up.

The warning bell interrupted further conversation, and the girls and boys
filed into their classrooms.

As Alice had remarked, there was a good deal of talk going on among the
four members of the newly-formed Camping and Tramping Club. Every spare
moment the four seemed to have something to say to each other, as one or
the other thought of some new point to consider.

Following the hasty formation of the organization, the girls had sent
letters to their friends and relatives asking if it would be convenient
to entertain them. Some favorable answers had been received, others were
delayed. There were no refusals.

"As soon as we know on whom we can depend, we can make up a schedule--'an
itinerary'"--Betty had said. "We will know just where we will stop each
night, so the folks can send us word, if they have to," she added.

"Why should they have to, unless something happens?" asked Amy.

"Oh, that five hundred dollar bill might be claimed," said Betty. "We'd
want to know about that."

"And you haven't heard a word yet?" asked Grace.

"Not a word! I telephoned to the paper, and they said no replies had come
in there. If that young man is depending on this money to make his
fortune, I'm afraid he'll be broken instead of made, to use his own
expression," and Betty sighed.

The warning bell had broken in on their talk, as it had on that of the
rival girls. And then began the school day.

It was warm--very warm for that time of year, being early May, and as the
members of the new Camping and Tramping Club looked from the open
windows, out to where Spring was already forcing into bloom the flowers,
and urging the trees to greater activity, as regards the tender green
leaves, there came an almost overpowering desire to toss aside books and
papers, and get out where the smell of the brown earth mingled with the
perfume of growing vegetation.

The teachers, doubtless, found it difficult also, for the call of nature
manifested itself to them, and the girls and boys, rather selfishly, did
not make it as easy as they might.

The noon recess again brought the four friends together, and Betty
showed a tentative program she had surreptitiously scribbled during a
study period.

It contained the names of towns, with the available relatives of the
girls set down opposite each one, and a rough calculation of the time
required to walk from one place to the other.

"It seems as if we ought to start at once," exclaimed M