“Good-by,” the others echoed, and Peggy added, with her friendly smile, “I suppose we’ll see you again some day. I hope so, I’m sure.”

She repeated the wish a little later, as the sunbonnet went out of sight over the brow of the hill. “Because she seems such a nice sort of girl. I’m going to like this place, I know. There are such interesting people in it.”

“Oh, Peggy,” Amy cried with a teasing laugh, “you know you’d like any place, and you find all kinds of people interesting.” And then because the sight of Lucy Haines’ full pail had made them somewhat dissatisfied with the results of their own efforts, they all fell to picking with a tremendous display of industry.

Priscilla and Claire were on the porch when the others came home laden with their spoils. Claire wore a noticeable air of complacency, but Priscilla looked a little tired and despondent. All through their stroll Claire had harped on the joy of being by themselves at last, and had insisted on walking with her arm about Priscilla’s waist, which on a narrow path was inconvenient, to say the least. Priscilla was rather ashamed to acknowledge even to herself that she found Claire’s devotion wearisome. Of course, Claire was a very sweet girl, but it was so easy to have a surfeit of sweets.

“I hope you left a few on the bushes,” she said rather resentfully, when the berry-pickers had recounted their experiences with an enthusiasm which gave to the expedition through the pasture the glamor of real adventure, “I’d like the fun of picking some real berries myself.”

“We might go to-morrow,” Claire suggested in a careful undertone. Priscilla’s face flushed, and Peggy seeing her look of annoyance, created a diversion by springing to her feet.