Helen's eyes lit up with a fire of delight. “How nice! May I go with you?” she cried.
Thorpe shook his head.
“I'm afraid not, little girl. It's going to be a hard trip a long ways from anywhere. You couldn't stand it.”
“I'm sure I could. Try me.”
“No,” replied Thorpe. “I know you couldn't. We'll be sleeping on the ground and going on foot through much extremely difficult country.”
“I wish you'd take me somewhere,” pursued Helen. “I can't get away this summer unless you do. Why don't you camp somewhere nearer home, so I can go?”
Thorpe arose and kissed her tenderly. He was extremely sorry that he could not spend the summer with his sister, but he believed likewise that their future depended to a great extent on this very trip. But he did not say so.
“I can't, little girl; that's all. We've got our way to make.”
She understood that he considered the trip too expensive for them both. At this moment a paper fluttered from the excelsior. She picked it up. A glance showed her a total of figures that made her gasp.
“Here is your bill,” she said with a strange choke in her voice, and left the room.