For some distance the ladies went forward without saying a word. A spell of utter silence had fallen upon the party. Then Mrs. Wright spoke. "Statia." "Yes." "Do you remember what we studied about gravity?" "Why, certainly. Every certain number of feet a thing falls it goes twice as fast." "Well, I have made a discovery just as good as Sir Isaac Newton's. Every foot you carry a rock it gets twice as heavy." Some one among them dropped her burden; instantly they all let go. The boulders struck the road with almost as simultaneous a thump as when the drill-sergeant calls out "Ground arms." "Oh! I 'm nearly dead," said Mrs. Norton. "So 'm I," gasped Mrs. Dix, sinking down on the roadside grass. "O-h-h-h!" gasped Mrs. Plympton. The next minute or two was devoted to breathing. "Why did n't you _say_ you were nearly dead?" demanded Mrs. Harmon, when she had somewhat recovered. "Why did n't _you_ say something?" replied Mrs. Dix. "Why did n't we all say something?" inquired Mrs. Norton. "I did n't know the rest of you were as tired as me." Mrs. Wright, despite she was the smallest of the number, was evidently the hardiest; she had calmly turned her stone over and sat down upon it. "It's a wonder you don't all blame it on me," she said philosophically. "Well, whatever I learn about this stone I 'll never forget," remarked Mrs. Dix. "Never as long as I live. Let's take them back." "Yes; but it's farther to go back than it is to keep on," said Mrs. Harmon. "And we certainly can't leave them here. We are responsible for them." A very evident state of affairs. Being begun it had to be done. "Come on, stone, we're going," said Mrs. Wright, taking hers up again. The others followed. Again the rock-laden ladies went manfully onward. When next they reached the limit of endurance, Chase's big red gate was so near that they hung on with final determination, and when they were almost to it they rushed forward to get inside the goal before the rocks fell. They all succeeded except Mrs. Plympton, who lost hers in the middle of the road and then finished its journey by rolling it. "I was never so glad in my life before that I am not a horse," she said. Virginia Chase had come down the path to shut the gate, which some one among the earlier arrivals had not properly fastened, and she was the bearer of bad news. The Professor, after all, would not be able to be present. He had one of his sick headaches again. "And who else do you think is sick?" added Virginia. "Aberdeen Boy. I wish Jonas Hicks was back, because Uncle Israel does not know very much, really, about stock. I am so worried. He held his head out so funny, I thought maybe it was something the matter with the ring in his nose. But it wasn't. He is just sick." "I am su-u-u-ure," said Grandma Plympton, "that if Jonas Hicks were back he could give him something that would relieve him."