The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View | Page 2

"Did you ever see anything so--so appetizing?"
"It looks like a display at a picnic candy kitchen," murmured she who had been called Billy.
"Why, Mollie Billette!" reproached Grace Ford. "I think it's perfectly splendid."
"But not appetizing," declared Amy Blackford. "I don't see how you can think of eating any, when it's so near dinner time, Grace."
"We don't have dinner until seven, and it's only five. Besides, I'm not going to eat many--now."
"No, she'll take a box home, and keep them in bed, under her pillow--I know her," put in Mollie, alias Billy. "I slept with her one night and I wondered whether she had lumps of coal, or some kitchen kindling wood between the sheets. But it wasn't--it was chocolates! The box had worked out from under her pillow in the night and----"
"Mollie Billette! You promised never to tell that!" pouted Grace. "I don't care. They were hard chocolates, and didn't do any damage."
"No, and they weren't damaged, either," laughed Mollie. "I know we sat up eating them until your mother came in and made us go to sleep. Oh, Grace, you certainly are hopeless when it comes to chocolates!"
A smiling clerk came up to wait on the girls, and while Grace was pointing out what she wanted, the two friends stood aside, talking in low tones.
"Where are you going this summer?" asked Mollie, of Amy.
"I don't know. Henry isn't just sure what he will do--at least, he wasn't the last I talked with him about it. I suppose, though, I shall go wherever Mr. and Mrs. Stonington go, and that is likely to be the mountains, I heard them say. What are your plans, Mollie?"
"About as unsettled as yours. I did want to go to the seashore, but mamma is so afraid of the water for Paul and Dodo. Those children never seem to grow, and half my pleasure is spoiled giving way to them."
"Oh, but they are such sweet dears!" protested Amy.
"Yes, I know, but you ought to live with them a year or so. Did I tell you Paul's latest?"
"I think not."
"Well, he has a rocking-horse, you know, and the other day----"
"Have some," interrupted Grace, thrusting her bag of chocolates between her two girl chums, and thus interrupting Mollie's story. "Don't you want a soda? I've enough change left."
"Soda? Indeed not!" cried Mollie. "And I don't want more than one or two candies, either!" she went on, as she tried to prevent Grace from generously emptying half the bag into her small, gloved hands.
The three girls were laughing and--yes, truth compels me to say they were giggling--when the door of the shop swung open, a girl entered and at the sight of the newcomer the three burst out with:
"Betty!"
"The Little Captain!"
"Betty Nelson, where were you? We've been looking all over for you!"
"Yes, so I heard," was the calm response of the fourth girl, who swung in with a certain vigor and lithesomeness as though she had just come from a game of tennis or basketball. There was a wholesome air of good health about her, a sparkle in her eyes, and a glow in her cheeks that told of life in the open.
"I saw you turn in here," she went on, "and I knew I had plenty of time, as long as I saw Grace with you, so I didn't hurry."
"Oh, I haven't bought so much," declared Grace, with an injured air. "Just because I want some chocolates now and then----"
"Now--and--then!" mocked Betty Nelson, with a laugh. "Better say now--and--always. No, thank you," and with a shake of her head she declined some candy from the bag. "Just had lunch a little while ago. Mother and I ate on the train."
"Where were you?" demanded Mollie. "At the house they said you were out of town, and we thought it strange, as you hadn't said anything about going away, especially as we so recently came back from Florida."
"It was just a little trip, suddenly taken," Betty explained. "Mother and I went down to the shore to select our summer cottage."
"And did you?" asked Mollie, with sparkling eyes.
"We did, and, oh, it's such a darling place!"
"Where?" came the question in a chorus.
"At Ocean View, the prettiest place on the New England coast, I think. Of course it's small, and old fashioned, and all that, but----"
"Oh, how I wish we were going to some place like that!" exclaimed Mollie.
"So do I," chimed in Grace. "Father talks of Lake Champlain again, and I detest it."
"How about you, Amy?" asked the Little Captain, turning to the quiet girl.
"I haven't heard where we are going."
"Good!" cried Betty. "This is just what I expected. If you haven't any plans, none will have to be--un-made. It makes it so much easier."
"Makes what easier?" demanded Mollie.
"My plan, my dear! Listen, I think it's just the loveliest idea.