The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 8

you think it's catching?" asked Grace, anxiously.
"From the way I feel I should say it was already caught," twinkled Betty, adding eagerly: "How long do you suppose we will have to wait, Grace? Did your Aunt Mary say when we could have the cottage?"
"As soon as we want it," replied Grace, looking surprised. "Didn't I tell you?"
"No you didn't," mimicked Mollie, adding as she sprang to her feet impatiently: "I'd like to know what we're waiting for anyway! Why don't we get started?"
"Now I know she's crazy," cried Betty, seizing her chum and pulling her down upon the arm of her chair. "Why we haven't decided anything yet."
"What is there to decide?" cried Mollie, trying to be patient and looking like a martyr.
"Why we don't even know how we're going to get there yet," explained Betty soothingly.
"In the automobile, of course," cried Mollie, jumping up again.
"Oh, can we?" cried Grace, forgetting to be languid and bouncing eagerly in the swing. "Mollie, that would be wonderful."
"Why of course we'll go in the car!" it was Mollie's turn to look surprised. "What did you think we were going to do--walk?"
"There are railroads, you know," Grace reminded her, relapsing into irony. "And as to walking--well, we did that too before you got your car, Mollie."
"Yes, and got sore feet," added Mollie.
"Well, now that we've decided not to go on the railroad or walk," Amy broke in unexpectedly, "I really don't see what we are waiting for."
"My goodness, there's another lunatic," cried Grace, looking despairingly at the Little Captain, whose eyes twinkled merrily. "What do you expect us to do--go just as we are?"
"No, but we can throw some things into a suitcase--"
"How long do you suppose it will take us to get there?" asked the Little Captain, coming to Grace's rescue.
"Why, even in Mollie's car it will take two days," said Grace, turning to Betty with the relief of one who at last had a sane person to reckon with. "Mollie and Amy evidently expect to make it in a couple of hours."
"Oh well, I didn't know it was so far away," murmured Mollie, somewhat taken aback. "Of course, then, we can't go until to-morrow."
The girls laughed merrily, and Betty hugged her.
"We might," chuckled the latter, "even be forced to wait till day after to-morrow."
"I won't do it!" cried Mollie, jumping up again. "There's no reason in the world why we can't start to-morrow."
"But, Mollie dear," insisted Betty mildly, "we haven't even asked our folks whether we may go or not--"
"As if we didn't know what they will say," broke in Mollie, but Betty went on without heeding her.
"And we must have a chaperone, you know."
"Oh, I suppose so," sighed Mollie sinking down in her chair resignedly, "but it's horribly tiresome. I want to go now."
"You sound like Dodo with her candies," remarked Grace, amiably helping herself to a luscious milk chocolate filled with nuts. "Have one, Mollie--it may make you feel better."
"It won't, but I will," said Mollie rather enigmatically, reaching out a hand for the proffered sweet. "Thank you, dear."
"But whom shall we have for a chaperone?" cried Amy impatiently. "I'm almost as bad as Mollie--I can hardly wait till to-morrow."
"Why," said Grace, nibbling daintily, "I thought maybe you girls wouldn't mind if I asked mother to go with us."
"Mind!" echoed Betty, while the others looked at her in surprise. "Why of course we'd love to have her! You know that. But I never imagined she would care to go, she is so interested in Red Cross work and her clubs--"
"That's just it," said Grace, sitting up quickly. "She's entirely worn out with work and worry about Will, and I thought a little vacation with us girls would help her out wonderfully. I'm not sure she will go--I haven't asked her yet."
"Well, let's," cried Betty impulsively, jumping to her feet. "She simply can't refuse if we all ask her at once."
"Now you're saying something!" cried Mollie fervently, albeit slangily, as she flung her arm about the Little Captain and dragged her down the steps. "Action is what we need--action, and plenty of it."
The girls fairly ran the short distance from Mollie's home to Grace's, and the people they met on the way, greeted them heartily, musing as he or she turned to go on: "There's probably something interesting in the air--the Outdoor Girls always look like that when they have some new adventure in tow." For Deepdale was very proud and fond of its Outdoor Girls.
Mrs. Ford was just coming down the stairs dressed to go out when the quartette burst in upon her. She did look very tired and worn, as Grace had said, but the smile that lighted her face at sight of the girls made her appear ten years younger.
"Mother," said Grace, taking one of her mother's carefully