Tabithas Vacation

Tabitha's Vacation, by Ruth
Alberta Brown,

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Title: Tabitha's Vacation
Author: Ruth Alberta Brown

Release Date: January 11, 2007 [eBook #20332]
Language: English
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TABITHA'S VACATION
Volume III in the Ivy Hall Series
by
RUTH ALBERTA BROWN
Author of "Tabitha at Ivy Hall," "Tabitha's Glory," "At the Little
Brown House," Etc.

[Frontispiece: "I hope," panted Tabitha, trotting along at the rear of the
procession, "that you don't have your fun in such a hurry."]

The Saalfield Publishing Company Chicago, ---- Akron, Ohio ---- New
York Made in U. S. A. Copyright, MCMXIII By the Saalfield
Publishing Company

CONTENTS
I. The McKittricks' Misfortune II. Tabitha and Gloriana, Housekeepers
III. Unwelcome Guests IV. Mischief Makers V. Irene's Song VI.
Gloriana's Burglars VII. Toady and the Castor Beans VIII. Billiard
Runs Away IX. Billiard Surrenders X. Susanne Entertains a Caller XI.
In the Canyon XII. The Bank of Silver Bow is Robbed XIII. The
Robbers and the Haunted House XIV. The Unexpected Happens XV.
Myra's Climax

ILLUSTRATIONS
"I hope," panted Tabitha, trotting along at the rear of the procession,
"that you don't have your fun in such a hurry." . . . Frontispiece

TABITHA'S VACATION
CHAPTER I
THE MCKITTRICKS' MISFORTUNE
"'Ho, ho, vacation days are here, We welcome them with right good
cheer; In wisdom's halls we love to be, But yet 'tis pleasant to be free,'"
warbled Tabitha Catt, pausing on the doorstep of her little desert home
as she vigorously shook a dingy dusting cloth, and hungrily sniffed the
fresh, sweet morning air, for, although the first week of June was
already gone, the fierce heat of the summer had not yet descended upon
Silver Bow, nestling in its cup-like hollow among the Nevada
mountains.
"'Ho, ho, the hours will quickly fly, And soon vacation time be by; Ah,
then we'll all in glad refrain, Sing welcome to our school again.'"
piped up a sweet voice in muffled accents from the depths of the closet
where the singer was rummaging to find hooks for her wardrobe, which
lay scattered rather promiscuously about Tabitha's tiny bedroom.
"Why, Gloriana Holliday, where did you learn that?" demanded the girl
on the threshold, abruptly ceasing her song. "It's as old as the hills. Mrs.
Carson used to sing it when she went to school."
"So did my mother. I've got her old music book with the words in it,"
responded her companion, emerging from the dark closet, flushed but
triumphant. "There! I've hung up the last dud I could find room for. The
rest must go back in the trunk, I guess. My, but it does seem nice to
have a few weeks of vacation, doesn't it?"

"One wouldn't think so to hear you carolling about school's beginning
again," laughed Tabitha, shaking her finger reprovingly at the
red-haired girl now busily collecting the remainder of her scattered
property and bundling it into a half-empty trunk just outside the kitchen
door.
Gloriana echoed the laugh, and then answered seriously, "But really, I
have never been glad before to see vacation come. It always meant only
hard work and worry, gathering fruit in the hot sun or digging
vegetables and peddling them around from door to door; while school
meant books and lessons and a chance to rest a bit, and the last two
years it meant Miss Angus, who did not mind my red hair and
crutches."
"But it is all different now," Tabitha interrupted hastily, shuddering at
the gloomy picture her companion's words had called up. "You are my
sister now, and there won't be any more goats and gardens to bother
about. You have left off using one crutch altogether, and don't need the
other except out of doors. We are going to have a lovely vacation, and
you won't want school to begin at all in September."
"Yes, it is all different now, Kitty Catt, thanks to dear old you!" agreed
the younger girl, giving the slender figure in the doorway an
affectionate hug. "And I suppose I shall be as daffy about this queer
desert place as you are by the time Ivy Hall opens its doors again----"
"Aha!" triumphed Tabitha. "Then you don't like it now, do you?