“I suggest that we take the handle home and frame it.  We might give it to Tommy as a souvenir,” suggested Harriet.

“Never mind.  I’ve thouvenirth enough as it ith.  I’ve got thouvenirth all over my perthon,” declared Tommy.

“You may have more before the day is done,” chuckled Jane, pointing to the heights that they were to climb that day.  Tommy eyed them askance.  She did not fancy what was before her, but with a sigh of resignation went about getting her pack ready for starting.  The other girls were now doing the same, Janus passing on the packs after they had been made ready.  To have a pack come open while climbing a steep mountain would mean the loss of almost everything in that pack.  But the danger of this was not so great now as though the luggage were being carried on pack horses.

The start was made in a leisurely manner.  Janus halted every little while to point out some interesting feature of the landscape, or to relate some legend of the past associated with this or that particular bit of mountain scenery.  An hour had been occupied in this easy jogging before they came to the sheer climb that lay before them.  This latter was more than a thousand feet, but the guide proposed to take the greater part of the day for it.  There was no need for haste, as the journey could be made easily before night.

As one gazed up the jagged side it did not seem possible that anything other than a bird could make the ascent.  It looked a sheer wall from where the girls stood, the projections and jutting crags appearing perfectly flat to them.  Even Harriet Burrell and Miss Elting were a little dubious.

“Do you think it safe?” questioned the guardian apprehensively.

“No.  Mountain climbing is never safe,” replied Janus.  “It can be done, and easily at that, if that’s what you mean.  Shall we go ahead or go back, Miss?”

“Ahead, of course,” the guardian nodded.

Janus got his line ready, a small but strong and pliant rope.  He nodded to his party, glanced up for the most favorable starting point, then began to go up.  The Meadow Brook Girls followed in single file.  Miss Elting bringing up the rear.  Now the guide passed the rope to them as the ascent became more precipitous.  Up and up wound the trail.  The climbers kept a firm grip on the life line, for a misstep here would mean a bad tumble, and might take others down also.  At times the girls were out of sight of each other, like the ends of a train rounding a sharp curve.  The advice of the guide to “look up, never down,” was followed by each one.  In fact, none dared to look down, fearing to lose her head and grow dizzy.

[Illustration:  Up and up wound the trail.]

“We rest here,” announced Janus, after they had been climbing for an hour without once stopping during that time.  It was not a particularly desirable place in which to rest, being located on a steep slope, but the spot was surrounded by bushes, so that, when all came together and sat down, they could see nothing of the rugged mountain scenery about them.