all joking; for, as the hours passed and they journeyed on, hearing
nothing about the place of which for the last few weeks they had
thought so much, a queer feeling began to steal over them that there
really was no such spot, and that they were all a set of idiots.

"I thought we should have been there by this time, and regularly
established at housekeeping," Marion said, as they picked up baskets and
bundles and prepared to change cars; "and here we are making another
change. This is the third this afternoon, or is it the thirteenth? and
who knows where Brocton is or what it is? Is anybody sure that it is in
this hemisphere? Eurie, you are certain that your theological student
did not cross the Atlantic in order to reach his elysium?"

"Brocton is _here_," Eurie said, as they climbed the steps of the car.
"I see the name on that building yonder; though whether 'here' is
America or Asia I am unable to say. I think we have come overland, but
it is so long since we started I may have forgotten."

But at this point they checked their nonsense and began to get up a new
interest in existence. They were among a different class of
people--earnest, eager people, who seemed to have no thought of yawns
or weariness. Camp-stools abounded, with here and there a bundle looking
like quilts and pillows. Every lady had a waterproof and every man an
umbrella, and the talk was of "tents," and "division meetings," and "the
morning boats," with stray words like "Fairpoint" and "Mayville" coming
in every now and then. These two words, the girls knew had to do with
_their_ hopes; so they began to feel revived.

"I actually begin to think there is some foundation for Eurie's wild
fancies after all," Marion whispered, "or else this is another party of