Mr. Gilroy waved his hand to the northwest of Long’s Peak, saying, “All that region is called Glacier Gorge, where we are bound for. There are concentrated the enormous gorges, cliffs, and other glaciated freaks caused by cataclysms that occurred aeons ago. In my opinion, there is no lake, waterfall, or other beauty of the Alps that can compare to this Glacier Gorge, and I have seen them all.”
“If we are so near by, why can’t we visit them all?” asked Joan.
Mrs. Vernon took fright, “Never—with the responsibility for you girls on my hands!”
“But, Verny, if we slip, we won’t be on your hands,—it will be a glaciated scout on an ice-floe,” laughed Julie.
Mr. Gilroy laughed. “And they’ll be safer in glacier fields where they know there is great danger if they are careless, than beside quiet little pools, upon a rock that looks as solid as the planet itself.”
Mrs. Vernon now turned beseeching eyes upon her husband. “Dear, you will persuade Gilly not to lead us into such places?”
“Oh, but Verny!” interpolated Julie. “Do let us go to see at least one glacier!”
“How can you, Julie! When you are the one always getting into trouble!” returned the Captain, wonderingly.
“Don’t I always manage to get out of trouble again without causing any fatality—only amusement for the Troop?”
They all admitted that this was true, and finally the Captain was coaxed to listen to the argument in favor of visiting the glaciers.