ere getting to be a habit to be happy
among a good many persons in Winton that summer. The spirit of the new
club seemed in the very atmosphere.
A rivalry, keen but generous, sprang up between the club members in the
matter of discovering new ways of "Seeing Winton," or, failing that, of
giving a new touch to the old familiar ones.
There were many informal and unexpected outings, besides the club's
regular ones, sometimes amongst all the members, often among two or
three of them.
Frequently, Shirley drove over in the surrey, and she and Pauline and
Hilary, with sometimes one of the other girls, would go for long
rambling drives along the quiet country roads, or out beside the lake.
Shirley generally brought her sketch-book and there were pleasant
stoppings here and there.
And there were few days on which Bedelia and the trap were not out,
Bedelia enjoying the brisk trots about the country quite as much as her
companions.
Hilary soon earned the title of "the kodak fiend," Josie declaring she
took pictures in her sleep, and that "Have me; have my camera," was
Hilary's present motto. Certainly, the camera was in evidence at all
the outings, and so far, Hilary had fewer failures to her account than
most beginners. Her "picture diary" she called the big scrap-book in
which was mounted her record of the summer's doings.
Those doings were proving both numerous and delightful. Mr. Shaw, as
an honorary member, had invited the club to a fishing party, which had
been an immense success. The doctor had followed it by a moonlight
drive along the lake and across on the old sail ferry to the New York
side, keeping strictly within that ten-mile-from-home limit, though
covering considerably more than ten miles in the coming and going.
There had been picnics of every description, to all the points of
interest and charm in and about the village; an old-time supper at the
Wards', at which the club members had appeared in old-fashioned
costumes; a strawberry supper on the church lawn, to which all the
church were invited, and which went off rather better than some of the
sociables had in times past.
As the Winton _Weekly News_ declared proudly, it was the gayest summer
the village had known in years. Mr. Paul Shaw's theory about
developing home resources was proving a sound one in this instance at
least.
Hilary had long since forgotten that she had ever been an invalid, had
indeed, sometimes, to be reminded of tha
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