how it would be!" she said. "For about forty years you
haven't used your legs except to put shoes and stockings on. Of course
they won't carry you."

"It isn't my feet, it's my head," Aggie sniffed. "If I had some water
I'd b-be all right. If you're going to examine everything you drink with
a microscope you might as well have stayed at home."

"I'd have died before I drank out of that last well," snapped Tish. "One
could tell by looking at that woman that there are dead rats and things
in the water."

"You are not so particular at home," Aggie asserted. "You use vinegar,
don't you? And I'm sure it's full of wrigglers. You can see them when
you hold the cruet to the light."

We got her to go on finally, and at the next well we boiled a pailful of
water and made some tea. We found a grove beside the road and built a
fire in our stove there, and while Modestine was grazing we sat and
soaked our feet in a brook and looked for blisters. Tish calculated that
as we had been walking for six hours we'd probably gone twenty-two
miles. But I believe it was about eight.

While we drank our tea and ate the luncheon Hannah had put up we
discussed our plans. Tish's original scheme had been to follow the
donkey; but as he would not move without some one ahead, leading him,
this was not feasible.

"We want to keep away from the beaten path," Tish said with a pickle in
one hand and her cup in the other. "These days automobiles go
everywhere. I'm in favor of heading straight for the mountain."

"I'm not," I said firmly. "Here in civilization we can find a barn on a
rainy night."

"There are plenty of caves in the mountains," said Tish. "Besides, to
get the real benefit of this we ought to sleep out, rain or shine. A
gentle spring rain hurts no one."

We rested for two hours; it was very pleasant. Modestine ate all that
was left of the luncheon, and Aggie took a nap with her head on her
suitcase. If we had not had the suitcases we should have been quite
contented. Tish, with her customary ability, solved that.

"We need only one suitcase," she declared. "We can leave the other two
at this farmhouse and pack a few things for each of us in the one we
take along. Then we can take turns carrying it."

Aggie wakened finally and was rather more docile about the suitcases
than we had expected. Possibly she would have been more indignant; but
her feet had swollen so while she had her shoes off that she could
hardly get them on at al