On the first page of the book was a picture of a little girl sitting on a 
bench. Above the bench was a thing like a ladder, except it was horizontal, 
supported at each end by posts. Thick vines twisted up the posts and gripped 
the ladder, where they burst into huge flowers. The girl had her back to Nell; 
she was looking down a grassy slope sprinkled with little flowers toward a blue 
pond. On the other side of the pond rose mountains like the ones they 
supposedly had in the middle of New Chusan, where the fanciest Vickys of all 
had their æstival houses. The girl had a book open on her lap.