der lock and key in a little bottle and
the cork in so it can't get out, and hide the key and have a skeleton on
the bottle and not let nobody go there!" and Dot came out, breathless
but triumphant, with this complete and efficacious arrangement.

The bigger girls had gathered a great heap of the brown nuts before the
picnic dinner was served. Neale had done something beside shake down the
nuts. He had stripped off great pieces of bark from the yellow birch
trees and cut them into platters and plates on which the food could be
served very nicely. Neale was so resourceful, indeed, that Ruth had to
acknowledge that boys really were of some account, after all.

When they sat down, Turk-fashion, around the tablecloth which had been
spread, the oldest Corner House girl sighed, however: "But mercy! he
eats his share. Where do you suppose he puts it all, Aggie?"

"I wouldn't be unladylike enough to inquire," returned the roguish
sister, with a toss of her head. "How dreadful you are, Ruth!"

It was a very pleasant picnic. The crisp air was exhilarating; the dry
leaves rustled every time the wind breathed on them; and the tinkle of
the spring made pleasant music. Squirrels chattered noisily; jays
shrieked their alarm; the lazy caw of a crow was heard from a distance.

The tang of balsam was in the air and the fall haze looked blue and
mysterious at the end of the aisles made by the rows of tall trees. It
was after dinner that a seemingly well-beaten path attracted them, and
the whole party, including Tom Jonah, started for a stroll.

The path led them to an opening in the forest where a stake-and-rider
fence was all that separated them from a great rolling pasture. In the
distance were the craggy hills, where great boulders cropped out and the
forest was thin and straggly.

It was a narrow valley that lay before the young explorers. Directly
opposite was a crag as barren as a bald head.

"Look at the cloud shadow sailing over the field," said Ruth,
contemplatively.

Her remark might have passed without comment had not the shadow, thus
mentioned, changed form and darted suddenly to one side.

"Hi!" exclaimed Neale. "That's no cloud shadow."

"Look! look!" squealed Tess. "See the aeroplane!"

A flying machine had been exhibited at Milton only a few weeks before,
and the aviator had done some fancy flying over the house-roofs of the
town. Little wonder that Tess thought this must be another aeroplane,
for the huge bir