ible. One of the reasons for my call was to ask you to let your girls
help us out with our amusements. As soon as I told my father we had met
some delightful American girls who were camping near here, he suggested
that we invite them to join in our sports. We intend to have some really
good riding; but the other games are only jokes. Did you ever hear of a
dummy race or a thread-and-needle race?"

Miss Stuart shook her head, smilingly, as she said, "Miss Morton, I don't
even try to keep up with the ways young people have of entertaining
themselves these days; but I am sure, whatever your Lenox sports may be,
my 'Automobile Girls' will be happy to take part in them."

"That's awfully jolly of you, Miss Stuart!" declared Dorothy Morton, who
was the younger and more informal of the English girls. She turned to
Ruth.

"Won't you come in and have a game of archery with us to-morrow
afternoon? Father and mother will both be at home. We can tell you all of
our plans for next week."

"We'll be happy to come," laughed Ruth, "but none of us know how to use
the bow. That is an English game, isn't it? We shall be delighted to look
on."

"Oh, archery is all the rage at Lenox," little Mr. Heller explained.
"Perhaps you will let me show your friends how to shoot."

Ruth shook her head. "We shall have plenty to learn if we are to take
part in your queer races next week. If my friend, Miss Carter, is better
to-morrow you may expect us."

Grace came out on the porch. "I am well, already!" she apologized. "At
least I decided that, headache or no headache, I couldn't miss all the
fun this afternoon. So here I am!"

"Now, we must positively say good-bye, Miss Stuart," declared Mr. Latham,
extending his hand. "I want to take you and your girls for a drive to
Lake Queechy. Then you must see the place where the Hawthorne's 'little
red house' formerly stood. The house burned down some years ago, but the
site is interesting, for Hawthorne lived in the Berkshires a number of
years and wrote 'The House of Seven Gables' here. We have plenty of
literary associations, Miss Stuart. My people have lived here so long
that I take a deep interest in the history of the place."

"Lake Queechy," Miss Sallie exclaimed sentimentally, "is the lake named
for Susan Warner, the author of 'Queechy' and 'The Wide, Wide World.'
Dear me, I shed quantities of tears over those books in my day. But girls
don't care for such weepy books nowadays, do they? They w