The lake, with the woods running close to its shore, presented a picture of crystal-like clearness. On the other side of it, the White and Green mountains were beginning to show in more definite outline. The sun, too, began to herald the dawn of the new day, forming a rosy pink in the eastern sky, just over the mountain ranges.
"My," said Letty. "I'm glad we did get up."
"We never really saw the Adirondacks before, did we?" added Ruth.
"If Mary Lee had ever been up here before," Letty further remarked, "I'm sure she never would have missed doing this kind of thing. It took her to get us to do it now; without her, I think we would have come up here again and again and never have summoned sufficient energy to get up so early."
On Mary Lee, the clearing outlines of the towering mountains on both sides of her, the magnificance of the lake, had all made a tremendous impression. Never had sunrise meant so much to her.
The girl had never, from that first day, when she was brought to the city, ever been further away from it than the farm. The beauty of this new environment dazzled her. Her two friends, though not nearly so impressionable, yet found themselves stilled by the majesty of the quiet everywhere.
So engrossed were the girls that they did not notice that Dr. Anderson had stopped just inside the door and was watching them as well as the dawning day.
He stood there for ten minutes, then came out and joined them.
Mary Lee gave him a brilliant smile. The three girls looked very pretty and attractive in their blouses.
"Isn't it perfect?" she offered with a sigh of pure joy in the splendor all about her.