nting voice to the plan to make the trip, and it
was decided to take the little extra time that would be required.

"After all," said Eleanor, "we can get such an early start afterward
that it won't take very much time. And to-morrow we'll finish our tramp
through the gap, and stop at Windsor for the night. Then the next day
we'll take the train straight through to the seashore. I think really
we'll have more fun, and get more good out of it if we spend the time
there than if we go through with our original plan of doing more walking
before getting on the train."

"Yes. We've lost quite a little time already, haven't we?" said Margery.

"Two whole days at Lake Dean, and two days more staying with the
Pratts," said Eleanor. "That's four days, and one can walk quite a long
distance in four days if one sets one's mind and one's feet to it."

"Well, we certainly couldn't help the delay," said Margery. "At Lake
Dean the fire held us--and I wouldn't think very much of any crowd that
could see the trouble those poor people were in and not stay to help
them."

They slept well in the early part of that night in the rough quarters at
the Gap House, and, while it was still dark, they were routed out to
catch the funicular railway on its first trip of the day up Mount
Sherman.

At first, when they were at the top of the mountain, there was nothing
to be seen. But soon the sky in the east began to lighten and grow pink,
then the fog that lay below them began to melt away, and, as the sun
rose, they saw the full wonder of the spectacle.

"I never saw anything so beautiful in all my life!" exclaimed Bessie
with a sigh of delight. "See how it seems to gild everything as the
light rises, Dolly!"

"Yes, and you can see the sea, way off in the distance! How tiny all the
towns and villages look from here! It's just like looking at a map,
isn't it?"

"Well, it was certainly worth getting up in the middle of the night to
see it, Bessie. And I do love to sleep, too!"

"I'd stay up all night to see this, any time. I never even dreamed of
anything so lovely."

"We were very fortunate," said Eleanor, with a smile. "I've been up here
when the fog was so thick that you couldn't see a thing, and only knew
the sun had risen because it got a little lighter. I've known it to be
that way for a week at a time, and some people would stay, and come up
here morning after morning, and be disappointed each time!"

"That's awfully mean," said D