p out of the water, don't you see?"

"To an ordinary mind, that object would seem more likely to be attained
if you kept further away from it."

"May I come up where you are?"

"Certainly!" said Lois. "But take care how you do it."

A little scrambling and the help of Tom's hand accomplished the feat;
and the new comer looked about him with much content.

"You came the other way," he said. "I see. I shall know how next time.
What a delightful post, Miss Lothrop!"

"I have been trying to find what she came here for; and she won't tell
me," said Tom.

"You know what you came here for," said his friend. "Why cannot you
credit other people with as much curiosity as you have yourself?"

"I credit them with more," said Tom. "But curiosity on Appledore will
find itself baffled, I should say."

"Depends on what curiosity is after," said Lenox. "Tell him, Miss
Lothrop; he will not be any the wiser."

"Then why should I tell him?" said Lois.

"Perhaps I shall!"

Lois's laugh came again.

"Seriously. If any one were to ask me, not only what we but what
anybody should come to this place for, I should be unprepared with an
answer. I am forcibly reminded of an old gentleman who went up Mount
Washington on one occasion when I also went up. It came on to rain--a
sudden summer gust and downpour, hiding the very mountain it self from
our eyes; hiding the path, hiding the members of the party from each
other. We were descending the mountain by that time, and it was
ticklish work for a nervous person; every one was committed to his own
sweet guidance; and as I went blindly stumbling along, I came every now
and then upon the old gentleman, also stumbling along, on his donkey.
And whenever I was near enough to him, I could hear him dismally
soliloquizing, 'Why am I here!'--in a tone of mingled disgust and
self-reproach which was in the highest degree comical."

"So that is your state of mind now, is it?" said Tom.

"Not quite yet, but I feel it is going to be. Unless Miss Lothrop can
teach me something."

"There are some things that cannot be taught," said Lois.

"And people--hey? But I am not one of those, Miss Lothrop."

He looked at her with such a face of demure innocence, that Lois could
not keep her gravity.

"Now Tom _is_," Lenox went on. "You cannot teach him anything, Miss
Lothrop. It would be lost labour."

"I am not so stupid as you think," said Tom.

"He's not stupid--he's obstinate," Lenox went on, add