Notch yet, and be ready for the climb over Liberty and Lafayette to-morrow. I'm afraid we've got to be on our way."
The girls gathered around Frank. One of them wrote an address on a card, and gave it to him. "Now, promise," they said, "you've got to send us all one of those horrid pictures."
"If they're so horrid, I shouldn't think you'd want 'em," said Frank.
"Well, you send 'em just the same," they answered.
Everybody shook hands all around, and Alice, as she released Peanut's hand, managed to slap his face lightly, and ran laughing up the steps. The Scouts tramped away into the village, while the girls waved their handkerchiefs from the porch.
"Yes, Art," Peanut said, "girls are a pesky nuisance. They look so ugly in pink dresses."
"Oh, shut up on that!" Art cried. "You've got a ducking coming to you in the next brook. Anyhow, mine wasn't a face-slapping tomboy!"
"No, she was just too sweet," laughed Peanut, as he dodged Art's swing at his head.
At the village they stocked up on provisions—bacon, condensed milk, tea and coffee, flour and sweet chocolate—for their provisions were well used up, and soon they were plodding up the road, northward, and entering the Franconia Notch.
