"It will be too far for me," said Ivy dejectedly.
"Where did you think I meant to go? Why, just around the road, on the hillside near the bridge!"
"There's not a berry left there! Hugh went over this morning and found the bushes stripped! The nearest place is Thornley's, three miles away!"
"Then of course we won't go! I wonder if you could go horseback? I was thinking that Mat could borrow the groceryman's horse."
"No, Lol, I never learned to ride. Besides, it would be so jolty! The rest of you go without me; the walk will be only a pleasure for you!"
The girls protested against this; they talked of other things connected with Mrs. Kump's birthday party, and the blackberry project was apparently abandoned.
A bright thought had come to Alene, however, which she resolved to keep a secret until she found if she could carry out her plan.
It all depended on her uncle, whom she expected to come up the street at any moment, on his way home from the office. She jumped up when she saw him coming.
"Stay here, girls, until I speak to Uncle Fred."
She ran to the wall and climbed up at the spot where she had first seen her new friends.