CHAPTER XIII
CHERRY CORNERS
As the train drew out of the station Billie leaned back with a sigh ofpure happiness.
"You know," she said, looking at the girls with sparkling eyes, "this isthe very first time that I have ever been away from North Bend withoutthe 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 intomischief."
"I don't know but what we shall have to look out that you don't get intomischief," said Laura with a chuckle. "Mr. Gilligan told me once that youweren't to be trusted out alone."
"Huh," retorted Mrs. Gilligan good-naturedly, "it's him that Iwouldn't be trusting. But what," she asked, looking curiously atBillie, "did your brother mean by saying not to scare away the ghostsbefore he gets there?"
"Oh," laughed Billie, "he has a sort of idea that the house at CherryCorners is inhabited by spirits--just because mother said that thehalls and rooms were spooky. He will be terribly disappointed if hedoesn't see half a dozen ghosts."
"Well, I wouldn't," said Violet with a shudder, for now that they were onthe 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 therolling pin."
The girls laughed. The picture of Mrs. Maria Gilligan assaulting a ghostwith a rolling pin was indeed a funny one.
"Well," said Billie a little later, as she started to unpin her hat, "Idon't know about you girls, but I'm going to be comfortable. We have along ride before us."
"I suppose we might as well take off our hats and stay awhile," agreedLaura, following suit. "Say, girls," she added, as she stuck her hat upin 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 waswondering why we didn't take the night train that reaches Roland, thenearest station to Cherry Corners, in the morning."
"That would have been a good idea, wouldn't it?" said Billie. "Now wewill 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 yougirls 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 doit 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 willhave to walk back."
"All right," said Violet, suddenly goaded into an unusual firmness. "Youpromise me this minute that you won't say another word about ghosts untilwe 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 thegirls promised.
"It would be a crime to wear out those perfectly good shoes," saidLaura, looking at Violet's trim suede footgear. "Especially with pricesgoing up."
Billie groaned.
"I think I'll have to try Violet's trick," she said. "If anybody mentionsthe high cost of living to me while we're away on this vacation, I'llget out and walk home. I don't care if it's a hundred miles."
"Going up?" laughed Laura, but they promised just the same. Forunderneath Billie's lightness they knew that she was still puzzling herwits for some way to pay for that broken statue.
"Here comes a man with magazines," said Laura. "We'd better get a coupleto pass the time away. An all-day trip is pretty tiresome. At least I'veheard 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 peepedinside the covers.
The scenery was so beautiful and wild, the whole trip was so wonderfullynovel that the time flew, and before they realized it they had reachedthe station next to Roland.
"Goodness, I didn't think we were anywhere near there, yet!" criedViolet, as she began to gather up her things. "I never knew a day to goso quickly in my life. Billie, are these your candies? You'd better notleave them on the seat."
"Who said I was going to?" cried Billie, rescuing her sweets just asLaura was in the act of sitting on them. "Here, there's just roomfor them in the corner of my grip. Mrs. Gilligan, have you got thetrunk checks?"
"I hope so," said the woman, opening her hand bag.
The girls watched her breathlessly and sighed with relief when she drewout 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 readybeforehand."
So, laughing and excited, the girls obeyed her, putting on their wrapshurriedly and laughing at Laura when she got her hat over one eye.
"Here, put it on straight," cried Billie, performing that service forher friend. "We don't want to have our reputations ruined the minute westep on the platform. Who ever heard of a perfect lady with her hatover one eye?"
"Well, if you don't like my company--" Laura began good-naturedly, as shesquinted at her distorted reflection in the little two-by-four mirror setin the tiny space of wall between the windows. "Gracious, Billie, youtook it off of one eye to put it over the other. Do I look more like aperfect lady with my hat over my right eye?"
Billie chuckled and pushed the hat over Laura's nose, at which Laurawould have protested vigorously and, if must be, forcefully, if there hadnot been other passengers in the train besides themselves. As it was, shehad to be content with an indignant stare, which Billie, with twinklingeyes, calmly turned her back upon.
"Roland! Roland!" called the conductor in stentorian tones, and withlittle squeals of excitement the girls found their hand baggage, gave onelast little pat to their hats, and started toward the door.
"You go first, Mrs. Gilligan," cried Violet, pushing that womanbefore her.
"I wonder if Vi expects the ghosts to meet us at the station?" chuckledLaura in Billie's ear. "She reminds me of a relative of ours who alwayspushes 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, rescuedit 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 bea rather old and broken-down place, and the girls stood on it ruefully asthey watched the train rumble off in the distance.
"Now we're in for it," said Billie, her eyes taking in adisconsolate-looking store or two and a drooping post-office. "I wonderif this is what they call the village?"
"Well, we're not going to live here," said Mrs. Gilligan briskly. "Andyou can't expect to find a thriving town away off a hundred miles fromnowhere. Come on, let's see if we can find some sort of a wagon to takeus and our belongings to Cherry Corners. I don't suppose," she added, asthey crossed the street toward a building a little more dilapidated thanthe rest that had the words Livery Stable painted on a blurred sign overthe door, "that there is any sort of hotel or boarding house where wemight 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 wantto 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 onwhich were the forlorn looking stores and the post-office and a fewother nondescript looking buildings that might have been used foralmost any possible purpose, there seemed to be but two streets onwhich were built the dwelling houses. These, for the most part, weresimple and plain enough, each with its yard, well or ill kept, in frontand a garden and chicken yard behind. On
ly one was a little morepretentious in appearance, but that, too, had attached to it its gardenand chicken yard.
However, they found that there was no necessity for their finding aplace, if place there was to be found to stay for the night. They foundthe owner of the livery stable with two old but well-preserved vehicleswhich he was eager to place at their disposal.
They spent some time in getting enough provisions to last for a time andto supplement what had been sent from North Bend; then, in half an hourmore, with their luggage coming on behind, they were lumbering off over avery rocky road toward the house at Cherry Corners.
Mrs. Gilligan was sitting in front with the driver while the three girlswere wedged uncomfortably in the back seat.
"It--it's lucky we're not fat!" gasped Laura, as a particularly roughplace in the road fairly shook the breath out of her. "I don't know wherewe would have put ourselves."
"One of us would have had to sit on the trunks on the cart," chuckledBillie. "Ouch!" she cried, as they bounced over another "thank youma'am," "I'm glad we haven't any more than five miles to go. Therewouldn'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 ofher pocket. "It may make you feel better."
"Well, it couldn't make me feel worse," said Violet, accepting theoffering. "Although," she added, with a laugh, "I don't see how it isgoing 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 intoBillie'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'tput 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 theroad and Billie cried out.
"There it is!" she said, standing up in the jolting vehicle. "Over therethrough the trees! Oh, girls! doesn't it look gloomy?"
Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance; Or, The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners Page 13