erfect days she sat under an old apple tree on the
slope behind the house where they used to play. Before her opened the
wide intervale, dotted with haymakers at their picturesque work. On the
left flowed the swift river fringed with graceful elms in their bravest
greenery; on the right rose the purple hills serene and grand; and
overhead glowed the midsummer sky, which glorified it all.

Little Dulce, tired of play, lay fast asleep in the nest she had made
in one of the haycocks close by, and Rose leaned against the gnarled old
tree, dreaming daydreams with her work at her feet. Happy and absorbing
fancies they seemed to be, for her face was beautifully tranquil, and
she took no heed of the train which suddenly went speeding down the
valley, leaving a white cloud behind. Its rumble concealed the sound of
approaching steps, and her eyes never turned from the distant hills till
the abrupt appearance of a very sunburned but smiling young man made her
jump up, exclaiming joyfully: "Why, Mac! Where did you drop from?"

"The top of Mount Washington. How do you do?"

"Never better. Won't you go in? You must be tired after such a fall."

"No, thank you. I've seen the old lady. She told me Aunt Jessie and the
boy had gone to town and that you were 'settin' round' in the old
place. I came on at once and will take a lounge here if you don't mind,"
answered Mac, unstrapping his knapsack and taking a haycock as if it
were a chair.

Rose subsided into her former seat, surveying her cousin with much
satisfaction as she said: "This is the third surprise I've had since I
came. Uncle popped in upon us first, then Phebe, and now you. Have you
had a pleasant tramp? Uncle said you were off."

"Delightful! I feel as if I'd been in heaven, or near it, for about
three weeks, and thought I'd break the shock of coming down to the earth
by calling here on my way home."

"You look as if heaven suited you. Brown as a berry, but so fresh and
happy I should never guess you had been scrambling down a mountain,"
said Rose, trying to discover why he looked so well in spite of the blue
flannel suit and dusty shoes, for there was a certain sylvan freshness
about him as he sat there full of reposeful strength the hills seemed to
have given, the wholesome cheerful days of air and sunshine put into a
man, and the clear, bright look of one who had caught glimpses of a new
world from the mountaintop.

"Tramping agrees with me. I took a dip in the rive