Dorothy Dales Queer Holidays | Page 2

things to have to exterminate."
The two boys had now assumed attitudes generally supposed to be the
very best possible in preparation for a fistic encounter, and Dorothy had
just jumped upon a chair to be able to reach her taller cousin and
prevent anything serious happening, when a very gentle voice from the
doorway interrupted the little scene.
"Children! children!" exclaimed Mrs. White, "Boxing in the library!"
Instantly the trio turned toward this beautiful woman, for she was
beautiful indeed.
So stately, so tall, so queenly, and gowned in such a simple yet
attractive house robe. Youth may have its glories, but surely mature
womanhood has its compensations, for a queenly woman, in the ease
and luxury of home costume, is to the eye of love and to the eyes of
discriminating persons the most beautiful of all the pictures that
femininity is capable of inspiring.
Such was Mrs. White, and no wonder, indeed, that she had such
good-looking sons, and no wonder, either, that Dorothy Dale was proud
to be told that she resembled her Aunt Winnie.

Mrs. White's Christian name was Ruth, but the Dale children, having
another aunt of that name, had always called this one Aunt Winnie, a
sort of contraction from the name of Mrs. White's late
husband--Winthrop.
This afternoon, when our story opens, was one of those tiresome "strips
of time," with nothing to mark it as different from any other occasion,
but, as Nat expressed it, "everything seemed to be hanging around,
waiting for Christmas, like New York, on Sunday, waiting for
Monday."
The little party were vainly trying to make themselves happy in the
library, where every reasonable comfort and luxury surrounded them,
for The Cedars, as this country estate was called, was a very beautiful
place, its interior arrangements reflected not only ample means, but a
display of the finely original and cultured taste for which Mrs. White
was famous.
Mrs. White was not afflicted with the "clutter" habit, and, in
consequence, her room rested instead of tiring those fortunate enough
to be welcomed within the portals of The Cedars.
So on this afternoon the wintry winds outside accentuated the comforts
within, and our friends, while restless and naturally impatient for the
arrival of Tavia, could not but appreciate their happy circumstances.
You may not all be acquainted with the books of this series, in which
are related many important events in the lives of Dorothy Dale, her
family and her friends, so something about the volumes that precede
this will not be out of place.
In the first book, "Dorothy Dale; a Girl of To-day," was told of
Dorothy's home life in the little village of Dalton. There Dorothy and
her friend Tavia grew like two flowers in the same garden--very
different from each other, but both necessary to the beauty of the spot.
The dangers of the country to children who venture too far out in the
fields and woods were shown in the startling experience Dorothy and

Tavia had when Miles Anderson, a cunning lunatic, followed them
from place to place, terrifying them with the idea of obtaining from
Dorothy some information which would enable him to get control of
some money left to a little orphan--Nellie Burlock.
Real country life had its joys, however, as Dorothy and Tavia found,
for they had many happy times in Dalton.
In the second volume, "Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School," there is
given the natural sequence to such an auspicious beginning as the days
at Dalton.
There were jolly girls at Glenwood, and some strange "doings" took
place, all of which went to show that a girl need not go to college to
have plenty of fun out of her schooldays, but that the boarding-school,
or seminary, is well qualified to afford all the "prank possibilities" of
real, grown-up school life.
In "Dorothy Dale's Great Secret," the third of the series, there is shown
what it means for a girl to be allowed too much liberty; to grow
ambitious before she has grown wise; to act imprudently, and then to
have to suffer the consequences.
It was Tavia who ran away to go on the stage, it was Dorothy who
found her and brought her back. And Dorothy kept her "secret," though
what it cost her only she knew.
The book immediately preceding this volume, entitled "Dorothy Dale
and her Chums," tells the story of Dorothy, Tavia, Urania, a gypsy girl,
and Miette, a little French lass. Dorothy had plenty of trouble trying to
civilize Urania, and quite as much trying to save Miette some strange
hardships. Dorothy was instrumental in bringing Miette into her own
family rights, and if she did not entirely succeed in "taming" Urania,
she at least improved her marvelously.
In all four of the preceding books the