So in the evergreen wood they chatted, and jested, and laughed over the prolonged luncheon. At length they all arose from the grass, and began to prepare for their ramble. The ladies hoisted their parasols, the gentlemen put on their wide-awakes, and everybody asked everybody else— “Where shall we go first?” “Have you ever seen the Lady’s Leap?” inquired the captain. “No—never,” answered a score of voices. “Nor the Devil’s Dripping Pan?” “No.” “Nor the Eagle’s Eyrie?” “No, for no one but myself of this company has ever been here before,” answered Allison for all his party. “Then we had better visit them in turn,” counselled the captain. And everybody answered— “Yes.” And the whole party, led on by the captain and Mr. Allison, set out on their excursion. They went first to the Lady’s Leap, a lofty rock overlooking the Falls, where a lovesick girl was reputed to have taken a fatal leap into the river below. Next they visited the Devil’s Dripping Pan, a great basin of rock nearly circular in form. Finally they took a look at the Eagle’s Eyrie, the highest point of land within many miles of the place. And then, fatigued with their long ramble, they returned to their boat to rest. Now, had the programme of the excursion been carried out to the letter, a great mischance might have been averted. But it was not. Elfie, at least, seemed possessed by the evil one, who inspired her with a love of adventure. She would not hear of terminating the excursion at the Great Falls. It was a glorious afternoon, and having visited the most striking scenes around the Falls, she wished to go farther up the river. The captain, who had returned with them on the boat, sided with Elfie. “It would be a pity,” he said, “to turn back without having seen the fine scenery above. Why, you might even run up as high as the Point of Rocks—a magnificent view.” “To be sure we might,” said Elfie; “and even if we should be late in returning, there will be moonlight to come home by. It will be perfectly delightful.” “And we have everything along to make us comfortable,” said Allison. In fact, when the extension of their expedition was once fairly and broadly proposed and discussed, it was unanimously agreed upon. And it was decided that they should immediately start for the upper river, should stop and dine at the Point of Rocks, and then return home by moonlight. To be sure Elfie felt a few twinges of conscience when she thought how great would be Erminie’s anxiety at her prolonged absence, but Elfie, with a mental jerk, exclaimed to herself: “Bother! if she shouldn’t be worrying about me, she would be worrying about somebody else—some dying soldier in the hospital, some starving refugee from the South, or some condemned criminal in his cell. It’s all the same to her.” And so the picnickers bade adieu to their new friend, the commander of the block-house, and their boat steamed away up the canal for the Point of Rocks.