The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 6

came to
see you. We want," she added succinctly, "tandies!"
"Well, you won't get any, not this time," said Mollie definitely, trying
not to smile, while the other girls were not even trying. It was always
hard not to laugh at the twins, naughty as they often were.
"Why?" demanded Dodo severely.
"Never mind why," returned Mollie, putting the little girl down and
taking up her knitting again. "Now run off, both of you, we want to
talk."
"But we want tandies," repeated Dodo, looking surprised that Mollie
had not understood the first time. "Dive Paul an' me tandies--lots of
tandies--an' we'll go 'long. Shan't we, Paul? Ooh--" the question ended
in an anguished wail as Dora's eyes rested on her faithless twin.
The latter had extracted Grace's half-filled candy box from under a
cushion where she had hastily hidden it at the first threat of invasion by
the insatiable twins and was at the moment busily engaged in
devouring its contents. Grace had been too busy watching Dodo to
notice him.
"Ooh, you bad boy! You bad boy!" wailed the little girl, making a dash
for Paul, who deftly evaded her and took refuge behind Betty's chair,
"Div me dos tandies--dive 'em to me."
"Can't," mumbled Paul, his mouth full, adding by way of explanation a
convincing: "All gone."

"Paul Billette, come here this minute," commanded Mollie sternly,
while Betty and Amy tried hard to check their rising mirth and Grace
looked bereft. "Come here I say."
"Make Dodo go 'way then," bargained Paul, adding in an explanatory
tone: "Last time she pulled my hair."
"An' me's goin' do it 'dain," declared Dodo vengefully, when Betty
reached over suddenly and pulled the little girl into her lap.
"Stay here a minute, Honey," she coaxed, and as Dodo tried vainly to
wriggle loose added: "Sister wants to speak to Paul."
"An' I," said Dodo soberly, "want to pull his hair."
Again the girls had to strangle their mirth while Mollie reiterated her
command to Paul. The latter, after regarding the wriggling Dodo for a
minute uncertainly, reluctantly left his refuge and stood before Mollie,
head hanging.
"I'se sorry," he said in a small voice, trying to forestall the scolding he
knew was coming. "Me never do it any more!"
"That," said Mollie sternly, though the corners of her mouth twitched
and there was a twinkle in her eye, "is just exactly what you say every
time you're a bad naughty boy. Now, just to make you remember how
naughty you were, you shan't have another piece of candy for a whole
week."
Paul's protest was drowned in a wail from Dora.
"But me wants some tandies," she cried. "Me didn't take any."
"She would, if Paul hadn't seem them first," murmured Grace, but
Mollie shot her a warning glance.
"No," she said, "and just for being such a good girl, sister's going to
give you six big chocolates all for yourself."

Dodo gave a shout of glee and disengaging herself with one last frantic
wriggle from Betty's embrace, precipitated herself upon Mollie like a
young cyclone.
"Ooh dive 'em to me, dive 'em to me quick," she demanded, then as
Mollie made good her promise the little girl turned upon the erring Paul
a look of conscious virtue and said gravely; "If you were a dood boy I
would div you one, but now me's goin' eat 'em up, every one till dey's
all gone."
Then she took to her heels, scurrying down the steps and around the
corner of the house with Paul in hot pursuit.
"Dodo," they heard him crying plaintively, "I'll let you play wiv my
best bunny if you will div me one candy, just one--"
"I wouldn't give much for his chances," chuckled Mollie, adding with a
sigh that was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "Aren't they
perfectly terrible? There isn't a minute of the day when they're not in
some mischief."
"No, they're adorable," cried Betty fondly. "I wouldn't give two cents
for children that didn't get into mischief all the time."
"I don't care so much about the mischief," said Grace, eyeing her empty
chocolate box ruefully, "if they would only leave my candies alone."
"Never mind, Gracie," replied Mollie, laughing at her, "you shall have
a whole box of mine, so you shall."
"Fine," agreed Grace, adding with a chuckle as Mollie handed over the
almost full box: "Since my candies were more than half gone, I don't
call it such a bad bargain at that."
"I'll say it wasn't," dimpled Betty.
"Just the same," said Mollie, after a little pause, "even though the twins
are a great deal of trouble, Mother said she just wouldn't have known

what to do without them--especially after I went to Camp Liberty--the
house would have been so