“We will see that things are well with her. That copper stock she owns is looking up again. She is not to sell out.”

Mr. Stuart turned to find Ruth for his last kiss. “Remember, daughter,” he declared, “I rely on you and Bab to keep cool heads and clear brains in any emergency.”

As the train moved off, Mr. Stuart and Mrs. Thurston watched for a few moments a circle of waving hands. A little later their car swung around a curve and Kingsbridge was lost to view.

“The Automobile Girls” and Miss Sallie then repaired to the hotel. Grace, Mollie and Bab were to be Ruth’s guests until they started for the Berkshires. All was in readiness.

The week before, Mr. Stuart had taken the girls to New York for a few days’ shopping. If ever there were young women fitted up in the proper styles for mountain climbing they were. Each girl was presented with two pairs of thick, high boots and leather leggins. Ruth insisted that her heavy wool dress be made of the Stuart plaid. She then had a tam o’shanter designed from the same Scotch tartan. But Ruth’s proudest possession was a short Norfolk jacket made of the same leather as her leggins, and a knapsack to carry over her shoulders. Attired in her woodland costume, she looked not unlike “Rosalind” in Shakespeare’s play, when that maid comes into the woods disguised as a boy to seek for her father.

Barbara’s suit was of dark brown corduroy, with jacket and cap to match. Grace would choose nothing but her favorite dark blue. But her costume was the most striking of them all, for, with her blue skirt and blouse, she was to wear a coat of hunter’s pink and a smart, little hat of the same bright scarlet shade. Mr. Stuart selected the costume for Mistress Mollie. She at least, he insisted, should be arrayed in the proper shade of Lincoln green; and like a veritable “Maid Marian” she appeared.

For once Miss Sallie was entirely satisfied with their selection of costumes. “For me,” she argued in her most decided manner, “the most necessary garments are half a dozen pairs of overshoes, and the same number of mackintoshes and umbrellas. I shall also take an extra trunk of warm flannels. If the fall rains begin while we are camping in the mountains we shall surely be washed down into the valley before we can make our escape.”