WORSE AND WORSE
Two weeks passed, and still Billie Bradley had found no solution to
her problem. The broken statue seemed as far from being paid for as
ever, and, as far as she was concerned, the summer vacation was
completely spoiled.
In this frame of mind she crushed a soft straw hat down over her brown
hair one day and set out to find her chums, feeling the need of their
sympathy. And how was she to know, poor Billie, that the news the girls
would have to tell her would serve only to make her mood the blacker?
As she neared the Farrington home, Violet herself came rushing out to
meet her, looking unusually and feverishly excited.
"Oh, Billie, what do you think?" she cried, encircling Billie with her
arm and fairly dragging her up on the porch. "I have the most wonderful
news to tell you!"
"What?" gasped Billie, for the unexpected onslaught had literally
taken her breath away. "Goodness! you might as well kill me as scare
me to death."
"Oh, but, Billie, you won't mind when I tell you," cried Violet,
regarding her friend with dancing eyes. "The folks have decided to send
me to Three Towers Hall!" Three Towers was a boarding school some
distance from North Bend. "Laura is going too," Violet continued
breathlessly. "And of course you will--" But something in Billie's face
stopped her and she drew in her breath sharply.
"Oh, Billie," she cried, her face falling, "you're never going to tell me
you can't go!"
"I guess that's just what I am going to tell you," said Billie, her fists
clasped so tightly that the knuckles showed white. "I might have stood
some chance if it hadn't been for that old statue. Now I can't get enough
money to pay for that--much less go to Three Towers."
"Oh, that old statue!" cried Violet desperately, adding, while her face
grew longer and longer: "What fun will there be, I'd like to know, in
going to Three Towers if you can't go with us? And oh, Billie, I was
making such wonderful plans!"
Billie had to turn away to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes. For to
go to Three Towers Hall had long been the ambition of the chums, and now
it was doubly hard to see her chance snatched away by an accident that
could have been so easily avoided. If only she had not been so foolish!
Violet came over and put a loving arm about her friend.
"Never mind, honey," she said consolingly, forgetting her own
disappointment in Billie's. "We'll find some way to get to Three Towers."
Billie smiled a wry little smile and made an effort to look as if there
were still something to live for in the world.
"Laura told me that you thought your uncle might help you," said Violet,
after an interval of unhappily trying to think of some way out of their
trouble. "Neither Laura nor I will stir a step without you, that's a
sure thing."
"Why, of course you will," said Billie, stopping the swing short and
looking at her chum in amazement. "I'm sure your folks aren't going to
let you stay at home from the school they've decided on just because I
can't go with you. Although," and her voice broke a little, "it's just
wonderful of you, Vi, to feel that way. You will go, of course, and you
can write me beautiful letters about the wonderful times you are having."
"I won't do it!" cried Violet, springing to her feet. "I'm not going to
Three Towers without you, and that settles it. I don't care if I had a
thousand parents. Who's that turning the corner?" she interrupted herself
to ask. "There's something familiar about that walk."
"Why, it's Ferd Stowing," said Billie, getting to her feet for a better
view. "My, but he looks happy about something. I wonder what's up."
The next moment Ferd Stowing, one of the best-liked boys in the town,
came rushing up the steps like a whirlwind, and it did not take the girls
long to find out "what was up."
"Hooray!" he cried, flinging his hat high in the air. "Wuxtry! All about
Ferd Stowing and Ted Jordon!"
"For goodness' sake, stop bellowing and behave," Billie commanded. "What
have you and Teddy been doing now?"
"Plenty. But that's nothing to what we're going to do," crowed Ferd
exultantly. "He and I have at last persuaded our reluctant parents to
send us to the military school. You know--the one that is only a little
over a mile from Three Towers where you girls are going."
Again Billie felt as if she had been treated to a shower of ice water.
Teddy and Ferd were going to Boxton Military Academy, and Chet--her
darling, loyal Chet--would not be able to go with them. Her own
disappointment seemed nothing at all beside this new tragedy.
"I was just on my way over to your house," Billie was conscious that Ferd
was addressing her. "We haven't had a chance to get in touch with Chet
yet. But the old boy will of course go with us, won't he? It wouldn't be
any fun without Chet."
Almost the very words Violet had said to her, thought Billie, as she
tried to swallow a sob and only succeeded in turning it into a funny
little cough.
"He will, won't he?" Ferd was insisting, while Violet watched them with
troubled eyes.
"Why--why--I don't know, Ferd," Billie stammered, trying to make her
voice sound natural. "I do know one thing, and that is that Chet is crazy
to go and will if he gets half a chance."
"Then I guess it's all right," said Ferd, leaning back with a sigh of
relief. "Gee, I was afraid you were going to say he couldn't go, and so
spoil everything. Say, can't you see the good times we're going to have
with you girls at Three Towers Hall and we fellows such a little way off
that we can see each other every once in a while? I can't make up my
mind that it's real yet--" And so on and on, rapturously, while
Billie's heart sank lower and lower and Violet's own warm one ached for
her friend.
Then just as Ferd started to go he spied Chet coming up the street and
hailed him joyfully.
"Just the fellow I wanted to see," he declared fervently. "Come on up
here, old man, and hear the glad news."
Billie groaned inwardly and seemed about to speak, but Violet stopped her
with a hand on her arm.
"Might as well get it over with," she whispered. "Chet is sure to hear
of it later if he doesn't now."
So Billie waited, but her heart ached as she watched Chet march up
smilingly to hear "the glad news."
"We're going to Boxton Military Academy." Ferd fairly shouted it at him.
"How about it, old timer, are you going with us, or are you going to
leave us in the lurch?"
The glad tidings staggered Chet for a minute, but he came on quietly and
perched himself upon the railing, one foot swinging idly.
"You said you were going to the military academy?" he asked, his voice as
quiet as his manner, but Billie noticed that the smile was gone. "By that
I suppose you mean you and Teddy."
"And you," added Ferd, beaming upon him. "Billie said you were
crazy to go."
Chet looked at Billie's unhappy face and tried to smile.
"Crazy to go!" he repeated. "I'll say I am. But--"
"But me no buts, Chet, my lad," broke in the impetuous Ferd. "I didn't
ask you anything. I merely stated a fact."
"I--I'd give almost anything I own to make it a fact," said Chet, his
eyes on the ground. "But I'm very much afraid you'll have to guess
again, old man."
"Guess again? Well, I should say not!" cried Ferd, getting to his feet
indignantly. "Why, the thing can't be done without you, Chet. Didn't
Billie say--"
"Billie only said," interrupted Violet, coming to Billie's rescue, "that
Chet was crazy to go and would if he had half a chance."
Ferd sank back in his chair, too dismayed to speak.
"Well, of all--Say, old man, you've got to go," and he turned to Chet
pleadingly. "What sort of a party do you think this is going to be
anyway, with Billie at Three Towers Hall and you back here in North Bend?
It's not fair."
"Not fair," flared Billie. "You don't suppose I'd go to Three Towers and
leave Chet here, do you?"
"Then you're not going either?" cried Ferd, seeing all his castles in the
air coming down about his ears with a crash.
Billie shook her head unhappily.
"No, I'm not going either," she said.