"I don't think they ever did," replied Verty, smiling. Which reply caused Miss Fanny and Mr. Ralph to laugh, and Redbud to color slightly; but this soon passed, and the simple, sincere look came back to her tender face. Redbud could not resist the glowing picture which Fanny drew of the picnic to be; and, with some misgiving, yielded. In a quarter of an hour the young men and the young girls were on their way to the beautiful eminence, swinging the baskets which contained the commissariat stores, and laughing gleefully. CHAPTER XXXVIII. HOW LONGEARS SHOWED HIS GALLANTRY IN FANNY'S SERVICE. It was one of those magnificent days of Fall, which dower the world with such a wealth of golden splendor everywhere--but principally in the mountains. The trees rose like mighty monarchs, clad in royal robes of blue and yellow, emerald and gold, and crimson; the forest kings and little princely alders, ashes and red dogwoods, all were in their glory. Chiefly the emperor tulip-tree, however, shook to the air its noble vestments, and lit up all the hill-side with its beauty. The streams ran merrily in the rich light--the oriole swayed upon the gorgeous boughs and sang away his soul--over all drooped the diaphanous haze of October, like an enchanting dream. To see the mountains of Virginia in October, and not grow extravagant, is one of those things which rank with the discovery of perpetual motion--an impossibility. Would you have strength and rude might? The oak is, yonder, battered by a thousand storms, and covered with the rings of forgotten centuries. Splendor? The mountain banners of the crimson dogwood, red maple, yellow hickory and chestnut flout the sky--as though all the nations of the world had met in one great federation underneath the azure dome not built with hands, and clashed together there the variegated banners which once led them to war--now beckoning in with waving silken folds the thousand years of peace! Would you have beauty, and a tender delicacy of outline and fine coloring? Here is that too; for over all,--over the splendid emperors and humble princes, and the red, and blue, and gold, of oak, and hickory, and maple, droops that magical veil whereof we spoke--that delicate witchery, which lies upon the gorgeous picture like a spell, melting the headlands into distant figures, beckoning and smiling, making the colors of the leaves more delicate and tender--turning the autumn mountains into a fairy land of unimagined splendor and delight! Extravagance is moderation looking upon such a picture. Such a picture was unrolled before the four individuals who now took their way toward the fine hill to the west of the Bower of Nature, and they enjoyed its beauty, and felt fresher and purer for the sight. "Isn't it splendid!" cried Fanny. "Oh, yes!" Redbud said, gazing delightedly at the trees and the sky.