it was certainly a great deal of trouble, the cake was better
than any confectioner's cake that I ever tasted. People took great pride
in it; and recipes were copied and handed about and talked over with an
interest which would be impossible now-a-days, when everything comes to
hand ready made, and you can order a loaf of sponge cake by postal card,
and have it appear in a few hours, sent by express from central New
York, as some of us have been doing this summer."

The last crumb of the Grandmother's loaf had now disappeared, and Mrs.
Gray proposed that the girls should go for a scramble on the hills while
she repacked the baskets. But this division of labor was not permitted.
The girls insisted that they must be allowed to stay and help, and that
the scramble would be no fun at all without their matron. Julia seized
the coffee-pot and chafing-dish, and ran up the hill to rinse them at
the spring; the others collected forks and plates; and, many hands
making light work, in a very short while all was in order, and Mrs. Gray
in readiness to head the walking party.

She guided them to the top of the granite ridge which is visible from
Newport, and made them observe the peculiarity of the rock lines, and
the contrast between their bareness and the fertility of the little
intervening glades, for which they serve as a natural conservatory. Then
they dipped down into the thickets of the farther side, finding all
manner of ferns and wild-flowers and shy growing things, and so to the
sandy flats above the third beach, with their outlook across the
river-like strait to Little Compton and up the curving shore of Newport
Island, set with old farm-houses and solemn orchards of gnarled
apple-trees. From thence a short walk brought them to the end of the
ridge and to Bishop Berkeley's seat, with its ponderous projecting roof
of rocks; and they all sat down to rest just where he is said to have
sat with his books and pen, looking off toward far Bermuda, and dreaming
of the "star of empire." At that time no ugly brick chimneys or
artificial water-basin existed to mar the foreground; and nothing
sweeter or more peaceful could be imagined than the view from the rocky
shelf,--the breadth of ocean lit with clear sun, the shining capes to
right and left, the yellow sand-dunes and winding creek bordered with
brown grasses and patches of mallow or green rushes, and over all the
arch of blue summer sky. One or two carriages rolled along the d