the conductor says are not buildings but rocks, make my flesh creep."

"They'd be scrumptious places to repel attacks of Indians from," observed
Phil; "two or three scouts with breech-loaders up on that scarlet wall
there could keep off a hundred Piutes."

"I don't feel that way a bit," Clover was saying to Mrs. Watson. "I like
the color, it's so rich; and I think the mountains are perfectly
beautiful. If St. Helen's is like this I am going to like it, I know."

St. Helen's, when they reached it, proved to be very much "like this,"
only more so, as Phil remarked. The little settlement was built on a low
plateau facing the mountains, and here the plain narrowed, and the
beautiful range, seen through the clear atmosphere, seemed only a mile or
two away, though in reality it was eight or ten. To the east the plain
widened again into great upland sweeps like the Kentish Downs, with here
and there a belt of black woodland, and here and there a line of low
bluffs. Viewed from a height, with the cloud-shadows sweeping across it,
it had the extent and splendor of the sea, and looked very much like it.

The town, seen from below, seemed a larger place than Clover had expected,
and again she felt the creeping, nervous feeling come over her. But before
the train had fairly stopped, a brisk, active little man jumped on board,
and walking into the car, began to look about him with keen, observant
eyes. After one sweeping glance, he came straight to where Clover was
collecting her bags and parcels, held out his hand, and said in a pleasant
voice, "I think this must be Miss Carr."

"I am Dr. Hope," he went on; "your father telegraphed when you were to
leave Chicago, and I have come down to two or three trains in the hope of