"Walks," said Mrs. Ironwood. "And talks. And stands. I hope you've both brought plenty of shoes." "I noticed the stones, as we came along," said Rose. "Stones! It's the soft going that tells on the shoes, child. I brought Mary Gates here one rainy spring, and she finished her overshoes in a week, and I had to send her home." "In a week! Did she dance instead of walking?" "Danced attendance," said Mrs. Congressman. "I didn't mean to pun, girls, but that was the fact. Now I should take you straight off to the guard-house to see Magnus----" "The guard-house?" "The visitors' room, there, silly! but work begins at two o'clock, and we shouldn't find him. So I'll go and get a snooze, and you'd best do the same." "We could not possibly sleep," said Violet. "We'll sit out on the piazza and look." "It's a fine view, whichever way," said Mrs. Ironwood; "but the Land of Nod is more to my mind just now. Sit out here, then, or do what you like, only don't go off hotel limits. There's no town crier here. And call me at a quarter past three. And girls"--she put her head inside the door again--"whatever you do, don't go down and stand at the hotel fence." The girls listened to the retreating footsteps, but then they looked at each other and laughed. "West Point must be an odd place," said Rose. "And she is the oddest woman! What ails the hotel fence, any more than all other fences?" said Violet. "It looks pretty strong." However, they obeyed orders, and wandering about a little, as all doors stood open, came presently out upon the north piazza and the north view. XLVIII THE GUARD-HOUSE IN JUNE The little birds sang as if it were The one day of summer in all the year. --LOWELL. I do not know when Mrs. Congressman would have been roused from her nap, if the clock on the old tower had not told its tale of the passage of time. But when three sonorous notes had sounded, after that the girls kept close watch, for soon Magnus would be but a half hour away. They passed round to the west side, and sat watching the hills and the plain and the clock, by turns; and it wanted two minutes of the quarter when they went in. And Mrs. Ironwood was prompt. She waked up at once, donned a fresh gown and an astonishing bonnet; looked her girls over critically, to make sure their simple preparations had come out all right, then sailed away down the steps and across the plain, with her pretty convoy close following. Late spring everywhere, blue sky and hot sun; a ravishing green carpet, and just a stir of such air as breathes nowhere but in the Highlands. Gaily dressed women spotted the green, dark-blue officers came and went; the bugler at the sallyport handled and toned his bugle.