“Yes and no. There are huge green trees, and grass, and water, but the Common has no big things against the sky like great rows of houses with trees standing on the top of them.”
“Be more explicit, I beg of you,” she exclaimed irritably. “You are exceedingly confused in your statements.”
“I will tell her, kitten,” interposed Mona in her calm voice. “Serena, we are just entering a long, flat valley with low ranges of hills on each side. The train is gliding among beautiful fields and orchards. Farm-houses are scattered here and there. There are strips of forest land, and many little streams. We have not yet come to the Black River.”
“Thank you,” said Serena prettily. “Your description heightens my desire to escape from the protecting confines of this travelling cage.”
Mona glanced at the grocer's soap box she was in, and grinned. Then her heavy nostrils moved delightedly, and she said, “Smell, kitten!”
My own little nose went like a rabbit's. “Oh! Mona,” I said, “how perfectly delicious. What is it?”
“Apple orchards in bloom. The valley is sheltered, and the trees blossom earlier here than elsewhere.”
Just then, we swept right by the front door of a large, old-fashioned house.
“Put here, of course, before the railway was built,” said Mona. “Now look, kitten, we are entering the largest orchard yet.”
I did look. I had never seen anything like this on the Common. I must say the shape of the apple trees seemed rather low and squatty; but the look of them!