HAPPY AGAIN
"Gee, that was some slick work!" crowed Teddy Jordon exultantly. "Who'd
ever think we would catch the old Codfish. But say----" he broke off,
his face growing sober as he looked at the girls. "You haven't told us
yet just why you're taking this tramp in the snow. What's the idea--a
health cure or something?"
"No, it isn't a health cure," explained Billie, a trifle wearily, for
now that the excitement of catching the Codfish was over the girls were
beginning to feel cold and hungry and rather forlorn. "We're just
leaving Three Towers, that's all."
"Leaving Three Towers!" the boys repeated incredulously. And Teddy
added, seeing in a flash the real state of affairs: "Now I get the idea.
You're striking, aren't you?"
Billie nodded.
"Say, that reminds me," said Chet. "We sent a telegram to Miss Walters
asking her to come back at once. We sent it for you even before we told
the police about the Codfish."
The girls brightened, and Billie darted forward eagerly and caught Chet
by the sleeve.
"Oh, Chet, what did you tell her?" she cried. "Did you ask her to come
back right away?"
Chet nodded importantly. "I told her enough to bring her back on the
run, I guess," he said, adding with a grin: "I made up the telegram and
Teddy paid for it."
"Oh, you darling!" cried Billie, hugging both the boys to the great
delight of Teddy, who made the girls giggle by asking if there was not
another telegram he could send.
"Come on, girls," cried Billie, forgetting, in the hope of seeing Miss
Walters again before long, that she was tired and hungry. "If we hurry
we can get to town before the snow gets too deep."
"But, say," cried Teddy, as the girls started on their way, "aren't you
even going to say good-bye to us? That's gratitude for you!"
The girls stopped short and looked surprised.
"Aren't you going to the town with us?" asked Vi.
"You needn't think that because you're on strike that we are, too," said
Chet reproachfully. "Captain Shelling didn't give us the whole day off,
you know."
"You deserve it just the same," said Connie Danvers. "He'll probably
give you a week off and a medal when he learns how you caught the
thief."
"But we couldn't have caught him if you girls hadn't come along,"
protested Teddy modestly. "If we get a holiday we'll see that you get
one, too."
"We're taking ours now," laughed Billie. "Good-bye, boys; and thanks
awfully for sending the telegram."
Teddy and Chet stood watching the girls as they trudged through the
clinging snow, and when they turned away their faces were unusually
sober.
"That's a plucky thing to do," said Teddy admiringly. "But I bet they
would never have had the nerve to do it if Billie hadn't set them up to
it."
"Billie's some class, isn't she?" Chet took him up eagerly. "Just look
how she jumped in front of the Codfish. She might have been shot, but
she never even thought of it. Say," he added, his chest swelling visibly
with pride, "I've always thought I'd like a brother; but Billie's as
good as a brother, any day."
"She's a sight better," Teddy contradicted fervently.
Tired but hopeful, the girls trudged the remaining distance to town and
started up the main street toward the one big hotel in Molata. They
strung down the street in what seemed an endless line, and people
passing stared wonderingly and turned around for another look when the
girls had passed them.
People gathered at the windows and in the door-ways to look at the
strange procession, but the girls were too tired and hungry to notice
them.
When they filed into the big summer hotel lobby, how the clerk at the
desk and the few men gathered about did stare! A hundred girls, all
pretty and daintily dressed, but seeming, by their suitcases and their
clothes which were powdered thick with clinging wet snow, to have walked
a good distance, were sure to create a sensation.
The girls hung back, realizing for the first time how they must appear
to strangers and not quite certain just what to do next. But, as usual,
Billie took the lead.
She went toward the clerk with an uncertain, apologetic little smile
that would have softened a much harder heart than his and said that she
would like to engage rooms for herself and her friends.
Be it said to the credit of the clerk, who was rather a nice looking boy
with sand colored hair and eyes to match, that he did not even smile.
Soberly he asked Billie how many rooms she would need, and Billie turned
to the girls rather helplessly. Then it was Caroline Brant who came to
her aid.
"We can sleep three in a room," she said, regarding the clerk gravely
through her horn-rimmed spectacles. "So you can figure out just how many
we'll need."
"If we could have cots put in the rooms," Billie ventured, "we could
get more than three in one room."
"All right," the clerk answered, still unsmiling, while several people
had gathered around and were looking on with interest. "If you don't
mind cots I guess I can fix you up all right. It's lucky that it's
winter," he added, a little twinkle creeping into his nice eyes, "and
that the hotel isn't crowded, or we might have to turn somebody out."
He watched the girls go up the stairway to the rooms above--for they had
decided they would rather walk than wait for the elevator--then turned
to one of the men lounging near with a chuckle.
"Nice kids," he said, regarding the signatures in the big book before
him written in unmistakably girlish hands. "If they weren't dressed so
well, I'd say it was an orphan asylum out for an airing."
Meanwhile the girls had decided that they were more hungry than they
were tired, and so merely stopped to drop their bags in their rooms and
brush a little of the clinging snow from their clothing before setting
forth in search of food.
They had decided to separate into groups and to eat in different places
so as not to attract too much attention, and they were gathered on the
sidewalk in front of the hotel wondering just what to do next when
suddenly one of the girls gave a startled cry.
"Girls--no, it isn't--yes, it is!" she cried, clutching the girl beside
her hysterically. "Look! There's Miss Walters!"
"Where?"
"Oh, it can't be!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, there she is! There she is!"
And Miss Walters--for it was indeed she--attracted by the hubbub as were
some other passersby, looked at the girls first curiously, then in
astounded amazement. To her startled vision it seemed as if all the
girls in the world were gathered there on the sidewalk in front of the
hotel. And they were her girls--the girls of Three Towers Hall!
She hurried forward, feeling that the next moment she must wake up and
find it all a dream, and the girls surged around her in an eager flood.
They were so wildly surprised and joyful at the unexpected meeting that
they were almost ready to get down on their knees and thank the fates
who had sent her to them just when they needed her most.
They all started to talk at once, but Miss Walters, having recovered a
little from her first surprise and seeing that a curious crowd was
beginning to gather, spoke to them authoritatively.
"Come inside," she said. "I can't imagine what has brought you here like
this, but we certainly can't talk about it in the street."
She led the way through the doorway and into the hotel lobby, which was
fortunately deserted. Then she sank down upon a couch and the girls
gathered eagerly around her.
"Now suppose one of you tell me the meaning of all this," said Miss
Walters, her blue eyes a little hard and accusing. She had no idea what
had happened, but she knew that if the girls were responsible for this
unheard of proceeding it would go hard with them. Miss Walters was fair
and just, and because she was just she could be sternness itself where
any disobedience on the part of the girls was concerned.
As for the girls themselves, all their old fears of expulsion came back
at this attitude of their president, and they looked rather helplessly
at each other.
Then Connie Danvers nudged Billie and whispered something in her ear.
And Billie bravely did as she was asked, although, as she afterward
said, her knees were trembling under her.
"Miss Walters," she began hesitatingly, as Miss Walters turned a steady
gaze upon her, "I can explain why we are here and everything that has
happened since you left--if you will let me," she finished rather
timidly.
"That is just what I want you to do," said Miss Walters gravely.
As Billie told her story Miss Walters' expression changed, became less
stern, and she leaned forward in amazement.
"You say that some of the girls were faint and sick from lack of food?"
she asked once incredulously. "Why, it's--it's incredible. But go on,"
she interrupted herself impatiently. "What happened then?"
When Billie told of the raid, her imprisonment in the little room, her
escape, and finally the decision of the girls to leave Three Towers and
come to the hotel until Miss Walters' return, the latter jumped to her
feet, her face flushing angrily.
"I'm glad I came just when I did," she said. "I was tempted to stay
longer, but something told me that I might be needed, and that something
was right. Come, girls, we'll hire all the taxis in town if we have to,
and private automobiles, too, and get back to Three Towers immediately."
"We'll have to get our baggage," Billie suggested timidly.
"Your baggage?" queried Miss Walters absently, her mind on what she
would do when she reached Three Towers.
"Yes, we left our bags in our rooms upstairs."
"Your rooms?" Miss Walters asked, then added with a compassionate smile
that made her seem more beautiful than ever to the adoring girls: "Why,
of course, you poor children! I forgot that you expected to stay over
night. All right, run up and get your bags while I see the room clerk
and about getting us back to Three Towers."
The girls never forgot that triumphant ride back to Three Towers through
the snow. Nor did they forget what happened afterward.
Miss Ada and Miss Cora Dill and the other teachers saw them coming, and
Miss Cora's lips tightened grimly. She was the first to greet Miss
Walters at the door.
"Go up to your dormitories, girls," said Miss Walters, hardly glancing
at the teachers. "We will have lunch in half an hour--a real lunch. Just
a minute," she called, as the girls started jubilantly off. "I'd like to
speak to Beatrice Bradley in my private office immediately."
Billie came back, wondering just what was going to happen next, while
Laura picked up the suitcase she had dropped and hurriedly followed the
other girls.
Then Miss Walters turned to the teachers.
"Will you all come with me into my office?" she asked. "There is a very
important matter which I must attend to before I do anything else."
She walked down the corridor to her office and opened the door. Then she
motioned them inside, stepped in after them and closed the door
decidedly.
"Sit down, please," she said, and when they were all seated she sat down
at her desk and regarded them gravely. "As you know," she said, "an
unheard-of thing happened this morning, and I must have the testimony
of every one before I can decide one way or the other."
Then very quietly she told of her meeting with the girls that morning
and repeated almost word for word the story of what had happened during
her absence as told by Billie and supported by the other girls.
The faces of Miss Ada and Miss Cora had been growing redder and redder,
and now as Miss Walters finished and looked about her Miss Cora burst
out angrily.
"I hardly expected that you would listen to the girls' account of it,
Miss Walters," she said. "What they have said is not true."
"Pardon me, Miss Walters," Miss Race broke in, and they all turned to
her, "but I can testify that everything that Beatrice Bradley has told
you is absolute fact. I don't think that Miss Cora will deny," she
turned to Miss Cora, who was white with fury, "that I have time and time
again remonstrated with her and Miss Ada for their treatment of the
girls."
"Is that so, Miss Cora--and Miss Ada?" asked Miss Walters, turning to
the sisters, whose anger was slowly beginning to change to fear.
"Yes, Miss Walters," said Miss Cora at last, "it is true that Miss Race
was continually interfering in our government of the girls during your
absence. But," she added, while her mouth set in a grim line, "I still
maintain that we did nothing during your absence that you yourself would
not have done."
There was deep silence in the room for a minute while Miss Walters' eyes
wandered from one intent face to another and then dropped to the blotter
on her desk.
Billie's heart was beating so hard she was afraid it could be heard in
the room.
Then Miss Walters' voice came to them, cool, incisive.
"I'm sorry," she was saying, looking from Miss Ada to Miss Cora and back
again, "but I can't agree with you. Surely while I have had charge of
Three Towers the girls have not gone hungry or become faint and sick
from lack of nourishment. Neither have they raided pantries and
storerooms and deserted Three Towers _en masse_, Miss Cora." She paused,
and one could have heard a pin drop in the room. "I am very sorry, but I
think that after Monday Three Towers will have no further need of your
services, nor of those of Miss Ada. That is all, I think."
She rose by way of dismissal, and the other teachers rose also. Billie,
who was nearest the door, slipped out quietly and ran swiftly up the
stairs toward her dormitory. Her head was in a whirl, and all she wanted
to do was to get with the girls again and tell them the marvelous thing
that had happened.
The other girls were waiting for her, and as she burst in upon them they
carried her off, seated her royally on top of a dresser, and gathered
around eagerly, all talking at once and demanding to know what had
happened.
Somehow, she made them see the scene in Miss Walters' office as if they
had been there themselves, the scene in which the girls had won the
great victory and the "Dill Pickles" had been dismissed.
They were just at the height of their rejoicing when the bell rang for
lunch, and with one accord they stampeded for the dining room.
And it was a real lunch, as Miss Walters had promised--a lunch that
disappeared as if by magic, and when it was over the students of Three
Towers were really comfortable for the first time in over a week.
And everybody was happy, except Miss Ada Dill and Miss Cora; and Amanda
Peabody and Eliza Dilks, perhaps. However, even though her attempt had
failed this time, Amanda was by no means discouraged. There would be
other chances--and then she would get even with Billie Bradley!
Rose Belser was happier than she had been since she had first become
jealous of Billie. She was happy because she had done her best to set
Billie right again, and could look at her pretty reflection in the glass
once more without feeling ashamed.
It was some time later, and Billie, Vi and Laura were stretched out in
comfortable attitudes on Billie's bed in dormitory "C"--for Miss Walters
had declared it a half holiday. And, indeed, after lunch was over there
was scarcely any of the day left, anyway.
"I feel almost sorry for Miss Ada and Miss Cora," Billie was saying,
when suddenly the door opened and Connie Danvers flew in upon them.
"Girls," she cried, plumping herself down between Laura and Vi on the
bed, narrowly missing the latter's feet, "I've just got a letter--there
are some for you girls down in the box, too--and what do you think the
folks are going to do this summer?"
The girls said they could not possibly guess, and before any of them
would have had a chance to, anyway, she rattled on again:
"Mother and Dad are going to open our cottage at Lighthouse Island
again--we haven't been there for several summers. My old Uncle Tom runs
the lighthouse there, and he's a perfect darling. But this is the real
thing," she paused and regarded them with sparkling eyes. "Mother says
there will be plenty of room in the cottage for two or three of my
school chums if I'd like to have them. Think of that--if I'd like to
have them!"
The girls sat up and regarded Connie doubtfully. "What do you mean?"
stammered Billie.
"What do I mean, you little goose?" said Connie impatiently. "Don't you
know I'm asking you and Laura and Vi to go with me?"
"A summer on an island with a lighthouse!" Billie murmured, while Laura
and Vi looked as if they could not believe their ears. "Now I know I'm
going to just die of it."
"What?" asked Connie curiously.
"Joy," said Billie.
And whether she did actually die of joy or not--somehow one is rather
certain that she did not--will be told in the next book of Billie's
adventures, entitled, "Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island; or, The
Mystery of the Wreck."
Lighthouse Island was certainly a queer spot, and the girls had any
number of unusual adventures there.
"We mustn't forget our own letters!" cried Billie suddenly, and then
there was a rush to get the epistles. And here let us say good-bye to
the girls of Three Towers Hall.
THE END
Other Books Published by GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES
BY JANET D. WHEELER
BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE
OR THE QUEER HOMESTEAD AT CHERRY CORNERS
BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL
OR LEADING A NEEDED REBELLION
BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
OR THE MYSTERY OF THE WRECK
Four Little Blossoms Series
_For children 5 to 9 years of age_
By MABEL C. HAWLEY
Four Little Blossoms at Brookside Farm
Mother called them her Four Little Blossoms but Daddy Blossom called
them Bobby, Meg and the twins. The twins, Twaddles and Dot, were a
comical pair and always getting into mischief. The children had heaps of
fun around the big farm, and had several real adventures in the bargain.
Four Little Blossoms at Oak Hill School
In the Fall, Bobby and Meg had to go to school. It was good fun for Miss
Mason was a kind teacher. Then the twins insisted on going to school
too, and their appearance quite upset the class. And in school something
very odd happened and all the boys and girls wondered what it meant.
Four Little Blossoms and Their Winter Fun
Winter came and with it lots of ice and snow, and oh! what fun the
Blossoms had skating and sledding. And once Bobby and Meg went on an
errand and got lost in a sudden snowstorm. And once Twaddles slipped
through a hole in the ice, but the others went quickly to the rescue.
The "Do Something" Series
By HELEN BEECHER LONG
A series of books for girls which have been uniformly successful. Janice
Day, the "Do Something" girl, is a character that will live long in
juvenile fiction. Every volume is full of inspiration. There are an
abundance of humor, quaint situations, and worth-while effort, and
likewise plenty of plot and mystery.
An ideal series for girls from nine to sixteen.
Janice Day, the Young Homemaker.
Janice Day at Poketown.
The Testing of Janice Day.
How Janice Day Won.
The Mission of Janice Day.
The Lucile Series
By ELIZABETH M. DUFFIELD
"These books should interest every girl who loves the open."--_Chicago
Evening Post._
Lucile, The Torch Bearer.
Lucile Triumphant.
Lucile, Bringer of Joy.
Lucile on the Heights.
"Out of door" stories for girls, of vital interest and compelling charm.
The wholesome spirit and beautiful aims of the "Campfire Girls" have
never been more attractively described, and the fun and merriment of the
outings will prove fascinating to every live girl. The heroine, Lucile,
is a most spirited and striking character and one will not wonder at the
almost adoring affection in which she is held by her companions.
The Nan Sherwood Series
By ANNIE ROE CARR
In Annie Roe Carr we have found a young woman of wide experience among
girls--in schoolroom, in camp and while traveling. She knows girls of
to-day thoroughly--their likes and dislikes--and knows that they demand
almost as much action as do the boys. And she knows humor--good, clean
fun and plenty of it.
Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp,
or The Old Lumberman's Secret.
Nan Sherwood at Lake View Hall,
or The Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse.
Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays,
or Rescuing the Runaways.
Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch,
or The Old Mexican's Treasure.
Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach,
or Strange Adventures Among the
Orange Groves.