e reach that group of trees over there."

"Not me," exclaimed Jessie, shaking her head vigorously. "Excuse me, if
you please."

There was another conference in low voices behind the protecting clump
of alder bushes. At last the cow began to ease her mental suffering by
nibbling at the damp green turf on the bank of the little brook.

"She's forgotten all about us. Let's make a break for it," cried Molly.
There was a certain stubbornness in her nature that made her want to
finish anything she began no matter whether it was a task or a pleasure.

The cow flicked a fly from her flank with her tail and went on placidly
cropping grass. Apparently, creature comforts had restored her
equanimity.

"One, two, three, run!" shouted Judy, and the ten students began the
race of their lives.

Not once did the flower and wit of 19-- pause to look back, and so
closely did they stick together, the strong helping the weak, that to
the watchers on the hill--and, alas! there were several of them--they
resembled all together an enormous animal of the imagination with ten
pairs of legs and a coat of many colors. At last they fell down, one on
top of the other, in a laughing, tumbling heap, in the protecting grove
of pine trees, and pausing to look back beheld the ferocious cow amiably
swishing her tail as she cropped the luscious turf on the bank of the
little stream.

"Asinine old thing," cried Margaret. "She's just an alarmist of the
worst kind."

"Who was the alarmist, did you say, Margaret?" asked Edith, with a
wicked smile. But Margaret made no answer, because, as her close
friends well knew, she never could stand being teased.

And now the watchers on the hill, having witnessed the entire episode
from behind a granite boulder and enjoyed it to the limit of their
natures, proceeded to return to Wellington with the story that was too
good to keep, and Queen's girls went on their way rejoicing as the
strong man who runs a race and wins.

At two o'clock, after a long, hard climb, they reached the ledges. To
Molly and Judy, the leading spirits of the expedition, the beautiful
view amply repaid their efforts, but there were those who were too weary
to enjoy the scenery. Jessie was one of these.

"I'm not meant for hard work," she groaned, as she reposed on one of the
flat rocks which gave the place its name and pillowed her head on
Margaret's lap.

They opened the packages of luncheon and ate with ravenous appetites,
finishin