In the High Valley / Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series

we go in to-morrow to meet Rose, and have the morning at St. Helen's? There are quite a

ied her husband. "It's a free day

s, passing, as Clover remarked, through three zones of temperature; for it was crisply cold when t

of climate for our money

e to feel that the intervening time was dreamy and unreal, so absolutely unchanged was it. There was the rickety piazza on which she and Phil had so often sat, the bare, unhomelike parlor, the rocking-chairs swinging all at

to her and Phil, and requited them in every way that was in her power. More than once when Mrs. Marsh was poorly or overtired, she

She always claimed the entire credit of Clover's match, declaring that if she had not matronized her out to the Valley and introduced her a

ad not been in existence," she told her friend; "marriages are m

arly every one of them came within half an inch of perfect happiness, and just missed it. No, depend upon it, there is nothing like a wise, judicious, discriminating friend at such jun

of us is capable of it;" but Mr

eautiful cream, the basket full of fresh lettuces, and the bunch of Mariposa

heyenne Mountain, which was at one of its most beautiful moments, all aerial blue streaked with sharp sunshin

ow, but she and her family had grown so fond of St. Helen's that there was no longer any talk of their going back to the East. She had just had som

nd Mrs. Browne arrives to-day, and she is by far the greatest treat we have ever had to offer to any one since we lived in the Valley

y delightful! Clover, you are an angel,-'the Angel of the Penstamen' I mean to call you," glancing at the great sheaf of purple and white flowers which C

aurant. They were just coming away when an open carriage passed them, silk-lined, with a crest on the panel, jingling curb-chains, and silver-plated harnesses, all after the latest moder

eclare," observed Geoffrey. "I

e must go and call some day, Geoff, when I happen to have on my b

he doesn't. What fine horses. Aren't you con

n. Don't be absurd," was all the rep

years before. There was little Rose too, but she was by no means so unchanged as her mother, and certainly no longer little, surprisingly tall on the contrary, with her golden hair grown brown and braided in a pig-tail, actually a pig-tail. She had the same bloom

ys of travel, "don't let's utter one word till we are in the

r, and concrete, with here and there a more ambitious "villa" of pink granite, all surrounded with lawns and rosaries and vine-hung verandas and tinkling fountains. "In the first place I wish to learn

you've no notion about our Western towns, Rose. They're born and grown up all in a minute, li

Chicago which knocked me all of a heap, then Denver, then that enchanting ride over the Divide, and now this! Never did I see such flowers or such colored rocks, and

, where she sat soberly taking all things in. "Mamma, Uncle Geoff says I may drive when

s as beautiful as it is big. What is the name of that enchanting mountain over there,-Cheyenne? Why, yes,-that is the one that you used to write about in your letters when yo

sed. Her eyes were as quick as her tongue; chattering all the time, she yet missed nothing of interest. The poppy-strewn plain, the green levels

way of adventure take the car to the Back Bay, and that I felt all the while as if I were getting the cream and pick of everything, I am astonished at my own stupidity. Ros

her little mother's vagaries and treated th

n the carriage climbed the last steep zigzag and drew up before the "Hut," whose upper windows gl

d heaps more beautiful. I simply put it at the head of all the places I ever s

e goodness

y birth h

me to this b

Boston

is up here! And this is Mr. Page, whom I have known all about ever since the Hillsover days! and

r awake,-sang, and repeated verses, and danced her up and down, but it was all of no use. She would put her knuckles in

better to keep something for to-morrow. The drive was perfect, and the Valley i

e from an Indian jar in one corner of the room, and a splendid sheaf of yellow columbines from another; fresh kinnikinick was looped and wreathed about the pictures; and on the dining-table stood, most beautiful and fragile of all, a bowlful of Mariposa lilies, their delicate

eemed to fit at once and perfectly into the life of the place, while at the same time she brought the breath of her own more varied and different life to freshen and widen it. They all agreed that they had never had a visitor who

the morning to a

thing new and unusual to happen. Can't you abjure those wretched beasts of yours for once, and come with us to that sweet little canyon

alf an hour or so to ride

ake at least as long

r which Pike's Peak rose in lonely majesty like a sentinel at an outpost, and where flowers grew so thickly that, as Rose wrote her husband, "it was harder to find the in-betweens than the blossoms." They came back, tired, hungry, an

al, and which had done duty as a dinner dress for two or three years at Bideford. It was of light blue mousselaine-de-laine, made with a "half-high top" and elbow sleeves, and trimmed with cheap lace. A necklace of round coral beads adorned her throat, and a comb of the same material her hair, which was done up in a series of wonderful loo

e toilettes seemed unduly simple to Imogen, who said within herself, complacently, "There is one thing the Americans don't seem to understand, and that is the difference between common dressing and a regular dinner dress,"-preening herself the while in the sky-blue mousselaine-de-laine, and quite unconscious that Rose was inwardly remark

that people are not able to read

ar," said Rose, taking a chair near Imo

ets to be quite at home anywhere out of their own countr

more different than some other parts

rts I have seen see

ey and New Yor

stern towns. We didn't stop at any of them, of course; but seen from the railw

when we were at school, just how far it is across the continent; but I never realized it in th

erful that it should perplex foreigners. Do you recollect that Englishman, Geoff, whom we met at the table d'h?te at Llanberis, when we were

springs di

those, and nothing more! And when I explained that Charleston and the Yellowstone were about as distant from e

apart, then?" asked

about?" cried her brother. "It seems sometimes as if America

at all; but of course we learned more about the important countries

nce under his breath, while R

ongo States would naturally interest you more,-large heathen populations to Chris

f course America is much l

h as we are'" quot

added Clover, glad of the appearance of

er the light of a glorious full moon. "Her mind is just one inch across. You keep falling off the edge and hurting yourself. It's sad that she

om; this angularity and stiffness that you object to is chiefly manner. Wait till s

you say would be necessary, Clover? A hundred years?

ellow. We are all

en! what a name for just that kind of girl. 'Image' it ought

she would be so till she died of old age, as Elsie told her. Her friends of the High Valley gloried in her success; but all the time they had a private longing to keep her more to themselves, as one retires with two or three to enjoy a choice dainty of which there is not enough to go round in a larger company. They took her to the Cheyenne Canyons and the top of Pike's Peak; they carried her over the Mars

er heard of turned up at Canyon Creek and the Ute Valley and drove over to call, having heard that Mrs. Deniston Browne was staying there. The High Valley became used to the roll of wheels and the tramp of horses' feet, and for the moment

aration which was painful to bear. Clover tried more than once to persuade her out of her solitary mood; but she was too much occupied herself and too absorbed to take much time for coaxing a reluctant guest, and the others dispensed with her company quite easily; in fact, they were too busy to notice her absence much or ask questions. So the fortnight, which passe

r all the use I am to him." This was unjust, for Lionel was anxious and worried over his sister's depressed looks and indisposition to share in the pleasures that were going on; but I

dressing Phillida with all the gravity and decorum of an old nurse. They followed her about like two little dogs, and never left her side for a moment if they could possibly help it. All was fish that came to her happy little net, whether it was playing with little Geoff, going on ex

Street with Mary Anne to school, and slide a little bit on the Common when the snow comes and there aren't any b

career to both of us at first. But cheer up, Poppet; I'm going to put you into a dancing-class this winter, and

Valley ever received," said Clover, who happened to be wi

ing him the two things that Rose loved most,-namely, the High Valley from top to bottom, and the North Cheyenne Canyon. The last luncheon was taken at Mrs. Hope's

orm. "I can't quite see what ails her. She looks thinner than when we came, and doesn't seem to know how to smile; depend upon it she's g

ently. "I must make up for it now that you are going away. Real

whistle. We really have got to go. I hoped to the last that something might happen to keep us another

the High Valley was too far away from people, but somehow I do to-night. It is qu

ant to go

stances in Heaven, and when we get there we shall find that we all ar

now. I don't have to wait till Heaven for that, which is the reason perha

s," said Clover, nestling her head comfortably on his arm. "O