CHERRY CORNERS
As the train drew out of the station Billie leaned back with a sigh of
pure happiness.
"You know," she said, looking at the girls with sparkling eyes, "this is
the very first time that I have ever been away from North Bend without
the folks."
"But don't forget you've got me to look after you," put in Mrs. Gilligan,
with a twinkle in her eyes. "I'm goin' to see that you don't get into
mischief."
"I don't know but what we shall have to look out that you don't get into
mischief," said Laura with a chuckle. "Mr. Gilligan told me once that you
weren't to be trusted out alone."
"Huh," retorted Mrs. Gilligan good-naturedly, "it's him that I
wouldn't be trusting. But what," she asked, looking curiously at
Billie, "did your brother mean by saying not to scare away the ghosts
before he gets there?"
"Oh," laughed Billie, "he has a sort of idea that the house at Cherry
Corners is inhabited by spirits--just because mother said that the
halls and rooms were spooky. He will be terribly disappointed if he
doesn't see half a dozen ghosts."
"Well, I wouldn't," said Violet with a shudder, for now that they were on
the way to their adventure, her courage was beginning to fail.
"Ghosts!" repeated Mrs. Gilligan, with a fun-loving light in her eyes.
"Better not any ghosts come around me or I'll give 'em a taste of the
rolling pin."
The girls laughed. The picture of Mrs. Maria Gilligan assaulting a ghost
with a rolling pin was indeed a funny one.
"Well," said Billie a little later, as she started to unpin her hat, "I
don't know about you girls, but I'm going to be comfortable. We have a
long ride before us."
"I suppose we might as well take off our hats and stay awhile," agreed
Laura, following suit. "Say, girls," she added, as she stuck her hat up
in the rack above her head, "I just thought of something last night."
"Was it anything important?" asked Billie, with a wicked little look.
"I don't know whether you would think so," Laura retorted calmly. "I was
wondering why we didn't take the night train that reaches Roland, the
nearest station to Cherry Corners, in the morning."
"That would have been a good idea, wouldn't it?" said Billie. "Now we
will reach the house after dark."
"When all the spooks are roaming," added Laura, in a ghostly voice.
"Goodness!" cried Violet, turning uncomfortably in her seat, "if you
girls don't stop talking about ghosts I'll just get out and go home."
"Got your car fare?" asked Laura.
"No. But I could always walk," returned Violet. "And I'd almost rather do
it than spend the night in the company of ghosts."
"Well, you'd better decide in a hurry," said Billie, with a chuckle,
"because the longer you take to make up your mind, the farther you will
have to walk back."
"All right," said Violet, suddenly goaded into an unusual firmness. "You
promise me this minute that you won't say another word about ghosts until
we get there, or I'll get off at the very next station and walk back."
"It's ten miles," Laura warned her.
"I don't care if it's twenty," she returned stoutly, and laughingly the
girls promised.
"It would be a crime to wear out those perfectly good shoes," said
Laura, looking at Violet's trim suede footgear. "Especially with prices
going up."
Billie groaned.
"I think I'll have to try Violet's trick," she said. "If anybody mentions
the high cost of living to me while we're away on this vacation, I'll
get out and walk home. I don't care if it's a hundred miles."
"Going up?" laughed Laura, but they promised just the same. For
underneath Billie's lightness they knew that she was still puzzling her
wits for some way to pay for that broken statue.
"Here comes a man with magazines," said Laura. "We'd better get a couple
to pass the time away. An all-day trip is pretty tiresome. At least I've
heard mother say so."
They bought the magazines, but they might just as well not have done so,
for when they reached Roland late that afternoon they had hardly peeped
inside the covers.
The scenery was so beautiful and wild, the whole trip was so wonderfully
novel that the time flew, and before they realized it they had reached
the station next to Roland.
"Goodness, I didn't think we were anywhere near there, yet!" cried
Violet, as she began to gather up her things. "I never knew a day to go
so quickly in my life. Billie, are these your candies? You'd better not
leave them on the seat."
"Who said I was going to?" cried Billie, rescuing her sweets just as
Laura was in the act of sitting on them. "Here, there's just room
for them in the corner of my grip. Mrs. Gilligan, have you got the
trunk checks?"
"I hope so," said the woman, opening her hand bag.
The girls watched her breathlessly and sighed with relief when she drew
out the checks.
"All safe and sound," she said. "Now get on your hats and coats, girls.
We're apt to have a wild scramble at the last if you aren't ready
beforehand."
So, laughing and excited, the girls obeyed her, putting on their wraps
hurriedly and laughing at Laura when she got her hat over one eye.
"Here, put it on straight," cried Billie, performing that service for
her friend. "We don't want to have our reputations ruined the minute we
step on the platform. Who ever heard of a perfect lady with her hat
over one eye?"
"Well, if you don't like my company--" Laura began good-naturedly, as she
squinted at her distorted reflection in the little two-by-four mirror set
in the tiny space of wall between the windows. "Gracious, Billie, you
took it off of one eye to put it over the other. Do I look more like a
perfect lady with my hat over my right eye?"
Billie chuckled and pushed the hat over Laura's nose, at which Laura
would have protested vigorously and, if must be, forcefully, if there had
not been other passengers in the train besides themselves. As it was, she
had to be content with an indignant stare, which Billie, with twinkling
eyes, calmly turned her back upon.
"Roland! Roland!" called the conductor in stentorian tones, and with
little squeals of excitement the girls found their hand baggage, gave one
last little pat to their hats, and started toward the door.
"You go first, Mrs. Gilligan," cried Violet, pushing that woman
before her.
"I wonder if Vi expects the ghosts to meet us at the station?" chuckled
Laura in Billie's ear. "She reminds me of a relative of ours who always
pushes her escort in front of her when she meets a strange dog."
Billie giggled, caught her grip on the arm of one of the seats, rescued
it again, and finally made her way with the others to the platform.
It was a rather old and broken-down platform, just as Roland proved to be
a rather old and broken-down place, and the girls stood on it ruefully as
they watched the train rumble off in the distance.
"Now we're in for it," said Billie, her eyes taking in a
disconsolate-looking store or two and a drooping post-office. "I wonder
if this is what they call the village?"
"Well, we're not going to live here," said Mrs. Gilligan briskly. "And
you can't expect to find a thriving town away off a hundred miles from
nowhere. Come on, let's see if we can find some sort of a wagon to take
us and our belongings to Cherry Corners. I don't suppose," she added, as
they crossed the street toward a building a little more dilapidated than
the rest that had the words Livery Stable painted on a blurred sign over
the door, "that there is any sort of hotel or boarding house where we
might put up for the night."
"Mother didn't remember about that. You see she had been here only once,"
said Billie. "But I don't imagine there is--any place that we would want
to stay at," she added, making a wry little face.
The place, in truth, was not attractive, nor did it promise much,
outwardly at least, as a refuge for the night. Besides the street on
which were the forlorn looking stores and the post-office and a few
other nondescript looking buildings that might have been used for
almost any possible purpose, there seemed to be but two streets on
which were built the dwelling houses. These, for the most part, were
simple and plain enough, each with its yard, well or ill kept, in front
and a garden and chicken yard behind. Only one was a little more
pretentious in appearance, but that, too, had attached to it its garden
and chicken yard.
However, they found that there was no necessity for their finding a
place, if place there was to be found to stay for the night. They found
the owner of the livery stable with two old but well-preserved vehicles
which he was eager to place at their disposal.
They spent some time in getting enough provisions to last for a time and
to supplement what had been sent from North Bend; then, in half an hour
more, with their luggage coming on behind, they were lumbering off over a
very rocky road toward the house at Cherry Corners.
Mrs. Gilligan was sitting in front with the driver while the three girls
were wedged uncomfortably in the back seat.
"It--it's lucky we're not fat!" gasped Laura, as a particularly rough
place in the road fairly shook the breath out of her. "I don't know where
we would have put ourselves."
"One of us would have had to sit on the trunks on the cart," chuckled
Billie. "Ouch!" she cried, as they bounced over another "thank you
ma'am," "I'm glad we haven't any more than five miles to go. There
wouldn't be any of us left alive."
"Five miles!" grumbled Violet. "And my foot's asleep already."
"Here, have some candy," offered Billie soothingly, fishing one out of
her pocket. "It may make you feel better."
"Well, it couldn't make me feel worse," said Violet, accepting the
offering. "Although," she added, with a laugh, "I don't see how it is
going to help my sleepy foot."
"Well, get up and stretch," advised Laura. "Seventh inning."
Violet started to follow her advice but was flung back full force into
Billie's lap, thereby squeezing out a startled "Umph!" from the sufferer.
"Say, you needn't take it out on me," cried Billie indignantly. "I didn't
put your foot to sleep."
"She's no nurse girl," murmured Laura.
The girls laughed and forgot their discomfort.
After a long time of jostling and squeezing they rounded a turn of the
road and Billie cried out.
"There it is!" she said, standing up in the jolting vehicle. "Over there
through the trees! Oh, girls! doesn't it look gloomy?"