“Thome girlth,” corrected Tommy.

“Yes, some girls.  That’s what I meant—­you girls in particular.  It’s a pity all girls don’t slant in the same direction.  Miss Thompson, if you will pick out some stones for the stove I will rustle the wood.  No, not that way.  I swum!  You’ll be down the Slide if I don’t watch you.”

“The Slide!” exclaimed the girls, turning eagerly to the guide.

“Yes.  We’re at it now.  Where’d you think we were?”

“O, where is it?” questioned Harriet eagerly.

“Come here, I’ll show you.  Everybody that’s able to walk come here, so you’ll know where it is, then there won’t be any excuse for your walking into it in the dark.  There!”

All they could see was a slight depression in the rocks.  It was several feet wide, very steep and so smooth that its polished surface reflected the light from the match that the guide lighted.

Harriet tossed a stone over on the smooth surface.  They heard it sliding and rattling down, terminating in a faint splash.

“My goodness!  Is there water down there?” exclaimed Crazy Jane.

“Yes, a pond or a pool, whatever you wish to call it.  I was telling you about the Indians who used to take the Slide here.  I know two young fellows who took it just to be smart.  One was unhurt but the other had to be fished out of the pool.  He was taken with a cramp and almost died before they got him.  But this Slide isn’t a circumstance to the one over on Moosilauke.  That one is nigh to a thousand feet long.  That ends in a lake, too.  I’d like to see any fresh young gentleman take that slide.”

“Harriet could do it,” declared Tommy.

“Harriet is not going to try it, my dear young friend,” retorted Harriet laughingly.  “She has had quite enough falls to satisfy her.  Besides, she values her life, liberty and happiness.”

“How long is this slide, Mr. Grubb?” asked the guardian.

“Over a hundred feet,” replied the guide, measuring the distance with his eye.

“Oh, what a lovely thlide!” bubbled Tommy.  “How funny it would be to thee Buthter toboggan down that thlide!  Wouldn’t that be funny, Mith Elting?”

“All of you keep away from here,” ordered the guide.  “I’ll lose my reputation if what we have already experienced gets out.  Nobody will want a guide who can’t take care of his party better than I’ve done.”

“You aren’t to blame,” replied Harriet.  “It has been just Meadow-Brook luck, that is all.  We always have plenty of excitement.  Why, it is tripping right along ahead of us all the time, though we do not always catch sight of it until too late to stop.  We will keep away from the Slide until morning.  I want to see it before we leave, and so do the other girls.  Maybe we might have some fun bowling stones down it.  Are there any big ones that we may roll down, Mr. Grubb?”

“There’s a whole mountain of them.”