de" covered with nourishing vines,
grown from slips, which Irving secured from Sir Walter Scott at
Abbottsford.

Passing Tarrytown Colonel Harris said, "Here Major Andre was captured,
and the treachery of Benedict Arnold exposed, otherwise, we might to-day
have been paying tribute to the crown of Great Britain."

"Yes," replied Mr. Searles, "George Washington, patriot, hung Major
Andre, the spy. You made Washington president, and we gave Andre a
monument in Westminster Abbey."

Sing Sing and Peekskill were left behind, and the Express was approaching
the picturesque Highlands, a source of never failing delight to tourists.
West Point, the site of the famous United States Military Academy, is on
the left bank of the Hudson in the very bosom of the Highlands.

The sun set in royal splendor behind the Catskills;

"And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky,
And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven
So softly blending that the cheated eye
Forgets or which is earth, or which is heaven."

"Mr. Searles," said Colonel Harris, "before leaving America you must
climb the Catskills. Thousands every summer, escaping from the heat and
worry of life, visit those wind-swept 'hills of the sky.' There they find
rest and happiness in great forests, shady nooks, lovely walks, and fine
drives.

"There are several hotels in the vicinity. From one hotel on an
overhanging cliff you behold stretched out before you a hundred miles of
the matchless panorama of the Hudson. The Highlands lie to the south, the
Berkshire Hills and Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to
the north. The latter is a paradise for disciples of Nimrod and of Izaak
Walton, and a blessed sanitarium for Americans, most of whom under skies
less gray than yours do their daily work with little if any reserve
vitality."

Gertrude, who had excused herself some minutes before, now returned. She
had been visiting in an adjoining Pullman a friend of hers, whom she had
met for a moment in the Grand Central Station before the train started.
Calling Colonel Harris aside, she said, "Father, Mrs. Nellie Eastlake, my
classmate at Smith College, is going with friends to the Pacific Coast;
shall I ask her to dine with us?"

"Certainly, child, invite her, and I am sure, Mr. Searles, that you
concur in my daughter's plan to increase our party at dinner, do you
not?"

"Most assuredly, Colonel."

A little later charming Mrs. Eastlake followed Gertrude i