wn the
rocks and landing on my head when I get there. Better turn in as soon
as possible, young ladies. We have a mighty hard trail ahead of us in
the morning, and some more slippery granite to climb. Another thing,
you'd better put another belt on Miss Thompson. You'll find some
leather and a buckle in my kit. There's sewing material there also."
"How far shall we have to climb?" asked Hazel.
"'Bout a thousand feet, as a bird flies," Janus answered, with a
careless gesture.
"Ob, thave me!" wailed Tommy desperately. "I can't thtand any more."
"Why, Tommy, we've hardly begun yet," Harriet retorted smilingly.
"Maybe _you_ haven't, but thome of uth have about finithed," asserted
the little, lisping girl.
"For once, Tommy and I agree," groaned Margery.
Not long after the girls turned in for the second time that night.
Daybreak would soon send its gray light into their camp on Sokoki Leap.
But the day ahead of them was not fated to be, in all respects, a time
of calm. Tommy Thompson and even her better-poised companions were to
have further opportunities for distinguishing themselves.
CHAPTER XIV
GIVING A TOBOGGAN POINTS
A brilliant sun, gilding the peaks of Chocorua and shining in her eyes,
awoke Harriet Burrell.
A panorama of sunlit hills, still darkened caverns and gorges,
precipitous cliffs and sombre ravines caused the Meadow-Brook Girls to
exclaim joyously. Thin, silvery ribbons in the landscape showed where
foaming brooks ran. There were short waterfalls, long cascades, bright
little lakes and countless valleys of green.
"It's too beautiful to be real!" throbbed Harriet Burrell as she
unwound herself from her blanket and started to replenish the fire.
The coffee pot was already on the fire, supported by two stones. It
was steaming and sputtering. Then, for the first time, she observed
that Janus Grubb was nowhere in sight. Harriet got up and tip-toed
softly to the edge of the cliff, where she lay down flat, peering over.
At first she saw nothing of interest; then all at once she caught sight
of a moving speck at the foot of the cliff.
"It's Janus!" she exclaimed. "Why, he doesn't look any larger than a
chessman. I wonder how much would have been left of Tommy had she
fallen down there?"
Harriet shuddered at the thought of her companion's narrow escape--the
narrow escape of the entire party, for that matter. Crawling
cautiously back, she lay gazing off over the va
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