The winding river suggested to Mrs. Tracy how much nature loved a curve. While Uncle Edward, who had visited the chief mountains in this land and in Europe, said that he always came back to this mountain view as the loveliest and the most restful of them all, although it was not the grandest or the most awe inspiring.
So the day passed on Mount Holyoke, giving them at every moment living pictures which no painter could equal. When the sun went down the moon came up to give her light, and nature reveled in her beauty.
The only painful shadow for Mrs. Tracy was when she felt sad that more of earth's troubled ones did not or could not come to drink in such peace and rest.
But such days must come to an end. And what can follow more delightful than a refreshing sleep on such a height. This they all had and were ready the next morning to return to Northampton.
As Reuben was anxious to count the steps which, on ascending the day before, he had noticed on the side of the inclined plane; he went down that way, while the rest of the party availed themselves of the car. He, boy-like, did not mind the extra labor and longer time which that choice involved, so long as he found out that there were five hundred and twenty-two steps.
As they descended the mountain from the half-way house Reuben gathered for a souvenir some of the beautiful laurel which, in full-bloom, was then adorning its sides.
A few days later after the promised ride to Old Hadley, three miles distant, which was extended four miles to Amherst to give Reuben a sight of the college where his papa graduated, Mrs. Tracy and her son returned to Salem. Mr. Tracy was highly entertained with Reuben's account of what he had seen, and felt more than ever that his money had been well invested. The rest of the vacation soon passed, the boy's active mind being profitably engaged in the interim of active, healthful sports.
And it is highly probable that by this time the geography class, with Ned Bolton as spokesman, has discovered that "Reuben Tracy knows more about a mountain than the geography itself!"