nch of a fir, a little battered with autumn rain, and too high,
alas! to be taken, but a most interesting item to go down in the
note-books. The girls could hardly be persuaded to tear themselves away
from the glory of the woods, and would have spent the whole time there,
but Miss Lever had other plans.

"Come along! We've scared the pheasants quite enough," she declared. "My
mind is set on fossils, and if we don't go on to Copplestones at once we
shall be caught in the dark, or miss our tea or our train or something
equally disagreeable."

The quarry was only half a mile away, and it proved as interesting as
the wood. Being Saturday afternoon the men were not working, so they had
the place to themselves, and wandered about examining heaps of shale,
and tapping likely-looking stones with their hammers. Garnet and Winona
knew nothing of geology, so they listened with due meekness while the
instructed few discoursed learnedly on palaeozoic rocks, stratified
conglomerates and quartzites. They rejoiced with Miss Lever, however,
when she secured a fairly intact belemnite. It was the only good find
they had, though some of the girls got broken bits of fossil shells.

"The fact is one needs a whole day to hunt about in this quarry, and my
watch tells me we ought to be going," said Miss Lever. "Who feels
inclined for tea?"

Everybody felt very much disposed, so the procession started off
cheerfully for the farm close by, and the nature-lovers were soon hard
at work consuming platefuls of bread and butter, jars of jam, and piles
of plum cake.

"Sixteen varieties of wild flowers, seven various specimens of fungi,
nine different sorts of berries, twelve species of birds noticed, also
rabbits and squirrel, one bird's nest and one perfect fossil--not a bad
record for an autumn foray!" said Linda, proudly consulting her
note-book.

"Especially when you remember we're well on in November!" added Annie.
"It will be something to enter in the League minutes book."

"I'm afraid it's the last ramble we shall get this year," said Miss
Lever, "but I've one or two nice little schemes on hand for the spring,
so the League must look forward to next April. Will any one have any
more tea? Then please make a move, for it's time we were starting."

"Good old Dollikins!" murmured Linda as the girls put on their coats.
"She's A1 at a foray. Got something ripping for next season in her head.
I can tell by the twinkle in her eye. She'll rumina