overgrown ice pond. See, it's round. I think Long Lake is ever so much
prettier, don't you, even though it's smaller?"

"I certainly do. This place isn't like the woods at all, it's more like,
regular country, that you can find by just taking a trolley car and
riding a few miles out from the city."

"It used to be just as it is now around Long Lake, I suppose," said
Bessie. "But they've cut the trees down, and made room for tennis courts
and all sorts of things like that, and then, I suppose, they needed wood
to build the hotel, too. It's quite a big place, isn't it, Dolly?"

"Yes, and I've heard of it before, too," Dolly. "A friend of mine stayed
up here for a month two or three years ago. She says they advertise
that it's wild and just like living right in the woods, but it isn't at
all. I guess it's for people who like to think they're roughing it when
they're really just as comfortable as they would be if they stayed at
home. Comfortable the same way, I mean."

"Yes, that's better, Dolly. Because I think we're comfortable, though
it's very different from the way we would live in the city, or even from
the way we lived at the farm. But we're really roughing it, I guess."

"Yes, and it's fine, too! Tell me, Bessie, did you ever see any gypsies
like these when you lived in the country!"

"There were gypsies around Hedgeville two or three times, but the
farmers all hated them, and used to try to drive them away, and Maw
Hoover told me not to go near them when they were around. She usually
gave me so many things to do that I couldn't, anyhow. You know, the