ter
school is out. Webster is lovely then--all filled with daisies and
buttercups and wild roses. And you'll come on, Don--of course you will.
And Priscilla will be there, and Mary and Vivian and Carver and Jack and
maybe Dorothy! I want you to see Dorothy. Oh, won't it be the happiest
time? I'm getting excited already!"

"The horses want to go," said Donald. "I'll race you to the edge of the
mesa. Come on!"

Five minutes later they looked at each other, red-cheeked and radiant.

"In together, just as usual," cried Donald. "There's never much
difference!"

"My hair makes me think of Priscilla," said Virginia, brushing back some
loose locks and re-tying her ribbon. "Wasn't she funny this afternoon when
she said good-by, her hat on one side and her hair all falling down, and
her eyes full of tears? I can't help saying all over and over how lovely
it's been. And now another year's beginning, and in two weeks more you and
I will go away to school again. I'm wondering," she finished thoughtfully,
"I'm wondering if next June, when we ride up here, you'll say that I'm not
a young lady after all."

"You don't feel you're going to be--too grown-up, do you?" There was
anxiety in Donald's tone.

"No, not in the way you mean," Virginia promised him. "Not ever like
Imogene or Katrina Van Rensaelar. But I _am_ growing up! I feel it coming!
It's just as though I'd met my older self and shaken hands with her before
she went away again, for, you see, she hasn't come to stay for keeps yet.
I think she came the first time when Jim went away, and then again at
Easter time when Miss King talked to us at Vespers, and then this summer
when Aunt Nan told me about Malcolm. That time she stayed longest of
all."

"I hope she won't be a lot different from you," said Donald. "I shouldn't
want to have to get acquainted all over again."

"You won't," Virginia assured him. "Only she knows a lot more than I know,
and she's told me a great many things already. That night on the mountain
she came and stayed with me while Vivian and Carver were asleep. I learned
so many things that night, Don. I'm just sure she taught them to me--she
and the night and the stillness." Her voice softened. "Somehow, away up
there on the mountain, life seemed such a big, wonderful thing--all full
of dreams and opportunities and surprises and--and comrades, all going
along the same trail. Don't you like to think of life as a trail--like the
kind that leads to Lone Mo