THE LEAKY BOAT
There was a moment of silence, and then the relieved voice of Betty was
heard to say:
"Oh, it's Grace. I'm so glad. I thought--"
"What are you doing here?" asked the newcomer. It was evident from her
rather mumbled words--which mumbling I have been unable to reproduce in
cold type--that Grace was eating candy.
"Have some chocolate?" she went on, holding out a bag.
"Oh, Grace! Chocolate at such a time as this!" rebuked Betty, her mind
filled with the story she had just heard.
"Why, what's the matter with the time?"
"Amy is in there," and she motioned to the private room.
"Gracious! Has she fainted again?"
"No; where is Mollie?"
"Coming. There she is. We were looking everywhere for you. Alice
Jallow said--"
"The horrid thing!" burst out Betty. "Why, whatever can have happened?
You look quite tragic!"
"I am. Come in here!"
Grace advanced, and not even the prospect of hearing what she guessed was
going to be some sort of a strange secret could stop her from taking
another helping of candy. Betty saw and murmured:
"You are hopeless."
"What's up?" asked Mollie, gliding into the room, her dark hair straying
rather rebelliously from beneath her hat.
"Come in," invited Betty, and soon the four were sitting together, while
in a sort of dialogue Betty and Amy told the pathetic little story.
"And that's how it stands," finished Betty. "I wanted to do something--or
say something--to make Alice Jallow feel--"
"She should be punished--we should all cut her--she ought to be put out
of school!" burst out the impulsive Mollie. "I shall go to Miss Greene--"
"You'll do nothing of the sort, Billy!" exclaimed Betty, as she detained
the girl, who had already started from the room. "Amy doesn't wish it.
Besides, I think Alice will be sorry enough later for what she has done."
"I had rather you wouldn't go to her," spoke Amy, quietly.
"Oh, well, of course--" began Mollie. "I do wish I had better control of
myself," she added, rather sadly. "I start to do such rash things--"
"Indeed you do, my dear," spoke Grace. "But we know you don't mean it.
Here--help yourself," and she extended the candy bag.
"I couldn't--I don't feel like it. I--I feel all choked up in here!"
exclaimed Mollie, placing her hand on her firm, white throat. "I--I want
to do something to--to that--cat!" Her eyes filled with tears.
"That's what I called her!" said Betty. "But we mustn't let her know that
she has annoyed us. Sometimes I feel real sorry for Alice. She seems
rather lonesome."
"I suppose the story will be all over school soon," went on Grace.
"I shan't mind," spoke Amy, softly.
"Well, I'm glad you don't, my dear," remarked Betty. "It's more romantic
than anything else--after you get over the sad part of it."
"And I am trying to do that," said Amy, bravely.
Together the four girls came out of the school. Most of the other pupils
had gone home, for vacation days were near, and study hours were
shortened on account of examinations.
"There she is now," said Mollie, as they turned a corner.
"Who?" questioned Betty.
"That Jallow girl and her familiar--Kittie. Her name is too good for
her."
"Don't notice her," suggested Betty, "and don't, for goodness sake, speak
to them. We don't want a scene. Perhaps Alice only did it
impulsively--and did not really mean it."
If the reputed author of the anonymous letter, and her close friend,
hoped for any demonstration on the part of those they had hoped to wound,
they were disappointed.
In calm unconsciousness of the twain, the quartette passed on,
talking gaily--though it was a bit forced--of their coming trip. And
I must do Alice the justice to say that later she was truly sorry for
what she had done.
"There's Will!" exclaimed Grace, as she caught sight of her brother. "And
Frank Haley is with him. Here, girls, take what's left of these
chocolates, or Will won't leave one."
"Does he know you have them?" asked Amy, accepting a few.
"Yes, he saw me buying them. Oh, bother! There comes that Percy
Falconer, and he has a new suit. Vanity of vanities!"
The course of Will and his chum, as well as that of the "faultless
dresser," as he hoped he appeared, brought them toward the girls. There
was no escape, and the little throng walked onward. Betty kept close to
Amy, for she knew just how she must feel after the disclosure.
"Ah, good afternoon, ladies!" greeted Percy. "Wonderful weather we're
having. My word!"
"Beastly beautiful!" mocked the irrepressible Mollie. "Horribly lovely,
isn't it, what?"
"Oh, I say now," began Percy. "I--really--"
"Where'd you get the clothes?" broke in Will.
"They're a London importation."
"London importation, my eye!" exclaimed Frank. "Why, Cohen's Emporium, on
Main street, has the same thing in the window marked thirteen
ninety-eight--regular fourteen dollars."
"Oh, I say now! Quit your spoofing!"
"Give us some candy, Sis!" begged Will. "Come on, now, I know
you've got it!"
"I had it, we have it--they had it--thou hast it--not!" quoted Grace,
with a laugh. "Nothing doing this time, little brother of mine."
"And you ate all those chocolates?" This in semi-horrified tones.
"We--not I," corrected his sister.
Percy Falconer, after vainly trying to get in place to walk beside Betty,
who frustrated him by keeping Amy close to her, drifted off to find new
sartorial worlds to conquer.
The others walked on, the boys joining in the talk and laughter. Amy
seemed to have recovered her spirits, and the girls made no reference to
the little tragedy which they knew would soon become public property.
"So you are really determined to go off on that walking trip?" asked
Will, who had floated back to join Mollie.
"We certainly are. Why, don't you think we can do it?"
"Perhaps. But I think you'll run at the sight of the first tramp--or cow;
and as for a storm--good night!"
"Thank you--for nothing!" and Mollie's dark eyes had little of fun in
them as they looked into those of Will Ford.
Eventually Will and Frank left them, and the girls continued on until
they reached Mollie's house.
"Come in," she invited. "I know they baked to-day, and we'll have a cup
of tea and some cake. It will refresh us."
"I ought to be going--home," said Amy, with a little hesitating pause at
the word "home."
"Oh, do come in!" begged the French girl.
As they entered the yard the twins, hand in hand and solemn-eyed, came
down the walk to meet them.
"Oh, the dears!" gushed Grace.
"Isn't she too sweet," whispered Betty, as she caught up Dodo.
"And in need of soap and water, as usual," commented Mollie, drily. "But
Nanette can do nothing with them. They are clean one minute--_voila_!
like little Arabs the next! What would you have?" and she threw herself
into a tragic gesture, in imitation of the imported French maid, at which
her chums laughed.
"Have you a kiss for me, Paul?" demanded Grace, of the little fellow,
when she had replaced his sister on the walk.
"Dot any tandy?" came the diplomatic inquiry.
"Listen to the mercenary little wretch!" cried his older sister. "Paul,
_ma cherie_, where are your manners?"
"Has oo dot any tandy?" came in inflexible accents.
"I might find--just a morsel--if you'd kiss me first," stipulated Grace.
"Tandy fust," was the imperturbable retort. "I like tandy--Dodo like
tandy--we bofe like tandy!"
"The sum total of childish happiness!" laughed Betty "Do, Grace, if you
have any left, relieve this suspense."
Some candy was forthcoming, and then, with more of it spread on
their faces than had entered their chubby mouths, the twins toddled
off content.
"Girls, what do you say to a little row on the river?" asked Mollie, when
they had been refreshed by cakes and tea. "My boat will hold us all, and
we can float down and talk of our coming trip."
"Float down--and--_row_ back," remarked Grace, with emphasis.
"The exercise will do you good. We must get in--training, I believe the
proper word is--in training for our hike."
"Hike?" queried Betty.
"Suffragist lingo for walk," explained Mollie. "Come on."
The Argono river ran but a short distance from Mollie's home, and soon
the four girls were in an old-fashioned, but safely constructed, barge,
half drifting and half rowing down the picturesque stream.
The afternoon sun was waning behind a bank of clouds, screened from the
girls by a fringe of trees. And as they floated on they talked at
intervals of Amy's secret, and of the coming fun they expected to have.
"Let's get farther out in the middle," suggested Betty, when they came to
a wide part of the river. "It's more pleasant there, and the air is
fresher. It is very warm."
"Yes, I think we will have another storm," agreed Grace. "If it rains now
it isn't so likely to when we start."
She was pulling on one pair of oars and Mollie on a second, the others
relieving them occasionally. Soon the boat was in the middle of the
stream. They had gone on for perhaps half a mile, when Betty, who was
sitting comfortably in the stern, toying with the rudder ropes, uttered
an exclamation.
"Oh!" she cried. "My feet are wet! Mollie, the boat is leaking!"
"Leaking?"
"Yes! See, the water is fairly pouring in!"
Mollie made a hasty examination under the bottom boards of her craft.
"Girls!" she cried, in tragic tones, "there's a hole in the boat!"
"Don't say that!" begged Amy, standing up.
"Sit down!" sternly ordered Betty. "There is no danger! Sit down or
you'll fall overboard!"
"Oh, but see the water!" cried the nervous Amy. "It is coming in faster!"
And indeed it was.
"It is those twins!" declared Mollie. "I told them not to get in my boat,
but they must have, and they've loosened the drain plug so that it came
out a moment ago. Quick! See if you can find it!"
There was a frightened search for the plug that fitted in a hole in the
bottom of the boat, through which aperture the water could be drained out
when the craft was on shore.
"It isn't here!" cried Grace. "Oh, Mollie!"
"Keep quiet! It must be here!" insisted the owner of the boat. "It
couldn't get out. Look for it! Find it! Or, if you can't, we'll stuff a
handkerchief in the hole!"
Meanwhile the water continued to pour in through the bottom of the boat,
setting the boards afloat, and thoroughly wetting the skirts of the
girls. And they were now in the centre of the widest part of the river.