"I should not have brought this, I think," she said, her dark eyes very serious.

"Why not?" asked Carolyn. "I think that's great."

"But you girls do not carry them. I suppose the hills are not very steep, but it seemed hilly when we were driving with my uncle."

"It is. Sometimes we girls cut sticks to use on hikes or when we are camping in the mountains. Mother uses one all the time in the summer at our camp. We go to the mountains, you know."

"So do we," said Lucia, apparently relieved over the idea of being different. She was beginning to care now. These were fine girls and this was a good school.

Mathilde, late, came hurrying up from a car which had deposited her at the school. "Oh, here you are, Lucia. How charming you look! Do you do any mountain climbing in the Alps?"

"Some," answered Lucia, more annoyed than pleased with the compliment.

Already she sensed that these girls were not warmly attached to Mathilde. What was the trouble? It must be that Mathilde was too proud with them. She herself must not be so.

Other girls noticed Lucia, though she was not known to them. She swung along gracefully and easily, accustomed to such trips, that is, to walking and climbing. Her alpenstock was brought into play in more than one little leap over the hilly way with its ravines, now more or less slippery with its damp leaves. The other girls who had thought to take Lucia more or less under their wing, were put to it to keep up with her, and Carolyn frankly laughed over that fact, when Lucia waited for them at the top of one high hill.

"We thought that we'd be so good to you, Lucia, and show the stranger the way and help her over the worst places. Now here you are the champion hiker of us all!"

"Oh, I ought not to do it, I think! Do you care? I forget, and I like to see how quickly I can reach a certain place."

"Of course we do not care!"

But there was one who did. Poor Mathilde had been quite forgotten by Lucia in her quick advance. Now, as the girls sat down to rest for five minutes or more, Mathilde came toiling up the hill, almost exhausted.

Within she was cross at the girls, Lucia included. It certainly wasn't nice of them to leave her behind! And the girls were unconscious of offense, for they had started in a large group, many of whom had fallen behind or gone in a different direction to reach a given point.

"I'm all out of practice walking," gasped Mathilde as she threw herself on the ground, "and I'm a little lost right here. I'm so used to the car, you know. I suppose we must be nearly there now."

"No, indeed," said Peggy, who had her opinion of Mathilde but was sorry for her at this juncture. "We have come about half way, Mathilde; but there is an easier way, without so much climbing, if you'd rather take it. See that little dirt road down there? Well, if you'll follow that, it skirts the hills and you can't miss the way. Besides, there were several girls that wanted to come that haven't been well and can't climb the hills or aren't supposed to. You'll have company, I'm sure, for it is a bit longer, and I think they would walk more slowly."

Mathilde, who had groaned aloud at the statement that they were only half way there, now glanced where Peggy pointed and felt that it was probably the only possible thing to do. Perhaps some car would come along, dirt road though it was. Somebody with a Ford would live on it.

Her feet were nearly killing her and she knew they were blistered! She looked at Lucia, to find her looking off at the pretty view, uninterested in Mathilde's decision.

But now she turned her head and looked at Mathilde kindly. "I would, if I were you, Mathilde. There's no use suffering when you haven't been walking much. You ought to take it more gradually. You might injure yourself if you overdo."

Mathilde felt better at that speech. "You ought to know, Lucia, with all your experience in mountain climbing. I will take your advice, I think, and see you at the breakfast."

With this Mathilde stiffly rose and looked at the thickets between her and the little road which wound below. "Can you make it, do you think?"

asked Peggy. "Take it on the bias, Mathilde. Don't try to go straight down."

"There isn't any good trail, Peggy, but it's no worse than some we've been through already. Going on yourself now?" Mathilde was thinking that she would not start first. They'd watch her go down, of course.

"Yes. We might as well." Carolyn answered Mathilde, rising as she spoke, though without the effort which had characterized Mathilde's movement.

Carolyn had been in many trails that summer, though that was because of opportunity as well as because of her own volition. "Come on, Mathilde.

I'll go down half way with you. I know how hard it is to start after a body hasn't been hiking. After I was sick a while last summer--a year ago, I mean, I thought I'd never get limbered up."

"Thanks, Carolyn," airily replied Mathilde. "I think I can go _down_ hill, at least!" And off she started, to be tripped by a treacherous root and fall ignominiously, rolling into some bushes which checked further descent.

"Mercy, how she'll hate that!" exclaimed Peggy, starting toward Mathilde with both Carolyn and Lucia.

Lucia reached Mathilde first and reached a hand to her as Mathilde, flushed and annoyed, sat up and brushed away leaves and dirt from hands and face. "No, I didn't bruise my face at all," she said in answer to Lucia's question. "My foot caught in a trailing vine, I think. That's what it felt like."

"I'll just go down with you," said Lucia. "You need my old stock, Mathilde. It will swing us over bad places. Go ahead, girls, I'll join you around the next hill. You said over there, didn't you?" Lucia was pointing as she spoke.

"Yes, Lucia," answered Carolyn, noting how Mathilde's face brightened.

"All right, you go down with Mathilde and see if some of the other girls are coming along. Don't get lost yourself, though. We'll saunter along and you won't have much woods to get through over there."

The girls watched Lucia and Mathilde as the light-footed Italian girl took Mathilde's arm and with a laugh started down hill, instinctively choosing the easiest descent.

"This was a mean hill, Carolyn," said Peggy, "but how Mathilde hates it not to appear 'it' in any way. Have you noticed how she's really studying some and getting her lessons now?"

"Yes," thoughtfully replied Carolyn. "Maybe she really does like Lucia and it isn't just wanting to stand in with a t.i.tle. That was good of Lucia, wasn't it? She seemed so indifferent at first, but now she's interested in things."

"Mathilde doesn't 'really like' Lucia much, Carolyn; but she ought to now. Isn't this the prettiest part of the trail--don't you think, so wild and lovely? You can't even see a house from here. Look at those girls across there. This was the best way to come. They're having a great time getting across that little branch of the run. Maybe the rain carried away that big log we used to cross on."

Lucia appeared at the appointed place without her alpenstock. She had a few blossoms to show the girls and asked them what they were. "We have ever so many of the same trees and flowers that you do," she said, "but there are some of these fall wild flowers that I never heard of."

The girls discussed the flowers and then asked for Mathilde. "Oh, Mathilde's in a good humor now," smiled Lucia. "A truck came along with two girls sitting behind and dangling over the rear. I left Mathilde sitting beside them, but as she seemed to like my cane, I let her take it. It will help her when she walks again. The truck was going only a little way. The girls were laughing and having a great time of it."

The rest of the trip was made in good time by the three girls, joined by others at different points; and when they came into the temporary camp, with its fires and moving figures of the committee and boys, to say nothing of the fresh arrivals--though Carolyn, Peggy and Lucia were among the first, oh, what enticing odors of cocoa and of bacon frying met them.

Betty, wearing her cotton crown with its "G. A. A." came running up for a moment or two with the girls, answering their questions with, "Oh, everything is going off wonderfully. As soon as the girls all get here we'll scramble the eggs and be ready. No, there isn't a thing for anybody to do, only to see that no girl is too timid to get all she ought to have to eat. Carolyn, you're great on looking up the girls with a timidity complex, so do your stuff, as d.i.c.k would say."

"Note how Betty keeps on quoting from her brother," laughed Peggy.

"It's very convenient," laughed Betty. "By the way, have you seen our boys? Do take Lucia over to where they are sometime when it seems appropriate, or drag them over to her, to meet her."

"So your boys have to be dragged to meet me?" queried Lucia, but with a smile and a comical lifting of her brows.

"I'm not so sure," said Betty, "but they are keeping in the background at present, for fear that Miss Fox's cordiality will wax cool."

"I see. Well, don't let us keep you, Betty, but do come and sit by me when you eat your breakfast," said Lucia.

"If any," added Betty. "I'm going to see that the great Soph.o.m.ore Cla.s.s of Lyon High serves enough to make this hike something to be remembered!"

"Hear, hear!" cried Peggy. "It smells like a million dollars, Betty!"

But it was not long before the fifty and a few more of the guest hikers were seated here and there and everywhere it was convenient or attractive. Mathilde was in good humor as she sat with a full plate right next to Lucia, contemplating with satisfaction her own new elk-skin shoes, laced high, in contrast with Lucia's similar footgear, much the worse for wear. Lucia did look pretty and romantic, she thought; but her own outfit was much more in the latest style, which for Mathilde was the criterion of worth, along with the impression of expense.

"Oh, it wasn't any trouble to finish the hike," said she. "My fall only jolted me and the rest on that funny truck fixed me all right. And your alpenstock was a great help, Lucia. I shall have one myself if we go abroad next summer."

"You could probably get the same thing in this country," said Lucia.

Had Peggy been there she would have rolled her eyes at Carolyn, perhaps, at Mathilde's mention of going abroad, but Peggy was at some distance with another group and this was one of older girls for the most part, girls who had their eye on Lucia for their sorority. When Carolyn and Peggy saw the move on the part of the older girls, they withdrew, though it might not have been necessary, and were sitting on an uneven log with Dotty Bradshaw, Mary Emma Howland and Selma Rardon. They, too, noted the junior girls with Mathilde and Lucia, but made no comment.

"Say, Carolyn," said Dotty in a low tone, "did you notice Louise Madison and a lot of the University girls at the little skit and pep meeting of the Dramatic Club the other night? I heard Louise say they came over to help root for old Lyon High. And there was Ted Dorrance, big as life, joking with them in the hall before it began. Have he and Louise made up, do you think? I heard that they had a terrible break-up this summer."

"Oh, a body can hear 'most anything, Dotty. I'm glad Louise and the other girls haven't forgotten high school days. She's only a freshman at the University, of course; and that isn't as thrilling, I imagine, as being a senior at Lyon High."

"It wouldn't be, would it?" thoughtfully returned Dotty, while Peggy, who was more interested than she would admit in Ted and Louise, considered Dotty's bit of news. But here came Betty with her plate piled full.