Surprise!
Two days had elapsed.
For the Brownie Scouts, never had time seemed to pass so slowly.
“Oh, I hardly can wait to see if anything has happened!” Veve declared
excitedly.
Except for Sunny and herself, the other girls pretended they weren’t
much excited at the thought of returning to the metropolitan park area.
Actually, they wouldn’t have missed the hike for anything in the world.
On the appointed day, the girls gathered after school at Miss Gordon’s
home.
Each Brownie brought her own neat package of sandwiches. In addition,
the leader had provided two thermos bottles filled with hot chocolate.
“This is a silly trip,” Jane complained good-naturedly. “I wish we’d
gone somewhere else.”
The beautiful early autumn day had turned a trifle chilly. Even if the
weather had not been nippy, the girls would have walked fast, so eager
were they to reach the park.
“I don’t know why I came,” Jane went on. “It’s a long walk out here.”
“No one asked you to come,” Veve said crossly. She was certain that
when they reached the oak tree, Jane would say “I told you so.” Already
she had been teased too much about wishing for a tree house.
“Girls, let’s not bicker,” interposed Miss Gordon. “I thought we were
going on this hike for the fun of it. I’m sure no one expects to find a
tree house.”
Veve and Sunny looked at each other and made no response.
“_They_ expect to find one!” teased Jane. “I guess all that wishful
dreaming comes from reading books like ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ Veve
figures a tree house will sprout out of the ground, complete with
curtains and a fireplace!”
“Oh, hush!” Veve retorted savagely.
Miss Gordon brought peace by directing the girls’ attention to a rabbit
which had paused near a briar patch. When Jane tried to creep closer,
the animal hopped away.
Passing the stone gatehouse, the Brownies again selected Trail three.
“Why don’t we eat our lunch before we go to the cliff?” proposed Jane.
“I’m hungry.”
“Try eating your words for a while,” Veve muttered. “The rest of us
want to go straight to the oak tree.”
Jane said no more. Or at least she managed to remain silent until the
troop approached the cliff area. Then she could not resist remarking:
“If we should find anything, I’d drop dead! I would for a fact.”
Veve, who was at the head of the line of hikers, had stopped on the
trail.
“All right, Jane!” she exclaimed. “Drop dead then! ’Cause I can see
something ahead.”
“Oh, you’re kidding,” Jane retorted, unimpressed. “You don’t see a
thing.”
“Don’t I?” demanded Veve. “Then my eyes are deceiving me!”
Swinging her knapsack over the other shoulder, she ran forward.
“Do you suppose--” Sunny began, and then she uttered a little shriek of
joy. “Veve’s right!” she cried. “Something has been built in the oak
tree!”
Sunny also bolted down the trail.
Not to miss out on anything, the other girls followed as fast as they
could.
Reaching the clearing, the Brownies stopped dead in their tracks.
Directly ahead of them stood Veve and Sunny, their enchanted gaze
fastened upon a little house built in the lower branches of the oak
tree.
“Pinch me,” whispered Connie. “I know I’m dreaming.”
Eileen obliged by giving her such a hard nip that she yipped in pain.
“Is it real?” whispered Rosemary in awe. “It doesn’t seem possible!”
Jane was too dumbfounded to speak. Veve and Sunny however, capered
around as if they were crazy.
“Didn’t we tell you?” Veve shouted. “Now who says wishes don’t come
true?”
The square house had a window, a door and a balcony with a stairway
leading down. The steps were far apart, but a railing had been put up
so that anyone climbing to the little house would not fall.
“What are we waiting for?” demanded Veve. Excitedly, she started up the
stairway.
“Veve!” called Miss Gordon.
Reluctantly the little girl waited for the teacher.
“Dear me, I don’t know what to think!” Miss Gordon declared testing the
stairway. “The steps are well constructed and seem safe enough.”
“Up I go!” shouted Veve.
Before the teacher could offer a protest, she darted up the steps.
Reaching the balcony, Veve turned to look down. The Brownies, watching
from below, appeared rather small.
“Oh, it’s a wonderful house!” the little girl shouted. “And it’s all
ours too!”
She disappeared into the house.
Sunny and Connie now started up the stairway, but Miss Gordon called
them back.
“I must be certain that the steps are strong enough to bear so much
weight,” she warned. “I’ll climb up first. Then if it appears safe, you
all may come.”
“Hurry! Hurry!” urged Jane, who now had forgotten that she ever had
made fun of Veve or Sunny.
As Miss Gordon started up the steps, Veve popped her head out of a
window.
“It’s super--simply super!” she yelled down. “The house has a window
seat and a cupboard!”
The other Brownies by this time were jumping up and down in their
excitement. Unable to wait for Miss Gordon to give the word, Eileen
started up a few steps.
“The stairway is very sturdily built,” the leader called down. “You may
come up one at a time. Eileen first, since she is half way up.”
Each girl took her turn. Jane, the disbeliever, was the last one to
climb the stairway.
As she viewed the interior of the neat playhouse, her breath was quite
taken away.
“Oh, this place will look grand when we bring dishes and books and put
curtains at the window!” she exclaimed.
“But is it really ours?” returned Miss Gordon quietly. “I can’t
understand how this house came to be here. It is well built, evidently
by a skilled carpenter.”
“We don’t care who built it,” chortled Jane. “It’s ours to use, isn’t
it?”
“I’m far from certain that it is,” replied the leader. “This is a
public park you must remember.”
“Very few people come here, especially so late in the year.”
“All the same, I’m sure no one would have the right to put up a tree
house without permission. Or for that matter to use it.”
The house had been built large enough so that all the Brownies and
their leader could enter.
At first Miss Gordon would allow only two or three of the girls in the
room at one time. As the house remained absolutely firm in the branches
she finally permitted the others to join the group.
“Let’s eat our lunch here!” Connie proposed. “Oh, we’re going to have
wonderful times!”
“Providing we’re allowed to use the playhouse,” Miss Gordon reminded
her. “It’s a marvelous thing in a way--but I can’t understand how it
came about.”
“The brownies,” laughed Veve.
“A very substantial brownie, I think,” said Miss Gordon. “Mr. Karwhite
may know something about the matter. We’ll question him when we leave
the park.”
As the girls ate their sandwiches and sipped hot chocolate, they made
elaborate plans. The house was perfect, they thought, except that it
needed a table and chairs.
“How cosy it will look with a rag rug on the floor and a curtain at the
window,” Rosemary declared. “And the view! One can see the road from
here!”
“And the stone bridge!” added Eileen, peering over her shoulder.
“I feel just like a bird living up in a tree,” laughed Veve happily.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to sleep here at night?”
“The house would rock you to sleep!” laughed Connie. “It’s just like a
cradle when the wind blows.”
“It wouldn’t be any fun in a storm,” Sunny said with a shiver. “This
house would rock like an earthquake was shaking it then. And it might
come crashing down.”
The girls so thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the little house that
they took a long while eating lunch.
With an anxious glance at her wrist watch, Miss Gordon warned that it
was time to leave.
“We have stayed far too long,” she declared, gathering up the lunch
papers. “Unless we hurry, we’ll be caught on the road after dark. That
will never do.”
“We may come again soon?” Sunny pleaded. “Tomorrow perhaps?”
“I hardly know what to say,” replied Miss Gordon. “Before I give my
answer, I must make inquiries. I do hope though, that this house is
truly ours to use.”
Reluctantly, the girls trooped down from the tree house.
Once on the ground, they stood for a moment, gazing up at it.
“Wouldn’t it be dreadful if it vanished over night?” Connie said,
voicing the fear that had beset them all. “Oh, it’s such a perfect
little house!”
“Let’s wish hard that it’s just for us,” proposed Sunny.
Not even Jane offered a protest.
“And let’s wish that the brownie, whoever he is, builds us a nice table
and set of chairs!” added Veve.
“Why, that’s greedy,” protested Connie. “We should be grateful that we
have this splendid house.”
Veve, however, only laughed, as she turned to follow the others up the
trail.
“It’s forethought,” she insisted. “I have a hunch we’ll get to use this
darling little tree house for a long while. So while that Mr. Brownie
is in a good mood, why not ask him to do a good job of furnishing our
home?”