's head when she wears it."

"It's her auburn hair that's the halo," said Nance.

"And her heavenly blue eyes that are saint's eyes," finished Judy.

Molly, all unconscious of the admiration of her friends, walked steadily
along between Otoyo and Jessie, a package of sandwiches in one hand and
a long staff, picked up on the road, in the other.

They were not exactly out for adventure that day, being simply a jolly
party of girls off in the woods to enjoy the last sunny days in
September, and they were not prepared for all the excitements which
greeted them on the way.

Scarcely had they left the path along the bank of the lake and skirted
the foot of "Round Head," at the top of which Molly and her two chums
had once met Professor Green and his brother, when Margaret Wakefield,
well in advance of the others, gave a wild scream and rushed madly back
into their midst. Trotting sedately after her came an amiable looking
cow. The creature paused when she saw the girls, emitted the bovine call
of the cow-mother separated from her only child, turned and trotted
slowly back.

"Why, Margaret, I didn't know you were such a coward," began Jessie
reproachfully.

"Coward, indeed," answered the other indignantly. "I don't believe Queen
Boadicea herself in a red sweater would have passed that animal. Listen
to the creature. She's begun mooing like a foghorn. I suppose she held
me personally responsible for her loss. Anyhow, she began chasing me and
I wasn't going to be gored to death in the flower of my youth."

There was no arguing this fact, and several daring spirits, creeping
along the path until it curved around the hill, hid behind a clump of
trees and took in the prospect. There stood the cow with ears erect and
quivering nostrils. She had a suspicious look in her lustrous eyes and
at intervals she let out a deep bellow that had a hint of disaster in it
for all who passed that way.

The brave spirits went back again.

"What are we to do?" exclaimed Katherine. "If it got out in college that
an old cow kept ten sophomores from having a picnic, we'd never hear the
last of it."

"Unless we behave like Indian scouts and creep along one at a time, I
don't see what we are to do," said Molly. "If we went further up the
hill, she'd see us just the same and if we crossed the brook and took to
the meadow, we'd get stuck in the swamp."

"Suppose we make a run for it," suggested Judy with high courage. "Just
dash past until w