Elsie brought the atlas; and the three heads bent eagerly over it, as Clover traced the route of the journey with her forefinger.  How exciting it looked!  There was the railroad, twisting and curving over half-a-dozen States.  The black dots which followed it were towns and villages, all of which they should see.  By and by the road made a bend, and swept northward by the side of the Connecticut River and toward the hills.  They had heard how beautiful the Connecticut valley is.

“Only think! we shall be close to it,” remarked Clover; “and we shall see the hills.  I suppose they are very high, a great deal higher than the hill at Bolton.”

“I hope so,” laughed Dr. Carr, who came into the room just then.  The hill at Bolton was one of his favorite jokes.  When mamma first came to Burnet, she had paid a visit to some friends at Bolton, and one day, when they were all out walking, they asked her if she felt strong enough to go to the top of the hill.  Mamma was used to hills, so she said yes, and walked on, very glad to find that there was a hill in that flat country, but wondering a little why they did not see it.  At last she asked where it was, and, behold, they had just reached the top!  The slope had been so gradual that she had never found out that they were going uphill at all.  Dr. Carr had told this story to the children, but had never been able to make them see the joke very clearly.  In fact, when Clover went to Bolton, she was quite struck with the hill:  it was so much higher than the sand-bank which bordered the lake at Burnet.

There was a great deal to do to make the girls ready for school by the third week in April.  Mrs. Hall was very kind, and her advice was sensible; though, except for Dr. Carr, the girls would hardly have had furs and flannels enough for so cold a place as Hillsover.  Every thing for winter as well as for summer had to be thought of; for it had been arranged that the girls should not come home for the autumn vacation, but should spend it with Mrs. Page.  This was the hardest thing about the plan.  Katy begged very hard for Christmas; but when she learned that it would take three days to come and three days to go, and that the holidays lasted less than a week, she saw it was of no use, and gave up the idea, while Elsie tried to comfort herself by planning a Christmas-box.  The preparations kept them so busy that there was no time for any thing else.  Mrs. Hall was always wanting them to go with her to shops, or Miss Petingill demanding that they should try on linings, and so the days flew by.  At last all was ready.  The nice half-dozens of pretty underclothes came home from the sewing-machine woman’s, and were done up by Bridget, who dropped many a tear into the bluing water, at the thought of the young ladies going away.  Mrs. Hall, who was a good packer, put the things into the new trunks.  Everybody gave the girls presents, as if they had been brides starting on a wedding journey.