OFF FOR OCEAN VIEW
"Are you going to take all those?"
"All those? Why, there aren't so many, Mollie."
"Well, I like your idea of _many_, Betty. Why, you'll need two trunks
for those dresses. Oh, where did you get that pretty linen skirt, and
it's quite full, too; isn't it?"
"Yes, they're coming in that way again," and Betty draped the skirt in
question over her hip, holding it up for Mollie to see. The two girls
were in Betty Nelson's room, and the Little Captain was packing a trunk.
At least that was the official name of the operation. To the
uninitiated, or to "mere man," it looked as though nothing was being
done except to scatter dresses on chairs, on the bed, divan and other
vantage points.
"But I have to lay them all out this way," Betty had explained, when
Mollie, running over in an interval of her own packing, to get ready to
go to Ocean View, had gasped in wonder at the confusion in her friend's
room. "I want to see what I have, so I'll know what to take with me."
"That isn't my way," Mollie laughed. "I simply open a closet door, sweep
everything off the hooks and toss them into a trunk. Then I get Felice
to jump on the lid with me, and--presto! the trick is done, Madame!" and
she laughed and shrugged her shoulders in pretty little French fashion.
"I simply can't do it that way," sighed Betty. "I suppose it does take a
long time to lay each dress out separately, but----"
"It is much more kind to the dresses," agreed Mollie. "That's why you
always look so nice, and why I always appear so--so----"
"Don't you dare say a word about yourself, Mollie Billette!" protested
Betty. "You always look so sweet. Why, you can take an old piece of
cloth and a couple of faded flowers, and make of it a hat that looks
prettier than one mamma pays Madame Rosenti twelve dollars for when I go
with her. I don't see how you manage to do it."
"It was born in me!" laughed the French girl, as with a quick motion she
draped one of Betty's garments about her shoulders, producing an effect
at which Betty gasped in pleasure.
"Now, why doesn't that ever look like that on _me_?" she demanded.
"Betty, you're a dear!" replied Mollie, without answering. "Now I am
keeping you. I must run back. I haven't begun to pack yet, and I know
Paul and Dodo will have my room in dreadful shape. They are probably, at
this minute, parading around in my best frocks, playing soldier," and
Mollie with a laughing kiss for her chum jumped up and fled from the
room to hurry home and minimize the work of the playful twins.
"Don't forget the time!" cried Betty, after her chum, leaning out of the
window of her room, and breathing in deep of the balmy June air. "We
leave a week from to-day."
"Oh, I won't forget!" answered Mollie. "It is altogether too delightful
for that."
Betty resumed her inspection of dresses, to determine which she should
take, while Mollie hastened home. But Betty had not long been alone when
the doorbell tinkled and Grace Ford was announced.
"Tell her to come right up, if she will," Betty directed the maid, and
the tall, willowy one entered with a rush and a rustling of silken
skirts.
"My!" gasped Betty, looking up from her position, kneeling amid a pile
of clothes. "All dressed up and no place to go, Grace! What does it
mean? No, thank you, no chocolates when I'm looking over my pretty
things. I might spot them."
"That's just what happened to me," sighed the Gibson girl. "I had to put
on my best silk petticoat, as I spilled a lot of chocolate down my
other. I sent it away to be cleaned, and that's why I'm wearing my best
one. Don't you just love the swish of silk?"
"I guess we all do," answered Betty. "Oh, dear!"
"What's the matter?" asked Grace. "Oh, but you are going at it
wholesale; aren't you?" as she surveyed the room overflowing with
clothes.
"Have to, my dear. It means an all-summer stay, you know. And I don't
know what to take and what to leave. I'm sure to want the very things I
don't take."
"Take them all, then. That's what I'm doing. Only I haven't really begun
yet. I just ran over to ask you something."
"Well, let it be something very easy, Grace dear. My brain isn't capable
of taking in very much this morning."
"It's about Will," went on Grace, thoughtfully selecting a chocolate
from a bag. "Are you sure you won't have some?" she asked.
"What, of Will? No, thank you!"
"Silly, of course not. I mean this candy. It's delicious! Just fresh
and----"
"Cloying," interrupted Betty. "You haven't a lime drop, have you?"
"Ugh! The horrid, sour things, no! But about Will. Did you know he had a
secret Betty?"
"A secret? Mercy, no! Is it about some----"
"I don't believe it's a girl. If it is, Will acts the funniest of anyone
I ever saw. He has a lot of books and papers he's studying over."
"It might be her--letters--or--her picture that he puts in a book so no
one will see----"
"It isn't that!" declared Grace with conviction. "Oh, this is a nougat!"
she exclaimed in rapture, as her white teeth bit into a particularly
delicious candy.
"Hopeless!" sighed Betty, folding a skirt neatly.
"I mean he hasn't any girl's picture, or anything like that," went on
Grace. "I found one of the books where he had laid it down. It is some
sort of Government report. I thought you might know."
"Why?" asked Betty, quickly. "I'm not in his confidence."
"I know, but you see, Will and Allen being so chummy, and Allen being so
fond of you----"
"Grace Ford!" broke in Betty. "You shouldn't say such things!" and she
blushed crimson.
"Why not?" demanded Grace, coolly. "There's no one here but us, and we
know it. I thought perhaps Will had told Allen, and Allen might have
hinted to you."
"Not a word, Grace, dear. I didn't even know Will had a secret."
"Well, he has, and he won't tell me. But I'll find out. He's up to
something. I only hope he doesn't run away again, or do something
foolish."
"Will doesn't mean anything," declared Betty. "He is just high-spirited;
that's all. What sort of a secret did it seem to be, if it wasn't
about--girls?" and Betty laughed.
"Oh, I'm sure it isn't about girls," Grace went on, seriously enough.
"At least it isn't any girl in our set, and Will doesn't know any
others. And if it is some one in our set, they're all nice girls, so it
won't really matter--after we get used to it."
"Oh, dear!" laughed Betty. "You speak as though he were engaged!"
"Oh, I know he isn't," declared Grace. "But he _is_ such a tease. But if
you don't know, you don't, Betty. And now I must run back. Have any of
the other members of the club been over?"
"Yes, Mollie was just here."
Grace fished out another chocolate, after shaking up the bag to see if
there were any choice ones at the bottom, and then, after trying in vain
to induce Betty to accept a sweet, took her departure, saying she was
going to see to her own packing.
"Now it only needs a call from Amy to make the round of visits
complete," murmured Betty, as she resumed the sorting of her garments.
But Amy did not come that morning.
The outdoor girls were making ready for their trip to Ocean View, where
the better part of the summer would be spent.
The arrangements had been made for the Nelson family to occupy the
beautiful cottage, Edgemere, which was completely furnished.
"Even to matches and a candle in each bedroom," Betty had said.
"But I thought you said it was a modern place," objected Grace. "I don't
like candles--excuse me, Betty dear, but they are so--so smelly!"
"I know. The candles are only for emergency. The house has electric
lights."
"Electric lights! I thought Ocean View was such a _quaint_ old place,"
murmured Mollie.
"So it is. The electric plant is in Point Lomar, that swell summer
resort. Only a few places in Ocean View have electricity."
And so the arrangements went on. Mollie, Grace and Amy were to be
Betty's guests during the summer, though their parents or relatives had
a standing invitation to spend week-ends and holidays at the shore.
"And of course the boys are always welcome!" added Betty.
"And of course we'll _come_!" declared Will and the others. "That is,
I'll spend as much time as I can away from my official duties!"
"Oh, he nearly told us then!" cried Grace. "Will, I'll never speak to
you again, if you don't tell me that secret."
"You shall know in due time, sister mine. As for your threat, I don't
mind your not speaking to me if you don't make me buy your chocolates. I
care not who speaks to me!" he paraphrased, "as long as I do not have to
buy their candy!"
"Here comes Percy Falconer!" interrupted Roy, and the little
conference, one of many held whenever the friends met--broke up.
While the girls were getting ready with trunks of clothes, the boys were
no less busily engaged. They had completed their plans for a series of
cruises along the coast, in the motor boat _Pocohontas_, loaned to Allen
Washburn by a wealthy gentleman for whom he had done some law business,
though Allen was not as yet admitted to the bar.
"I'll have a chance to practice this summer, getting the boat off a
sand-bar!" he had jokingly said.
And finally trunks were packed, tickets had been purchased, word had
come from Ocean View that the cottage was in readiness, and at last, on
a beautifully sunny June morning, the outdoor girls stood at the
station, ready to take the train.
The boys were there, also, as might have been guessed.
"And when are you coming down in the boat?" asked Betty.
"In about a week," Allen said. "We're having the engine overhauled, a
new magneto put in and some other things done."
"I'm coming in the auto," broke in Percy Falconer. "Father did not want
me to make the boat trip, but the chauffeur will bring me down to the
shore in the car."
"Pity he wouldn't use a feather bed," murmured Roy Anderson.
"Oh, here comes the train!" cried Mollie. "Girls, I'm almost sure I've
forgotten half my things."
"Good-bye, girls!" chorused the boys.
"Good-bye!" came the answer.
"Oh, Grace!" called Will to his sister.
"Yes," she answered.
"That secret of mine."
"Oh, yes. What is it? Do tell me! I haven't a second----"
"I'll tell you--when I come down!" his words floated to her as she was
borne along the platform with her chums to the train that was to take
them to Ocean View.