Clover

s. Watson, and his distant manners, which really signifi

lover; "but they get bravely over it after a while. He'll

protected herself against encroachments, and resolutely kept the greater part of her time free for Phil, she was always considerate, and sweet in manner to the older lady, and she found spare half-hours every day in which to sit and go o

id not ask Mrs. Watson. She had discussed the point with her husband, but the doctor "jumped on" the idea forcibly, and protested

would at least know who the Abraham Peabodys are, and they're Henry's-But I don't imagine she was much of anybody before she was married; and out here it's all hail fellow and well met, they say, though in that case I don't see-Well, well, it's no matter, only it seems queer to me; and I think you'd better drop a hint about it when you're there, and just explain th

s that it was not a dinner-party, and they were only a

ld have been asked too," she said, and so lef

r the lower spurs of the ranges. The canyons looked black and deep, but the peaks still glittered in rosy light. The mesa

ce to an exhilaration which half frightened Clover, who had constant trouble in keeping him from doing things which she knew to be

g suddenly before one of the pretty plac

ha

erday it was all green grass and rose-bushes, and gi

covered the whole place, with the exception of the flagged walks which ran from the gates to the front and side doors of the house. Clover noticed now, for the first time, that thes

. They began to suspect what it must mean, and Mrs. Hope confirmed the suspicion. It was irrigation day in Mountain Avenue, it seemed. Every street in the town had it

arrangement," Mrs. Hope told them. "Nothing could live throu

"It seems to me that we have had a thund

ms," Mrs. Hope admitted; "but we ca

ficent thunder?" asked Dr. Hope.

ats the world, too. It cuts our flowers to pieces, and sometimes kills the sheep on the

uperior, of course, to have rains; but then at the East we sometimes don't have rain when we want it, and the grass gets dreadfully yellow. Don't you remember, Phil, how hard Katy and I worked las

fort," said Dr. Hope. "The East is a dre

and Boston when you say 'one-

ted doctor. "Wait till you

s. Hope, as a girl came hurriedly

ture, to whom Clover took an instant fancy, and seemed in perfect health; yet she told them that when she came out

ear," she said; "or if he doesn't get well as fast as he ought, you m

is the

e mountains. It is a great deal higher than this, and

t; but I like St. Helen's so much tha

r wondering how all these things had come there so soon, so very soon. It seemed like magic,-one minute the solemn peaks and passes, the prairie-dogs and the thorny plain, the next all these portières and rugs and etchings and down pillows and pretty devices in glass and china, as if some enchanter's wand had tapped the wilderness, and hey, presto! modern civilization had sprung up like Jonah's gourd all in a minute, or like the palace which Aladdin summoned into being in a single ni

ayed delightfully on the piano; later c

et us settle about the drive

s! Miss

won't you cal

he doctor and I are at variance as to what the something shall be. I want you to see Odin's Garden; and the doctor insists that

't know either of them. What

a bunch of poppies in her hat. "Take them to Cheyenne to-morrow; and the next day-or Thursday-let me get up a picnic for Odin's Garden; just a few of

ch dread,-this gay, delightful place, where such pleasant things happened, and people were so kind? How she wished that she could get

scene. Happily, Mrs. Hope's thoughts took the same direction; and by some occult process of influence, the use of wh

Miss Chase, who was to go on horseback likewise. No proposal could have been more agreeable to Phil, who adored horses, and seld

eadfully dishonest; but she dared not confess that she had forgotten all about the hint, still less that she had never meant t

pair of fast horses, Miss Chase and Phil cantering happily alongside, or before or behind, just as it happened. The su

y with flowers,-gillias and mountain balm; high pink and purple spikes, like foxgloves, which they were told were pentstemons; painters' brush, whose green tips seemed dipped in liquid vermilion, and masses of the splendid wil

slopes of rock like thin films of glass, there deepening into pools of translucent blue-green like aqua-marine or beryl, again plunging down in mimic waterfalls, a sheet of iridescent foam. The sound of its rush and its ripple was like a laugh. Never was such happy water, Clover thought, as it curved and bent and swayed this way and that on its downward course as if moved by some m

red and orange-tawny and pale pinkish gray and terra cotta, in which the sunshine and the cloud-shadows broke in a mul

said. "How glad I am that

but there are dozens of others, and no two of them are alike. I'm glad you a

ers and the sheen of the river-pools and the mad rush of its cascades, and felt as though she were in a dream. Through the dream

frightfully narrow. If a load of hay or a big Concord coach should come along, I can't think what we should do. I se

y not a hay-wagon, for they don't

d, and has valves in the heart as I have, you never-We might meet one of those big pedler's wagons, though, and they

hold her tight. There'll be a real accident, sure as fate, if you don't." Then in a gentler tone, "It's only a buggy, ma'am; there's plenty of room. There'

nervously. She watched the buggy timorously ti

Providence to drive so fast on such a rough road. If all canyon

some canyons are really rough. Do you remember, Mary, the day we got stuck up at the top of the Westmoreland, and had to unhitch the horses, and how I stood in the middle

pale; "what an awful place! Bears and li

We don't mind such little matters out West. We try to acc

e a word the doctor says. I've lived in Colorado nine years; and I've never once seen a mountain

uite unconvinced by these well-meant assurances, sa

Ellen say? Bears an

ng so lovely?" She referred to what she was looking at,-a small point of pale straw-colored rock some hun

l, if that's what you mean. Rocks ought not to be that color. They never are at

-schools in creation at once," remarked the doctor, between his shouts, while even Clover

and exhibiting a great sheaf of columbine tied to the pommel of her sa

feel as if I must c

many other places out here abou

-the twin of this," said Dr. Hope; "but you must

to a wooden shed, or shanty, at the mouth of a gorge, and

a walk?" aske

s lovely if you only go a little way in, and you and I will sit

pauses a moment to rest in each before taking its next plunge, is beautiful. Little plank walks are laid along the river-side, and rude staircases for the steepest pitches. Up these the party went, leaving Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Hope far behind,-Poppy with her habit over her arm, Clover stopping every other moment to pick some new flower, Phil shying stones into the rapids as he passed,-till the top of the topmost cascade was reached, and looking back they could see the

y could see two fast-moving specks which they guessed to be Mrs. Hope and Mrs. Watson, hurrying to a place of shelter. Nearer and nearer came the storm, louder the growl of the thunder,

torm lasted half an hour, then it scattered as rapidly as it had come, the sun broke out brilliantly, and the drive home would have been delightful if it had not been for the sad fact that Mrs

e one; but Hovey's things are always-I had the handle shortened a little just before I came away, too, so that it would go into my trunk; it had to be mended anyhow, so that it seemed a good-Dear, dear! and now it's spoiled! What a pity I left it in the carriage! I shall know better another time, bu

I wish I had noticed that you had left your parasol. Well, Clover, you've had a chance now t

believe," replied Clover, laughi

vingly. "She'd make a first-rate pioneer. We'll keep her out here,

en that I should have bee

l change

I don't

ys and means,

f young people. Mrs. Hope very rightly decided that a whole day out of doors, in a rough place, would give pain rather than pleasure to a person who was both so feeble and so fussy, and did no

ks three hundred feet high; and something suggesting a cat-faced deity, and queer similitudes of crocodiles and apes,-all in the strange orange and red and pale yellow formations of the region. It was a wonderful rather than a beautiful place; but the day was spent very happily under those mysterious stones, which, as the long afternoon shadows gathered over the plain, and the sky glowed with sunset crimson which seemed like a reflection from the rocks themselves, became more mysterious still.

right or the things half beautiful enough. Colorado is the most beautiful place in the world. [N.B.-Clover had seen but a limited port