without her family and friends
coming snooping round and acting as if she'd broken the Ten
Commandments?"

"Breaking the Ten Commandments!" I said witheringly. "Breaking a leg
more likely. If you could have seen yourself, Tish Carberry, sprawled on
that ice at your age, and both your arteries and your bones brittle, as
the specialist told you,--and I heard him myself,--you'd take those
things off your feet and go home and hide your head."

"I wish I had your breath, Lizzie," Tish said. "I'd be a submarine
diver."

Saying which she skated off, and did not come near us again. A young
gentleman went up to her and asked her to skate, though I doubt if she
had ever seen him before. And as we left the building in disapproval
they were doing fancy turns in the middle of the place, and a crowd was
gathering round them.

Owing to considerable feeling being roused by the foregoing incident,
we did not see much of Tish for a week. If a middle-aged woman wants to
make a spectacle of herself, both Aggie and I felt that she needed to be
taught a lesson. Besides, we knew Tish. With her, to conquer a thing is
to lose interest.

On the anniversary of the day Aggie became engaged to Mr. Wiggins, Tish
asked us both to dinner, and we buried the hatchet, or rather the
skates. It was when dessert came that we realized how everything that
had occurred had been preparation for the summer, and that we were not
going to Asbury Park, after all.

"It's like this," said Tish. "Hannah, go out and close the door, and
don't stand listening. I have figured it all out," she said, when Hannah
had slammed out. "The muscles used in skating are the ones used in
mountain-climbing. Besides, there may be times when a pair of skates
would be handy going over the glaciers. It's not called Glacier Park for
nothing, I dare say. When we went into the Maine woods we went
unprepared. This time I intend to be ready for any emergency."

But we gave her little encouragement. We would go along, and told her
so. But further than that I refused to prepare. I would not skate, and
said so.

"Very well, Lizzie," she said. "Don't blame me if you find yourself
unable to cope with mountain hardships. I merely felt this way: if each
of us could do one thing well it might be helpful. There's always snow,
and if Aggie would learn to use snowshoes it might be valuable."

"Where could I practice?" Aggie demanded.

But Tish went on, ignoring Aggie's sarcastic tone. "And