general thing, except an occasional brother or cousin, and we didn't
carry half as much to eat as seems to be considered necessary
now-a-days. Then we did all the work ourselves instead of taking cooks
and footmen to do it for us; but for all that, we thought them most
delightful. For one thing, we always went to some really interesting
place, such as the Glen, or the Dumpling Rocks, or the Paradise
Valleys."

"Where are the Paradise Valleys?" inquired Julia.

"Oh, I know what they are," said Maud Hallett. "They are lovely places
hidden in behind Bishop Berkeley's Rock. I went there once with Aunt
Edith. She knows all the nooks and corners of Newport better than
anybody else."

"Mamma, you must take us there some day," said Georgie.

"Oh, do, and let me go with you," pleaded Maud. "I should like so much
to see them again."

"Won't you take me too?" said Belle Jeffrys.

"We should all like to go," remarked Julia, slyly. "Oh, Mrs. Gray, dear,
I have such a lovely idea! Give us a picnic yourself, one of the nice
old-fashioned sort that you used to have when you were young, in the
Paradise Valley; won't you, dear Mrs. Gray? Oh, do!"

"You needn't coax so hard, Julia; I'm very easy to persuade when I like
to do a thing," said Mrs. Gray, with a laugh. "I'll give you a picnic
with pleasure; only I must make one stipulation, that it shall be
exclusively a girl-party. I don't think the young men of the present day
would enjoy the kind of thing I mean, or know what to make of it."

"Girls!" cried Julia, "just listen to what this dear angel says! She's
going to take us to Paradise Valley, all by ourselves, with no men to
bother and distract our attention.--Men _are_ out of place in Paradise
anyway; just think how Adam behaved! (this in a parenthesis).--It is to
be a real old-fashioned "goloptious" picnic. Now, who would like to go
besides myself?"

"I, I, I," cried the girls, with gratifying unanimity.

"Now, what day shall it be?" continued Julia. "Let's make Mrs. Gray
settle the time at once, and then she can't back out."

"I don't want to back out," said Mrs. Gray. "I enjoy the idea as much as
you do."

So, after some comparing of engagements, the next Thursday was fixed
upon.

"You had better make this the rendezvous," said the giver of the picnic.
"I shall have room for one girl in my wagonette besides my four. You
must all wear something stout, which won't spoil with scrambling over
rocks, and you need not