“What a perfectly lovely stunt!” exclaimed Grace.  “We’ll write to Tom Gray, and see if he can’t come, too.  The walking expedition wouldn’t be complete without him.”

“I’ll write to him to-night,” said David.  “I certainly should like to see the good old chap.”

“Will there be plenty to eat?” asked Hippy.  “I always feel hungry after such strenuous exercise as walking.  I am not very strong, you know.”

“Hear him,” jeered Reddy.  “One minute he vows to walk until he reaches the skeleton stage, and the next he threatens to kick over all his vows by overeating.”

“I didn’t say anything about overeating,” retorted Hippy.  “I merely stated that there are times when I feel the pangs of hunger.”

“Stop squabbling,” said Jessica, “and let’s lay some plans.”

“Where shall we lay them?” innocently asked Hippy.

“Nowhere, if you’re not good,” said Nora eyeing him severely.

Then an animated discussion began, and the following Saturday was agreed upon, the weather permitting, as the best time to go.

Saturday turned out fair, and by nine o’clock the entire party were monopolizing the Harlowe’s veranda.

“Well, are we all ready?” said Tom Gray, as he glanced at his watch.  “Everybody scramble.  One, two, three, walk.”

Eight highly excited boys and girls accompanied by Miss Edith O’Malley, hustled down the steps, waving good-bye to Mrs. Harlowe as she stood on the veranda and watched them out of sight.

The lunch had been divided into four packages and each boy strapped a package to his shoulder.  Grace wore a little knapsack fitted to her back with two cross straps.  “There’s nothing in it but some walnut fudge that I made last night, but I couldn’t resist wearing it.  It belonged to my grandfather,” she confided to the girls when they had exclaimed over it.

“My, but it’s great to be here,” said Tom Gray to Grace as they entered Upton Wood.  “I’m so glad I could come.”

“So are we,” she replied.  “A lark in the woods wouldn’t be half the fun with our forester missing.”

“Back to nature for me, every time,” he exclaimed, taking a deep breath and looking about him, his face aglow with forest worship.

“I love the woods, too,” said Grace, “almost enough to wish I were a gypsy.”

On down the shady wood road they traveled, sometimes stopping to watch a squirrel or a chipmunk or to knock down a few burrs from the chestnut trees they occasionally found along the way.  Once they stopped and played hide and seek for half an hour.  By one o’clock they were ravenously hungry.  Hippy clamored incessantly for food.

“Let us feed him at once, and have peace,” exclaimed Nora.  “I’m hungry, too.  It seems an age since breakfast.”

A halt was made and the contents of two of the lunch packages were arranged on a little tablecloth at the foot of a great oak.  The hungry young folks gathered around it and in a short time nothing remained of the lunch excepting the packages reserved for supper.