"It is beautiful. Now it all seems real. I can see everything, dearest, it's lovely. Just one thing more: How do we go?"
"I think we shall take the southern route and come back by some other."
"You mean---- Just which way is the southern route?"
"Down through New Orleans, Texas, and a bit of Mexico, then up through Southern California. Coming back, we will go through upper California and perhaps come home through the Canadian Rockies, but we will decide that when the time comes."
Nan drew a long sigh of satisfaction. "It is just too lovely for words. I may tell it, may I? It's all going to really happen?"
"So far as any one can say a thing will really happen. Of course, if any one should go prowling around at night in strange places and break an arm or leg and so detain us, we all could not go."
Nan fell upon her aunt with playful beatings of her fist in punishment of this speech. "It won't be me, at any rate," she declared. "I'm going to hunt up the kiddies now before Mary Lee gets hold of them to tell them."
Mary Lee had already flown to Cousin Mag's with the news and Nan was free to be first dispenser of it to the twins. She was but a little way from the house when Jean met her, running, and wiping away tears with two grimy fists. "Whither away, my little maid?" cried Nan, catching her. "Where's Jack?"
"Oh, Nan," said Jean, "come, come crick; Jack is in the pig-pen and the pig is screaling awfully."
"Why in the world did Jack want to get into the pig-pen with the pig?" asked Nan. "Did she want to make piggy 'screal'?"
"No, she fell in. Come, get her out, please, Nan."
Nan followed Jean to the scene of the disaster, but, by the time they reached there, Jack had managed to get out by her own efforts, though she was a sight to behold. "Goodness, child!" exclaimed Nan, "you are a mess. What have you been doing? Here, come along with me. Don't touch me. Unclean! Unclean! Fee-ugh! how does the pig stand that kind of sachet? Go on ahead---- No, keep behind. I don't notice it so much, then. Follow, follow." She ran on ahead until she reached the brook, whose waters were warmed by the June sunshine. "Off with your shoes and jump right in," she cried to Jack; "into that nice little smooth pool where the sun is shining. You are the pilgrim in 'Pilgrim's Progress,'" she went on, "and I see that the dirt of the Slough of Despond is upon thee, but that slough is the beginning of the sorrows that do attend those that go on in that way. Hear me, I am older than thou; thou art like to meet within the way that thou goest, Wearisomeness, Pain, Hunger, Perils, Nakedness, Sword, Lions, Dragons, Darkness----"