The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake | Page 6

promised.
"'Well, now I have the chance to get the Flying Dutchman for you, and I'm bringing it home, with sails furled so it won't get away. I'm going to give you a grand surprise soon, and you can pass it on to your friends. So if you let me luff along for a few more cable lengths I think I'll make port soon, and then we'll see what sort of a sailor you'll make. You may expect the surprise shortly.'
"That's all there is to it," concluded Betty, "and I've been puzzling my brains as to just what the surprise may be."
"He's going to take you on a voyage," said Amy.
"He's bought you some toy ship," was the opinion of Mollie.
"Oh, if he'd only bring a real boat that we could make real a trip in!" sighed Grace. "That would be-- lovely!"
"Betty Nelson! Write to your uncle right away!" commanded Mollie, "and find out exactly what he means."
"I can't," sighed Betty. "He's traveling, and one never knows where he is. We'll just have to wait. Besides, he is so peculiar that he'd just as likely as not only puzzle me the more. We'll just have to wait; that's all."
"Well, if it should be some sort of a boat, even a big rowboat, we could have some fun," asserted Grace.
"Yes, for mine isn't much account," remarked Mollie, who owned a small skiff on the river.
"I was so excited and amused when I got uncle's letter," said Betty, "that I didn't know what to do. Mamma puzzled over it, but she couldn't make any more out of it than I could. So I decided to come over here."
"I'm glad you did," spoke Grace, holding up her long habit in one hand and delicately eating a chocolate from the other "There comes James with Prince. Oh, he's run him too hard!" she exclaimed as she noted the hard-breathing animal.
"Oh, no, Miss," said the groom, who heard her. "That was only a romp for him. He'll be much easier to handle now."
He gave Grace a hand to help her mount to the saddle, and adjusted the stirrups for her.
"Good-bye!" she called, as she cantered off. "Save some of the chocolates for me," and the others laughingly promised, as they went back to the shade, to rest in the hammock or lawn chairs.
CHAPTER III
THE RUNAWAY
Grace cantered along the pleasant country road on the back of Prince. The noble animal had lost some of his fiery eagerness to cover the whole earth in one jump, and now was mindful of snaffle and curb, the latter of which Grace always applied with gentle hand. Prince seemed to know this, for he behaved in such style as not to need the cruel gripping, which so many horsemen-- and horsewomen too, for that matter, needlessly inflict.
"Oh, but it is glorious to ride!" exclaimed the girl, as she urged the animal into a gallop on a soft stretch of road beneath wonderful trees that interlaced their branches overhead. "Glorious-- glorious!"
"I hope those papers are not so valuable that it would be an object for-- for some one to try to take them away from me," she mused. Instinctively she glanced behind her, but the peaceful road was deserted save for the sunshine and shadows playing tag in the dust. Then Grace looked above. The sky was of rather a somber tint, that seemed to suggest a storm to come, and there was a sultriness and a silence, with so little wind that it might indicate a coming disturbance of the elements to restore the balance that now seemed so much on one side.
"But if any one tries to get them away from us, we-- we'll just-- run away; won't we, Prince?" and she patted the neck of the horse. Prince whinnied acquiescence.
"Grandmother will be surprised to see me," thought Grace, as she rode on. "But I'm glad I can do as well as Will in business matters. I hope papa won't be too severe with Will for not attending to this himself."
She passed a drinking trough-- a great log hollowed out, into which poured a stream of limpid water coming from a distant hill through a rude wooden pipe. It dripped over the mossy green sides of the trough, and Prince stretched his muzzle eagerly toward it.
"Of course you shall have a drink!" exclaimed Grace, as she let him have his head. Then she felt thirsty herself, and looked about for something that would serve as a mounting block, in case she got down. She saw nothing near; but a ragged, barefooted, freckled-faced and snub-nosed urchin, coming along just then, divined her desire.
"Want a drink, lady?" he asked, smiling.
"Yes," answered Grace, "but I have no cup."
"I kin make ye one."
Straightway he fashioned a natural flagon from a leaf of the wild