.
"Where are you going? Can't we go? Where's Jerry?"

Peter surveyed the four Indians gravely.

"Well, as I'm going up in the mountain, I guess we won't meet any one
who'll be scared to death," he said slowly. "So I don't know but
perhaps you might hop in. Jerry? I left him in the stable. This wagon
goes with one horse."

As the children scrambled in, Peter thought of something.

"Like as not Miss Polly'll be back before we are," he observed. "She
might miss all four of you if no one's about. Jud!"

"Here!" shouted Jud from the back garden.

He came to the gate in the hedge.

"Jud, if Miss Polly comes home and doesn't find any children, just
tell her they're with me and that we'll be home by six. I'm going up
in the mountain."

"All right," said Jud.

"How do you go up in the mountain?" inquired Meg curiously, as they
turned into the road.

She was sitting on the front seat with Peter, Twaddles was between
them, and Dot was in her lap. Bobby stood up in the wagon behind them
and looked over their shoulders.

"I guess I mean up on the mountain," Peter corrected himself. "We've
got kind of a habit round here of saying 'in the mountain.' Ever been
up there?"

The four little Blossoms had never been there--indeed they did not
know there was a mountain near by.

"Well, I suppose it's more of a hill," admitted Peter. "But it's the
best mountain we have. Queer people live up there. They don't see much
of anybody, and some of 'em's as timid as deer. The children, now, run
when they see a stranger coming."

"What are we going to get?" asked Bobby. He had been long enough on
the farm to know that when one harnessed up a horse and wagon there
was usually something to be fetched or carried.

"I'm going up to see if I can't get a woman to come down next week and
help Mrs. Peter do some cleaning," explained Peter. "Help's scarce in
the town, and some of the mountain-folk like to earn a little money in
the summer. Miss Polly taking the buggy, I had to get along with the
market wagon. 'Sides, the thought came to me that I might meet some
one who wanted a ride."

Meg saw Peter's eyes twinkling and she guessed that he had meant to
ask them to go with him all the time.

Terry was going up a steep road now, narrow as well as steep, and the
untrimmed trees lashed against the curtained sides of the wagon as it
passe