Dorothy Dales Queer Holidays | Page 9

shopping over with,"
suggested Dorothy to Tavia, when they had convinced the boys that it
was too cold to go auto riding, and that this was the very best day in the
week to do Christmas buying.
"All right, Doro," answered Tavia. "You're the coacher. I'll go wherever
you like, only please don't ask me to select anything to go out to
Glenwood--I want to forget there is such a place as Glenwood School."
"Why, Tavia!" exclaimed Dorothy. "You are surely going to send some

remembrance to Mrs. Pangborn! Surely you would not forget the
principal, even if you do overlook the teachers."
"Not a thing," declared Tavia, shaking her bronze head decidedly. "Fact
is, I'm awfully hard up, Doro, and I would rather forget Pangborn
than--go without a month's supply of fudge."
"Hard up! Why, Tavia, you wrote me you had five dollars to spend."
"So I did--then, but I lost it since."
"Lost it? How? Wasn't that too bad!"
"I should say so," replied Tavia, turning to her memorandum book, as if
to dismiss the subject.
"But how did you lose it, Tavia?" persisted the sympathetic Dorothy.
"Oh, I didn't exactly lose it, but I had to spend it for other things," said
Tavia with a show of impatience.
"Then I'm just going to divide with you," declared Dorothy, for she
knew perfectly well that Tavia was not in the circumstances that she
herself enjoyed, surmised that indeed Tavia did have to spend her
holiday money for some needed articles.
"Oh, no, thank you," objected Tavia, the color racing into her cheeks, "I
suppose I might have done without--"
"Now, you must let me have my way, Tavia," insisted Dorothy,
instantly opening her pretty beaded purse to divide its contents.
"But, Doro, dear," faltered Tavia, "you don't understand. It was not for
anything for myself--"
"Then all the more reason that you should be reimbursed," insisted
Dorothy. "I don't want to know anything about it, but you must let me
share with you. Why, what fun would I have giving and buying, with
you just looking on?"

So Tavia said no more, but as she accepted the money from her loyal
little friend a guilty flush would persist in staining her cheeks, and she
avoided Dorothy's wondering blue eyes when she asked:
"Now, what are you going to send home? We must get the things first
that will have to be sent away."
"I've fixed all that," stammered Tavia. "I won't have to get anything to
send home."
"I didn't want to take her money," Tavia tried to tell herself, "and I was
willing to tell her all about it, but she wouldn't listen. Now, if only I can
manage to get Nat to keep quiet. But, at any rate, I did not mean to
deceive Dorothy."
But all the same Tavia did not relish the handling of Dorothy's
Christmas savings, and somehow she took little interest in all the
possible gifts Dorothy made notes of, in preparation for the day's
shopping in the city.
"I will have to tell Nat, I suppose," she was thinking, as she finally
picked up the little shopping bag and was ready to start off with
Dorothy. "I'll tell him to-night--but I do hate to. I wish Doro would not
be so over-generous," and she crushed the money in the leather case
and put it securely within the satchel.
"Come, Tavia, we will surely miss that train if you do not make haste,"
declared Dorothy for she could not understand why Tavia should not be
more alert and more interested.
"I forgot my muff," pleaded Tavia, "and had to go back for it. I suppose
I would forget my head, as mother says, if it were not tied on."
Dorothy smiled and hurried on, with Tavia following.
Surely Christmas shopping was something any girl should love,
Dorothy thought, as she wondered why Tavia appeared so indifferent.

Meanwhile, Tavia was struggling with her conscience. She had
accepted Dorothy's money reluctantly, it might have been, but at the
same time she had taken it. And she told Dorothy her own money was
spent for--
Tavia jerked her fox fur boa impatiently. How complicated the whole
thing was getting! What difference did it make to Dorothy for what the
five dollars had been expended? It was Tavia's own money. Her
mother--
"Dear me!" sighed the girl secretly. "That makes it so much worse!
Mother did try so hard to save that money for me so that I might not
always have to depend upon the goodness of Dorothy and her folks."
"There's the train," called Dorothy, who was somewhat in advance of
Tavia. "We will have to run! Look out for your purse!"
The mere mention of purse or money brought the hot blood to Tavia's
cheeks again.