"For use or ornament?" she asked, indicating the weapons. "You look like Dick Danger." "Strictly for use," he assured her. "The gun has brought down many a toothsome 'possum, and the knife serves to cut anything from firewood to alpenstocks. Shall I cut you one to assist your feeble steps?" They halted while he selected a sapling for the purpose, trimmed and sharpened it at the end. "Alpine travellers put sharp iron points on their staffs, Uncle says," he explained, "so that by thrusting them in the ice and snow they keep from slipping. We don't need them for just that purpose, but they are handy on steep paths--and to kill bugs with!" She accepted the "alpenstock" gratefully and soon found it useful for both purposes. "When we get back to camp I'll get Sandy to carve your initials in it--he's quite a genius at carving," Knight said. "Is Sandy the--sandy one?" "Precisely." "Then I don't think I like him." "Oh, but you will when you know him better," Knight protested. "He's tremendously clever,--a born orator. He won a medal last year in a debate." "That accounts for his talking so much," Blue Bonnet laughed. "He's always at it." "But unlike most incessant talkers, he says something," Knight urged for his friend. "We'll get him to recite some evening, then you can judge how talented he is." "Does he do 'Curfew shall not--?'" she asked mischievously. "Grief, no!" Knight's disgusted tone sent Blue Bonnet off in a fit of laughter. To her surprise the ripple of her laugh came back in a gleeful "ha, ha!" that had something witchlike about it. She turned a startled face to her companion. "We've reached the 'Whispering Grotto,'" he explained. "The echo is famous." He pushed aside a low-growing bough, and brushing by it Blue Bonnet found herself in a lovely little cave-like spot, in the centre of which was a tiny spring. It bubbled up somewhere back in the hill and had made a long tunnel, coming to the light just here. "Oh, for a cup. I'm thirsty as--as Tantalus!" sighed Blue Bonnet. "A Texas girl crying for a cup?" Knight asked teasingly. "That wouldn't have happened before I went to Woodford. I've been going through what they call--being civilized. It's mostly learning not to shock the New England sense of propriety." "I'm not a New Englander!" Knight's eyes were daring her; and it was fatal. What Sarah would have said if she could have seen Blue Bonnet's method of getting a drink is hard to conjecture. Hardly had she time to spring to her feet when voices were heard close at hand. "I can hear Sandy." She turned eagerly to Knight. "Let's go on--I don't feel ready for a crowd." "There's a lovely view from the top of the hill," he suggested. Her only answer was to push on, plying her alpenstock eagerly in her haste to elude the others. Pausing only when the top of the hill was reached, she sank at length on a fallen tree-trunk. The view was all Knight had promised for it, overlooking a quiet valley.