t haze over
the hills, that belong to nothing but a New England October at its best.
The Chapin house breakfast-table was unusually lively, for each girl
wanted to tell what she thought about the reception and how she was
going to spend Mountain Day; and nobody seemed anxious to listen to
anybody's else story.

"Sh--sh," demanded Mary Brooks at last. "Now children, you've talked
long enough. Run and get your lunch boxes and begin making your
sandwiches. Mrs. Chapin wants us to finish by ten o'clock."

"Ten o'clock!" repeated Katherine. "Well, I should hope so. Our horse is
ordered for nine."

"Going to be gone all day?" inquired Mary sweetly.

"Of course," answered Katherine with dignity.

"Well, don't kill the poor beast," called Mary as she ran up-stairs for
her box.

Mary was going off in a barge with the sophomore decorating committee,
who wanted a good chance to congratulate and condole with one another
over their Herculean labors and ultimate triumph of the day before. The
Rich sisters had decided to spend the holiday with an aunt who lived
twenty miles down the river; Eleanor had promised early in the fall to
go out with a party of horseback riders; and Helen, whose pocketbook had
been prematurely flattened to buy her teakettle, had decided to accept
the invitation of a girl in her geometry division to join an economical
walking party. This left Rachel, Katherine, Roberta and Betty, who had
hired a horse and two-seated trap for the day, invited Alice Waite,
Betty's little friend from the Hilton House, to join them, and were
going to drive "over the notch."

"I haven't the least idea what a notch is like," said Katherine. "We
don't have such things where I come from. But it sounds interesting."

"Doesn't it?" assented Rachel absently, counting the ham sandwiches. "Do
you suppose the hills are very steep, Betty?"

"Oh, I guess not. Anyhow Katherine and I told the man we were going
there and wanted a sure-footed horse."

"Who's going to drive?" asked Roberta.

"Why, you, of course," said Katherine quickly. "You said you were used
to driving."

"Oh, yes, I am," conceded Roberta hastily and wondered if she would
better tell them any more. It was true that she was used to horses, but
she had never conquered her fear of them, and they always found her out.
It was a standing joke in the Lewis family that the steadiest horse put
on airs and pranced for Roberta. Even old Tom, that her little cousins
drove o