nd delighted himself all the while in
the gracious sweetness, and the tender tact, and the simple dignity of
unconsciousness, with which Lois attended to everybody, ministered to
everybody, and finally smoothed down even poor Mrs. Caruthers' ruffled
plumes under her sympathizing and kindly touch.

"How soon will you be at Zermatt?" the latter asked. "I wish we could
travel together! When do you expect to get there?"

"O, I do not know. We are going first, you know, to the AEggischhorn.
We go where we like, and stay as long as we like; and we never know
beforehand how it will be."

"But so early!--"

"Mr. Dillwyn wanted me to see the flowers. And the snow views are grand
too; I am very glad not to miss them. Just before you came, I had one.
The clouds swept apart for a moment, and gave me a wonderful sight of a
gorge, the wildest possible, and tremendous rocks, half revealed, and a
chaos of cloud and storm."

"Do you like that?"

"I like it all," said Lois, smiling. And the other woman looked, with a
fascinated, uncomprehending air, at the beauty of that smile.

"But why do you walk?"

"O, that's half the fun," cried Lois. "We gain so a whole world of
things that other people miss. And the walking itself is delightful."

"I wonder if I could walk?" said Mrs. Caruthers enviously. "How far can
you go in a day? You must make very slow progress?"

"Not very. Now I am getting in training, we can do twenty or thirty
miles a day with ease."

"Twenty or thirty miles!" Mrs. Caruthers as nearly screamed as
politeness would let her do.

"We do it easily, beginning the day early."

"How early? What do you call early?"

"About four or five o'clock."

Mrs. Caruthers looked now as if she were staring at a prodigy.

"Start at four o'clock! Where do you get breakfast? Don't you have
breakfast? Will the people give you breakfast so early? Why, they would
have to be up by two."

Tom was listening now. He could not help it.

"O, we have breakfast," Lois said. "We carry it with us, and we stop at
some nice place and take rest on the rocks, or on a soft carpet of
moss, when we have walked an hour or two. Mr. Dillwyn carries our
breakfast in a little knapsack."

"Is it _nice?_" enquired the lady, with such an expression of doubt and
scruple that the risible nerves of the others could not stand it, and
there was a general burst of laughter.

"Come and try once," said Lois, "and you will see."

"If you do not like suc