SURFWOOD
A couple of days after their forest experience the two girls made ready
to go to the seashore.
Secretly, Dolly was glad. She had enjoyed much of her stay at Camp
Crosstrees, but she had about concluded that "roughing it" was not
altogether to her taste. She had liked the gay parties round the camp
fires, the swift motor-boat trips and the jolly picnic feasts, but she
was not enthusiastically fond of long tramps up and down mountains and
the deprivation of many home comforts and luxuries. She said no word of
this to her kind hosts, but she welcomed the day that would take her
back to her own people and their usual summer abode.
Also there had been really unpleasant experiences, from her lonely first
night to that last awful night in the woods, and though these things
were nobody's fault, they remained in Dolly's memory as decidedly
undesirable pictures of her mountain trip.
Dotty Rose, all unconscious of Dolly's secret feelings, realised only
that they had had lots of gay times together and many occasions of
rollicking camp-life fun. Having spent many summers at Camp Crosstrees,
the Rose family had become attached to the place, and always looked
forward with eager anticipation to each successive trip.
Unlike Dolly, Bert Fayre loved it all. To him, roughing it was fun, and
he cared nothing at all for the city comforts that were missing. He
tramped the woods and went fishing, swimming and boating with the same
enjoyment of these sports that Bob Rose felt, and he was more than
delighted when Mrs. Rose invited him to spend the rest of August at the
camp while the girls went for their two weeks at the seashore.
So on the day of departure Dotty and Dolly bade good-bye to their
brothers and to Mrs. Rose and Genie, and in care of Mr. Rose started for
New York and thence down to Surfwood, a resort on the New Jersey coast,
where the Fayre family were staying at a hotel.
"Oh, don't you just hate to leave it?" exclaimed Dotty as the motor-boat
took them swiftly down the lake. "Good-bye, you dear old woods;
good-bye, you lovely lake. I shan't see you again till next summer."
For, as the children must begin school early in September, both
families would return to Berwick in about a fortnight.
Dolly did not entirely share Dotty's enthusiasm, but she realised the
wonderful beauty of the scene as she looked back at the lake with its
wooded shores and hills rising to the high mountains.
"It _is_ splendid!" she said, very honestly, as she gazed at the
beautiful landscape. "I'm afraid, Dot, that you won't have a good time
down at Surfwood. It's awfully different, you know."
"'Course I'll have a good time, if I'm visiting you. But, you see, we
were a whole month later than usual coming up here this summer, and now
to cut two weeks off the other end makes an awfully short season for
dear old Crosstrees. Why do they call it Surfwood, Dolly; are there any
woods there?"
"Yes, indeed; not far back from the beach there are lots of woods. But
all flat, of course; no hills like these."
"Well, you couldn't expect mountains and seashore together. I know we'll
have lovely times there, anyway I'd rather be with you than to stay up
here."
The girls had become inseparable friends and their stay in camp together
had strengthened the bonds and made them even more fond of each other
than they had been as neighbours. They were very different, but they
were learning to accept each other's differences, and in some ways they
frequently influenced one another's tastes or opinions.
"Good-bye, old lake!" Dolly called out again, as the motor-boat neared
its dock. "We'll see you next summer,--you will come up here again next
summer, won't you, Dolly?"
"We'll see when next summer comes," returned Dolly, laughing. "Perhaps
you won't like Surfwood a bit, and you won't want to go there next
summer, and if you don't, of course I won't come up here. You look
awfully well in that new suit, Dotty."
"Hope I do, for it doesn't feel very good. Collar's too stiff." Dotty
wriggled with a feeling of discomfort that the first wearing of a new
garment often brings. The girls both wore suits of blue serge, made
similarly, but not exactly alike; Dotty's being trimmed with black satin
and collar and cuffs of fine white embroidery, while Dotty's was
enlivened by accessories of bright plaid silk and tiny gilt buttons.
The trip was a pleasant one, and they reached New York next morning in
time for luncheon. This Mr. Rose gave them at an attractive restaurant
and the girls greatly enjoyed the novel scenes of the Metropolis.
"I just love to eat in a restaurant, don't you?" said Dolly, as she
lingered over her elaborate and complicated dessert.
"Yes, indeed; I love to look around and wonder who the people are. Only
they're all grownups. You don't see hardly any children or girls our
age."
"No," said Mr. Rose, "a public restaurant is no place for kiddies,
except on such an occasion as this, when I have to feed you somewhere.
But since you're here, you may as well enjoy yourselves. Do you want
some more little cakes?"
After due reflection, the girls concluded that they did, and the
fascinating tray of French confections was again offered for their
selection.
At the station where they were to take the train for Surfwood, Mr. Fayre
met them.
"Well," he exclaimed. "So I am to take the responsibility of these two
beautiful young ladies."
"Yes," rejoined Mr. Rose; "but I'm glad to tell you that they are not
really difficult to manage. They have behaved most properly all day and
honestly I hate to give them up. I know Camp Crosstrees will seem
deserted and desolate without these two little rays of sunshine."
After affectionate leavetakings, Mr. Rose departed and the two girls
went on with Mr. Fayre.
He was not of such a jolly nature as Mr. Rose, nor so inclined to talk
with the children.
He placed them in adjoining chairs in the parlour car, and after
supplying them with picture papers and candies, he seemed to consider
his responsibilities at an end, and taking his own seat, immediately
buried himself in his newspaper.
"Not much like the Adirondacks, is it?" said Dolly, as they whirled
along through the flat landscapes of New Jersey.
"No, of course not; you wouldn't expect it. How soon do we see the
ocean?"
"Very soon, now. We'll get to Surfwood about six, but we'll see the
ocean long before then, there are so many beach stations."
As they neared Surfwood, Mr. Fayre threw aside his papers and looked out
for the girls again. He was a most courteous man and politely assisted
them with their various belongings, treating them more as grown ladies
than as children.
"There they are!" he cried, as the train stopped at the picturesque
little station and they spied a big motor car in which Mrs. Fayre and
Trudy were sitting.
Trudy was looking lovely in her light summer costume and she warmly
welcomed the travellers as they got into the motor.
"How brown you both are," said Mrs. Fayre, kissing the girls; "a nice
healthy tan, and very becoming! Did you hate to leave your camp, Dotty?
and I suppose you, too, Dolly, became a devotee of mountain life."
"We did have lovely times, Mother, and I expect Dot was sorry to give it
up, but I persuaded her."
"You'll have lovely times here, too," promised Trudy, smiling at them;
"I'll see to that."
The car stopped at the entrance to a very large hotel. The broad
verandas were filled with people, gaily dressed, and gathered in
laughing, chatting groups. Between them and the ocean was a broad
boardwalk also filled with people.
"Come along, girls," said Mrs. Fayre, and Dotty and Dolly followed her
across the veranda and into a large entrance hall. It was very
beautiful, with glistening white and gold decorations, a thick
moss-green velvet carpet and tall palms round the walls. Then followed a
bewildering succession of gorgeous rooms, and finally they went up in an
elevator.
"Here we are," and Mrs. Fayre led the two girls into a large and
handsomely furnished suite.
"This is our general sitting room," she went on, "and this is your
bedroom, right next to Trudy's."
They entered a large room, with two brass beds and attractive
appointments of all sorts. The chairs and lounges were covered with gay
chintz and there was a long deep window seat from which, across a
balcony filled with flowers, they could see the ocean.
"How perfectly lovely!" cried Dotty; "not much like our little rooms at
camp, Doll. Oh, I'm sure I shall be very happy here. It's awfully kind
of you, Mrs. Fayre, to invite me."
"I'm very glad to have you, dear, and I only hope you'll enjoy it as
much as Dolly did her stay with you. We can't give you the wild, free
life of a mountain camp, but we're going to do all we can to interest
and amuse you. But I'm not sure that you will like the plan for this
evening. As your things aren't unpacked, I thought you two wouldn't dine
downstairs with us to-night, but would have a nice little dinner sent up
here and served in the sitting-room."
"Oh, goody!" cried Dolly; "that's a lot more fun. I don't feel like
dressing up for dinner to-night and I think that's a lovely plan. Don't
you, Dot?"
As a matter of fact, Dotty would have preferred to go downstairs, for
she was impatient to see more of the big hotel and the gay people. But
she politely acquiesced, and Mrs. Fayre bustled away, saying she would
see them again after dinner.
"Now we'll have a lovely time, Dotsy, all to ourselves," Dolly said, as
she flew around the room arranging things to suit herself.
A trim maid appeared to assist in any way needed, and the girls were
glad to change their travelling clothes, and, after a refreshing bath,
to don their pretty kimonos and boudoir caps, that Trudy had left in
readiness for them.
"Trudy's a trump!" cried Dolly. "See these heavenly things she has laid
out for us! A pink silk room-gown for you and a blue one for me, with
caps to match. We share Trudy's bathroom, you see, so you can have this
glass shelf for your things and I'll take this one for mine. I guess
that's the dinner coming now, and then our trunks will come, and we can
put our things away."
A very attractive little dinner was served in the sitting-room and the
two girls sat down to it with a feeling as if they were "Playing house."
"We're to dine with the grownups after to-night," said Dolly; "new thing
for me, 'cause always before I've had my supper in the children's
dining-room. But Mother says, now I'm fifteen, I can always dine with
them, unless they have special company and then we'll have ours up here
like this. Isn't this salad good?"
"Perfectly lovely. But, somehow, I feel so queer. It's such a sudden
change from the camp table and Maria's flap-jacks."
Dolly laughed. "Yes, it is different. But I like that, Dot, the sudden
change I mean. Crosstrees was just right in every way for mountain and
camp doings. Now this seashore stunt is altogether different, but I like
this, too. And I think it's nice for us to have both kinds, one right
after the other."
"So do I," said Dotty, as she contentedly ate her frozen pudding.