While the members of the Band were blazing unique trails leading to the top of Baldy Pate, Nita crept from her tent and read the note which had been pinned to her pillow. She threw it down on the ground and stamped upon it with her heel, simply because there was no other way to vent her spite on the innocent paper. Looking about for something to do, she spied the cupboard. With a shrug of her shoulders, she ran over and flung open the door. She was famished for food, so she took all she wanted to eat and threw the rest out in the pool where the current soon carried the bread and lighter edibles away, but the heavy particles sunk to the bottom. Finding nothing she could do to cause discomfort to the other girls, she decided to take a walk along the road she had seen when she rested on the bridge. The sun was blazing down, so Nita took a sun-shade she found in Miss Miller's tent and started on her lonesome adventure. But she felt sure there must be some other estates near the Baker Farm, and perhaps she might meet some young folks—who knows!
Miss Miller, being an adept in the woods, reached the top of Old Baldy some time before the girls did. As she sat on the high brow of Baldy admiring the wide view down the valley, she followed with her eyes the ribbon of silvery water that wound from the Big Bridge, through the woods, coming out in a great green meadow where many horses grazed. A yellow roadway ran parallel to the stream where it issued from cover of the woods, and Miss Miller saw a tiny form—or it seemed tiny from that distance—carrying a purple parasol, and beside her stood an English dog-cart with a young man in it. Miss Miller wondered where she had seen a purple sun-shade something like that one! She had not noticed particularly the one Zan took from the house in case it would be needed some time for Miss Miller's comfort.
The Guide then looked about her and found the mountaintop covered with low bushes of berries. "Blue berries—so early!" exclaimed she, and began picking them while waiting for her charges' arrival.
One after another the girls came up their particular trail, with stories of what they had seen on the way. While waiting for Elena to appear, they lay in the short grass on the summit. Miss Miller had filled her butterfly box with berries and now sat down.
"The clouds over the valley seem to threaten a storm," said she, turning about to examine the sky overhead and behind her.
"I thought I heard a faint rumble a moment ago," added Hilda.
"Oh, no, you didn't," replied Zan. "That was a farm-wagon rumbling over the Big Bridge."
"Where is the Big Bridge, Zan? We haven't seen it yet, have we?" asked Jane. Thus the subject was turned from any reminder of the storm.
"No, it is down at the end of our property just where it connects with Hamilton's place. The river is quite wide there, as several small streams flow into it after it leaves Bill's place."