it had a
court-house in a yard near the centre of the town, and a big summer
hotel. Curiously shaped and oddly distributed hills rose abruptly out of
the valley sand, forming a sort of amphitheatre in which the village
lay. These square-topped hills ended at a common level, showing that
they were not the result of an upheaval, but were the remains of the
original stratification formations left standing after the scooping
action of the post-glacial floods had ceased.

Some of them looked like ruined walls of castles ancient as hills, on
whose massive tops time had sown sturdy oaks and cedars. They lent a
distinct air of romance to the landscape at all times; but when in
summer graceful vines clambered over their rugged sides, and underbrush
softened their broken lines, it was not at all difficult to imagine them
the remains of an unrecorded and very war-like people.

Even now, in winter, with yellow-brown and green cedars standing starkly
upon their summits, these towers possessed a distinct charm, and in the
early morning when the trees glistened with frost, or at evening when
the white light of the sun was softened and violet shadows lay along the
snow, the whole valley was a delight to the eye, full of distinct and
lasting charm.

In the campaign which Hartley began, Albert did his best, and his best
was done unconsciously; for the simplicity of his manner--all unknown to
himself--was the most potent factor in securing consideration.

"I'm not a book agent," he said to one of the clergymen to whom he first
appealed; "I'm a student trying to sell a good book and make a little
money to help me to complete my course at the university."

In this way he secured three clergymen to head the list, much to the
delight and admiration of Hartley.

"Good! Now corral the alumni of the place. Work the fraternal racket to
the bitter end. Oh, say! there's a sociable to-morrow night; I guess
we'd better go, hadn't we?"

"Go alone?"

"Alone? No! Take some girls. I'm going to take neighbor Pickett's
daughter; she's homely as a hedge fence, but I'll take her for business
reasons."

"Hartley, you're an infernal fraud!"

"Nothing of the kind--I'm a salesman," ended Hartley, with a laugh.

After supper the following day, as Albert was still lingering at the
table with the girls and Mrs. Welsh, he said to Maud:

"Are you going to the sociable?"

"No; I guess not."

"Would you go if I asked you?"

"Try me and see!" answere