After tea, which was really a dainty meal, far better and more acceptably
served than any the young traveler had eaten since leaving San Francisco
three weeks previous, Mr. Heath, seeing that Mr. Abbot was weary and more
inclined to rest upon the lounge than to converse, asked Virgie if she
would allow him to be her escort and go out for a ramble.

The young girl flushed with pleasure at the request, and cordially
assented.

She wrapped her fleecy shawl once more about her shoulders, and tying a
dainty hat--which Chi Lu's skillful fingers had woven from mountain
grasses, and her own fair hands had trimmed--upon her pretty brown head,
they sauntered forth.

The sun had gone down, but the western sky was all ablaze with crimson and
orange, which gradually faded into soft purple and deeper blue in the
upper sky. There were mountains all about them, some darkly green with
fir, spruce, and pine, others of brighter and tenderer tints in their
dress of oak, maple, and birch, while here and there arose one bald and
gray, all of solid rock, with now and then a patch of moss clinging to its
time worn sides, but giving variety to the scene and enhancing by contrast
the whole picture.

"Where would you like to go?" Virgie asked, as they passed out of the
little gate into the rough road.

"Wherever you will take me," Mr. Heath replied, as he looked smilingly
down into the beautiful face upraised to his.

"Then I will take you up to the Bare Ledge; the finest view can be