WATER SPRITES
The sunbeams danced across the shimmering water and into the room where
the Outdoor Girls lay sleeping. They made patches on the floors and
ceiling, and showered Mollie's face with golden darts.
She moved restlessly and raised her hand as though to ward off this
invader of her dreams, muttering softly, "Oh--don't----" Gradually she
passed from sleeping to waking and, realizing the cause of the
disturbance, sat up in bed with a start.
"Oh, the world's on fire with sunshine! What a day to swim! Now, as soon
as I can rouse these sleeping beauties, I'll proceed to get breakfast."
"Oh, A--my!" she called aloud, giving the bed such a thump that Amy's
eyes sprung wide open on the instant--wide and startled. "Are you going
to sleep for-_ever_? Oh, I'm hungry!" with which words she sprang out of
bed and began dressing hastily.
For once Amy seemed to agree with her chum, for the moonlight sail of
the night before with only Grace's candies to nibble on had left them
ravenous.
"All right," she said, sitting up and looking toward the bed in the far
corner of the big room. "Betty and Grace are just yawning themselves
awake. We ought to beat them dressed easily."
"We don't care," came Betty's sleepy voice. "Whoever gets down first has
to get the breakfast, you know."
Even this did not daunt Mollie. She did not mind getting breakfast at
all. In her own words, "she could smell the good things that much
longer." So now her only answer was: "Sleepy-head," uttered in a severe
tone.
"I don't care," came the defiant answer, "it's mighty nice to feel
sleepy sometimes," and Betty stretched luxuriously.
"Oh, dear!" said Grace irritably, "it seems to me life is one long
succession of getting ups and going to beds."
"The last isn't as hard as the first, is it, Gracy?" Mollie teased.
"Probably if you _could_ sleep, you wouldn't want to," replied Grace.
"Oh, if any one would only give you the chance!" and Betty gave Grace
an affectionate little shake. "Some time we won't call you, Grace," she
laughed. "I'd like to find out just how long you could sleep, if you
were left to yourself."
"Goodness, I wouldn't like to chance it," said Mollie, slipping a middy
over her head. "I am afraid we would have to carry her home at the end
of the summer--a sleeping beauty still."
"Or a still sleeping beauty," Betty suggested. "That would be more to
the point."
"Suits me exactly," Grace drawled, "as long as the prince is handsome
enough."
"Always the prince," groaned Mollie, giving Grace up in despair--then
added, as she opened the door preparatory to flight: "Frank is quite
good looking. Come on, Amy!"
"I don't see what that has to do with it!" Grace retorted; but only a
sharp click of the door and a little derisive laugh in the hall outside
answered her. "Oh, well," she added, sitting up and regarding Betty
reproachfully as if that young person were responsible, "I suppose I
have got to get up."
"Of course, and make yourself charming for the prince," said Betty,
pinning a rose at exactly the right angle in her soft white waist. "You
don't have to be a _sleeping_ beauty to find him, you know," she added
sagely.
"You seem to know a lot about it," said Grace, regarding her friend
soberly. "I shouldn't wonder if you had found him, Betty."
Betty turned sharply to see if she were joking, then the soft color
flooded her face. "Nonsense!" she said, but her tone was not convincing.
"Yes, you have," said Grace, not to be put off. "I can tell by the way
you look at him, and the way he looks at you and oh--and--a hundred
little things." She waved her hand vaguely.
"Oh, Gracy, don't be foolish," said Betty, recovering her usual
composure. "If you don't look out _I'll_ begin to get personal. You
needn't think you are the only one that has eyes."
"Oh, well," said, Grace, flushing in her turn. "If you are going to
begin that---- Oh, Betty, just smell the bacon! Please hand me that
shoe, quick!"
"Oh!" cried Betty, and drew back as a small stone flung by some one
below hurtled through the open window and fell to the floor at her feet.
"Look! It has something tied to it," she cried, and, stooping, picked it
up.
"Bring it here," called Grace excitedly. "Oh, this is romantic! Betty,
let me see it, quick!"
"Wait a minute, I haven't seen it myself yet," said Betty, as she
unfolded the tiny slip of paper attached to the stone. "Well, of all
the----"
Grace looked over her shoulder and this is what the two girls read:
"When are you coming out? The water's fine."
With one accord they rushed to the window through which the message had
come and leaned far out. But look as they might in every direction,
there was no sight nor sound of human beings. The grounds about the
house and even the woods seemed deserted.
The girls drew back in, looked at each other in perplexity, then their
gaze instinctively traveled to the note still held in Betty's hand.
"Well," Grace announced, "it seems that we have here a key to some
mystery----"
"Mystery nothing!" Betty interrupted disrespectfully. "We know who wrote
this--there is no mistaking Roy's scrawl. The senders have
decamped--that's all."
"Speak of princes----" said Grace, as they went out arm in arm.
"And they are sure to turn up," Betty finished merrily.
Mollie's breakfast was good. And the young folks ate with the healthy
appetites of youth. Mrs. Irving left the table early to get herself
ready to go over to the summer colony where she had promised to spend
the day with friends who were summering there. The girls had scarcely
finished their breakfast when the boys broke in upon them.
"You girls eat too much," Frank complained, when the first greetings
were over. "Now, if you only had our dainty little appetites----"
"The best way to treat some people," put in Mollie significantly, "is to
pay no attention to them or their remarks."
"Is she speaking to me or at me?" Frank inquired good-humoredly.
"Oh, it is just a general slam at the sex," laughed Allen, who had not
taken his eyes from Betty and the pink rose. "We ought to be hardened by
this time."
"Yes, you are terribly ill-treated, aren't you?"
Betty sympathized and remarked: "It is truly a case for the S. P. C.
A.--I mean the S. P. C. C.," she corrected hastily, while the girls
laughed merrily and the boys looked injured.
"That's the worst yet, Betty," Will reproached her. "You needn't make
out you didn't mean it, either--we know better."
"Oh, all right," said Betty, her eyes twinkling. "Have it your own way."
"To change the subject," Roy broke in, "what are you girls all togged
up for--didn't you get my message?"
"Of course," said Grace. "You nearly put Betty's eyes out with it."
"Sorry," said Roy, with a quick glance at Betty's nearly injured eyes,
which had never looked brighter than at that instant. "They look pretty
good to me. But that brings me back to my first query--why are you girls
all dressed up?"
"Well, you know we could hardly wear our bathing suits down to
breakfast. Imagine a lot of sea nymphs boiling eggs and frying bacon!"
ejaculated Mollie.
"Besides," Betty argued, "it's just as much trouble to put ugly things
on as it is pretty ones----"
"And they don't look as nice," Frank finished.
"Exactly!" said Betty. "And now if you will excuse us we'll put on our
suits, and show you boys how to swim. Come on, girls!"
"You can't be too quick to suit me," Allen called after them.
Mollie made a little face at him from the doorway. "Anxious to meet your
Water-loo?" she mocked impishly, and before he could answer had followed
the girls up the stairway.
The boys raced back to camp to prepare themselves for the swim, and a
few minutes later met the girls coming from the house.
"You see you didn't have to wait," said Amy. "We are as anxious as you
to get into the water this morning. Oh, I can almost feel it!"
"Let's run," suggested Mollie. "Somehow to-day I can't be sedate. I'll
race everybody to the bank."
[Illustration: THEY RAN OUT INTO THE TEPID WATER.
_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._ _Page 158_]
She broke into a run, and the others followed--bringing up at the edge
of the water a moment later, breathless but glowing. This time no one
hesitated, not even Amy. They ran out into the tepid water, then plunged
in, swimming with strong, even, steady strokes.
It had been decided that all were to take part in the race--consequently
all were bent on losing not one moment of practice. They swam, off and
on, for the whole morning--occasionally throwing themselves upon the
mossy bank, to rest and get their breath, then going at it again with
renewed vigor and resolve.
It was only when the position of the sun and acute pangs of hunger
warned them that it was long past their luncheon hour, that they decided
it was time to turn their attention to other things.
"I left the basket back at the house," said Mollie, when they had come
to this conclusion. "I thought probably we would like to get dressed
before we ate."
"Oh, why?" Will protested. "It's a scorching hot day, and we'll probably
want to go in for a swim later on, anyway."
"Why not slip a skirt and middy over our bathing suits?" Betty
suggested. "By the time we reach the house, our suits will be dry. Mine
is almost, now."
"Good!" said Grace. "We'll feel more respectable, and if we do want to
go in for a swim later it won't be any trouble at all to take them off."
So it was decided, and they all tramped off through the woods, laughing,
merry, and friends with the world.