"There is not much to tell, Julia. They would seem tame affairs enough to you modern young people, I suppose. We hadn't any men with us as a general thing, except an occasional brother or cousin, and we didn't carry half as much to eat as seems to be considered necessary now-a-days. Then we did all the work ourselves instead of taking cooks and footmen to do it for us; but for all that, we thought them most delightful. For one thing, we always went to some really interesting place, such as the Glen, or the Dumpling Rocks, or the Paradise Valleys." "Where are the Paradise Valleys?" inquired Julia. "Oh, I know what they are," said Maud Hallett. "They are lovely places hidden in behind Bishop Berkeley's Rock. I went there once with Aunt Edith. She knows all the nooks and corners of Newport better than anybody else." "Mamma, you must take us there some day," said Georgie. "Oh, do, and let me go with you," pleaded Maud. "I should like so much to see them again." "Won't you take me too?" said Belle Jeffrys. "We should all like to go," remarked Julia, slyly. "Oh, Mrs. Gray, dear, I have such a lovely idea! Give us a picnic yourself, one of the nice old-fashioned sort that you used to have when you were young, in the Paradise Valley; won't you, dear Mrs. Gray? Oh, do!" "You needn't coax so hard, Julia; I'm very easy to persuade when I like to do a thing," said Mrs. Gray, with a laugh. "I'll give you a picnic with pleasure; only I must make one stipulation, that it shall be exclusively a girl-party. I don't think the young men of the present day would enjoy the kind of thing I mean, or know what to make of it." "Girls!" cried Julia, "just listen to what this dear angel says! She's going to take us to Paradise Valley, all by ourselves, with no men to bother and distract our attention.--Men _are_ out of place in Paradise anyway; just think how Adam behaved! (this in a parenthesis).--It is to be a real old-fashioned "goloptious" picnic. Now, who would like to go besides myself?" "I, I, I," cried the girls, with gratifying unanimity. "Now, what day shall it be?" continued Julia. "Let's make Mrs. Gray settle the time at once, and then she can't back out." "I don't want to back out," said Mrs. Gray. "I enjoy the idea as much as you do." So, after some comparing of engagements, the next Thursday was fixed upon. "You had better make this the rendezvous," said the giver of the picnic. "I shall have room for one girl in my wagonette besides my four. You must all wear something stout, which won't spoil with scrambling over rocks, and you need not bring any luncheon-baskets. I will see to all that. This is to be an old-fashioned picnic, you know, and I shall provide exactly the sort of things that we used to take 'When I was young and charming, many years ago.'" "You are just as charming as you can be now," declared Belle, enthusiastically. "I do hope there won't be a fog," said Julia Prime, as she walked up the Avenue with the others.