AN INVITATION The envelope was postmarked Everdoze which, with its one thousand two hundred and fifty--seven inhabitants, was the cosmopolitan center of Long Valley which ran ( if anything in that neighborhood could be said to run) from Baxter City down below the vicinity of the bridge on the highway.

That is, Long Valley bordered the highway on its western side for a distance of about ten miles.

The valley was, roughly speaking, a couple of miles wide, very deep in places, and thickly wooded.

It was altogether a very sequestered and romantic region.

Through it, paralleling the highway, was a road, consisting mostly of two wagon ruts with a strip of grass and weeds between them.