The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 9

gloved hands in her own and leading her gently but firmly into the library, "we have something very important to say to you."
"Will it take long?" queried Mrs. Ford, smiling at the other girls over her shoulder. "Because, if it will, I'm very much afraid I can't wait. I'm a little late now."
"That," said Grace decidedly, as her mother sank into a chair and the other girls grouped themselves about her, "is exactly what we have come to talk about. We think you need a little vacation."
"Vacation!" cried the lady, half rising from her chair. "Why, my dear! how can I take a vacation when my hands are so full of work now that I am--"
"You don't have to take it," Grace interrupted argumentatively, "we'll just give it to you."
Mrs. Ford laughed helplessly and regarded the eager young faces with amusement.
"Out with it, girls," she commanded. "I know you are plotting some terrible thing. What do you intend to do, kidnap me?"
"No, we're keeping that for a last resort," returned Betty, and Mrs. Ford laughed outright at the confession.
"We want," explained Grace, speaking fast for fear of being interrupted, "to have you go with us to Bluff Point. We need a chaperone, you know."
"I've no doubt of it," retorted her mother, laughing, adding, with another anxious glance at the clock: "But I'm afraid you will have to get someone else, Honey. If I were free, I should like nothing better, but you see how rushed I am--"
"But you're terribly tired, Mother, you know you are," said Grace with unusual gentleness, adding diplomatically: "What good will you be to the Red Cross or to anyone else, I'd like to know, if you let yourself get sick?"
"But I'm not sick," protested her mother, then added with a sudden longing as the wild solitude of Bluff Point rose before her eyes suggesting utter peace and quiet, a chance to rest tired nerves and gather strength for the last great drive:
"You're right, I am tired, terribly tired," and the lines of weariness returning to her face. "I'd love it, girls, but there's my work!"
It took the girls about five minutes of the hardest work they had ever done in their lives. But they did what they had set out to do. At the end of that time Mrs. Ford consented to start with them whenever they were ready.
"Day after to-morrow?" asked Mollie, her eyes shining.
"I don't know why not," said Mrs. Ford, then sprang to her feet with a cry of dismay. "Girls, I completely forgot to telephone the Red Cross. What will they think of me?"
CHAPTER V
A PROBLEM SOLVED
"I wish," said Mollie, sitting back to view approvingly the shining black hood of her car, "that we had another machine. I'm afraid by the time we've packed our bags and things into the tonneau we'll find it rather crowded. And for such a long trip we ought to have plenty of room."
"That's what I was thinking," agreed Amy, rubbing a bit of nickel to a gleaming polish, for the girls had gathered at Mollie's to help her put the car in shape for the anticipated trip to Bluff Point. And they had gone to their work with a will, rubbing and polishing the big machine as they would have groomed a well-loved horse. "We will have our trunks sent, of course, but we shall have to take our nighties and combs and brushes and such things. We might put 'em on the roof," she added hopefully.
"Yes, and we might wear 'em," said Grace scornfully. "That is a brilliant idea."
"Well, I have one worth two of that," said Betty, trying not to look mysterious.
"Betty, are you going to spring anything on us?" cried Mollie, while the other two paused with dust cloths uplifted.
"Not if you don't want me to," returned the Little Captain demurely.
"Betty, dear, I love you so," crooned Mollie, running around the car and putting a rather oily hand about Betty's waist. "You wouldn't want such an ardent admirer to drop dead at your feet, would you, now?"
"It would have the charm of novelty," chuckled Betty, only to add quickly as Mollie made a threatening gesture: "No, please don't kill me yet. Come over here on the steps and I'll tell you all about it."
"Yes, yes, go on," they cried, obediently ranging themselves on the steps of the back porch and fixing eager eyes upon her.
"Shoot!" Mollie commanded inelegantly.
"Well," said Betty speaking slowly to add to the effect of her announcement, "I have a car!"
"A car!" they echoed, and Grace added: "Now I know she's crazy!"
"When?" demanded Mollie, her eyes round and black, as they always were under excitement.
"If you mean, when did I get it," answered Betty, enjoying their surprise to the full, "I might tell you that up to six o'clock