Lupo was all very well and had guided their walking
parties up the trails, or, seated beside Billie in the "Comet," had
pointed out good roads for motoring; but Miss Campbell did not consider
him as entirely to be trusted, because, as you probably recall, she
never liked mixed bloods nor mixed colors, either.

Some days after their arrival, when they had quite recovered from that
unconquerable disposition to sleep, which always attacks lowlanders
visiting the mountains, Billie proposed that they take a walking trip
across a tableland which separated their mountain from the one behind,
and finally scale the peak beyond, where the view, it was said, was
magnificent.

"Let's go to-day while the spirit moves us and it's so delightfully
cool," she suggested at breakfast.

"But Mr. Lupo isn't here," objected Miss Campbell. "He's gone to the
village."

"We know the way, don't we, Ben? Mr. Lupo showed us the trail yesterday.
Most of it goes through the woods. It's only two miles across 'Table
Top' and then we get to the other mountain. I'm wild to go. I'm
beginning to feel shut in, and I want to see what's on the other side of
this Chinese wall."

"More Chinese walls," observed Ben gravely.

"Mr. Lupo is such a restraining influence," put in Nancy. "When he's
along, we have no real conversation."

"He is a kind of a wet blanket," observed Percy. "You never know whether
he has heard you or not. You generally have a feeling he has, but that
your remarks are too trivial for comment."

"All of which means," said Miss Campbell, "that you want to go off for
the day without a guide."

"Please, Cousin Helen," pleaded Billie.

"Dear Miss Campbell, won't you let us?" cried the other Motor Maids.

"Not because that feather-top Percy is with you, but because Ben is
here, I suppose I might as well consent," said Miss Campbell.

"Old Ben is just as much of a feather-top as I am, Miss Campbell,"
protested Percy. "He deceives people because he looks like an Indian.
I've got a serious mind underneath all this curl and color."

"I don't believe it," answered Miss Campbell. "But I wouldn't have you
changed, my boy. I like you as you are."

After this two-sided compliment, they took it for granted that consent
had been given and Billie rushed off to see Mrs. Lupo about the lunch.

They had come to learn during that first week in camp that Mrs. Lupo was
a law unto herself. For one thing, the blackberries that Billie had
purchased