CHAPTER XVIII
A FISH STORY
The days passed without further scares until the time finally came whenthe boys were to arrive.
During those days the girls roamed around the farm attached to CherryCorners. They found it for the most part a rocky place, with here andthere dense patches of woods. There was a brook and in this they saw somesmall fish darting about.
"Maybe the boys will want to go fishing when they come," suggestedBillie.
The cherry trees also interested the chums--there were so many of them.The late cherries were ripe, and they spent a day in picking them,donning overalls for that purpose. Mrs. Gilligan took the fruit and madeseveral delicious pies and also a number of tarts.
The place was certainly a lonesome one. Only once did they see twomen tramp by. The men eyed the girls curiously, but tramped onwithout speaking.
"Certainly not very sociable," was Violet's comment.
At last came the time when the boys were to arrive.
The girls were in a fever of excitement and anticipation, for they knewthat they would have just about twice as much fun with the boys aswithout them.
"We can go on picnics," said Laura, putting on her hat over one eye asshe had a habit of doing when unusually excited, "and long tramps in thewoods, and--oh, all sorts of things."
"I wonder if that old wagon will ever come," said Violet, lookinganxiously down the road. "If it doesn't hurry we'll be too late to meetthe train."
The boy who daily brought them provisions from the village had beencommissioned to send the antiquated carriage after the girls so that theycould get down to the village in time to meet the early train. But thegirls, with no confidence in the country lad's memory, had been sure hewould forget all about it.
"If he doesn't come pretty soon, the boys will get off the trainwith no one to meet them," Violet went on worrying. "They won't knowwhere to go."
"Goodness, they'll know where to go just as well as we did," said Billie,regarding herself sideways in the mirror to be sure she had not forgottenanything. "They aren't infants, you know."
"Here it comes! Here it comes!" sang out Laura from her place at thewindow. "Are you ready, girls?"
The answer was a concerted rush for the stairs and in another minute thegirls were out in the bright sunlight, running to meet the stage.
The driver, who had been nodding in his seat, looked up as if surprisedat so much energy so early in the morning.
"Oh, please hurry," cried Billie, exasperated at the stupid look on theboy's face. "Don't you know that we're late already?"
"No'm, you're not late," he assured her in a voice that matched hismanner. "The ten-thirty train's always 'bout half an hour late, anyways."
"Well, that's just the reason it will probably be on time this morning,"remarked Billie, scrambling in after the girls. "When I'm late the trainsare always early. Please hurry," she added, and the driver cluckedhalf-heartedly to his team.
All the way down they worried for fear they would be late, but when theyreached Roland at last they found that their rural driver knew the habitsof trains in that part of the country better than they did, for they hada full thirty-five minutes to wait.
However, they roused from their despondent attitudes when they heard afamiliar whistle in the distance, and began automatically to straightentheir hats.
"Suppose they made up their minds not to come on this train?" Violetsuggested, but Laura cut in hastily.
"If you're going to start worrying all over again about somethingdifferent," she said, "I'll put you on the track and let the train runover you."
At this dire threat Violet stopped worrying, vocally at least, and theystood first on one foot, then on the other, eagerly watching the train asit rounded a curve and came pounding down toward them.
It had hardly drawn up to the station with a screeching of brakes andcome to a standstill before a cyclonic trio of boys leaped from one ofthe rear cars and came dashing toward the girls, waving hats and bags andvarious other personal articles high in the air as they came.
"I say, but it was bully of you girls to come to meet us!" shouted FerdStowing, as they came within hailing distance. "It was more than weexpected, eh, fellows?"
"Sure! Didn't think you'd be up yet," answered Teddy, looking exceedinglyhandsome--at least to Billie.
"Up yet!" cried Billie, trying to look angry, which she could not dobecause she was altogether too happy and excited. "I don't know where youboys get your ideas, anyway."
"Out of our brilliant craniums," said Ferd modestly. "I say, girls, wheredo we go from here?"
"There's an old carriage that looks as if it were on its last legs,"laughed Violet, leading the way back to where the antiquated vehicle andits sleepy driver awaited them. "We came up in it, but I don't know howwe're all going to squeeze into it going back."
"Say, fellows, we forgot to get our trunks," said Chet, interruptinghimself in the midst of an earnest conversation with his sister. "Give meyour checks and I'll go back and see about them."
"But if there isn't room for us, how are we ever going to get our baggageto the house?" Teddy asked.
"We'll get the wagon that took ours up," Laura answered. "We've got toget some provisions, anyway."
So with a great deal of fun and laughter they looked up the ancient wagonand went to the general store to get a formidable supply of provisions.
"Looks as if you were buying the store out," Teddy remarked, as Billiepulled out a long list of items. "What's the big idea?"
"You boys," said Billie, dimpling at him. "We knew what kind of appetitesyou would bring along with you, so we decided on safety first."
"Now we know you girls are bright," said Ferd admiringly, and Billie madea face at him.
The ride to the house was one big lark. The boys sat on the trunks amongthe provisions, and the girls went off into gales of merriment at theircomical efforts not to step on the eggs or fall among the fruit. Theywere having such an awfully good time that even the solemn old driver hadto join in the fun.
At last they reached Billie's house, and with much ceremony the boysjumped down from the wagon and ran to the carriage to help the girls out.And all they got for their pains was scorn and derision on the part ofthe girls.
"Get out of the way before I step on you, little speck of dust," Lauracried haughtily to Ferd, who turned up his collar and slunk along towardthe house as though his humiliation were more than he could bear, amidshouts of laughter from the merry crowd that followed him.
"That's the way to treat 'em, Laura," Chet cried, but at that Ferdturned upon him.
"Say, you'd better look out," he said belligerently. "I can't hit alady--"
"A which?" murmured Billie, with a wicked glance in Laura's direction.
"For calling me names," continued Ferd, glaring at Chet, who began totremble in mock fright; "but there's nothing to keep me from wiping theground up--"
"Yes there is! It's my ground, and I won't have it wiped up," said Billiedecidedly, at which Ferd had to laugh and the mock war came to a close.
"Say, this is some classy place, what?" said Chet, stopping in front ofthe rambling old house and regarding it admiringly. "Have you met withany ghosts yet, girls?"
"Oh, half a dozen," said Laura indifferently, and he was just about toask some more questions when Mrs. Gilligan met them at the door and begangiving instructions.
After that there was nothing to do but obey, and the boys and girls didnot meet again until lunch time. Then they regarded each other across thetable joyfully.
"I say, let's go for a tramp in the woods this afternoon," Ferdsuggested, after he and the other lads had taken a look around the house."This is the prettiest, wildest country I've ever seen, and I'd like tonose about a little."
"But we thought you'd like to see what the attic and cellar look like,"said Billie. "We had the afternoon all planned."
"Let's do that to-morrow," Ferd begged boyishly. "This is too nice a dayto spend indoors."
The girls had spent much of their time in the old house since theirarrival, for they had found an almost inexhaustible supply of strangecorners and unexpected rooms and peculiar ornaments that hadfascinated them.
But to-day, as they felt the warm sunshine on their heads, as the windcaressed their faces and the scents of the woodland bathed them inperfume, they were glad they had let the boys have their way and haddecided to spend the glorious afternoon in the open.
"Did you win the tennis singles?" Billie asked of Teddy, as she stoppedto smell a bunch of strange flowers. "I was rooting for you."
"Were you?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"For you--and Chet," she added demurely, and laughed to see hisface fall.
"But did you?" she asked.
"What?"
"Win the tennis singles, silly? Can't you remember a thing two seconds?"
"Why, yes, we did," he answered absently, his gray eyes onBillie's lovely mischievous face. "In fact, we just ran ringsaround them. I guess--"
He stopped short as they came upon the other young people. A couple ofbearded men had come out of the woods and confronted the crowd. Each mancarried a heavy club. They were the fellows who had once passed the girlswithout speaking.
"You can't go any further this way," one of them said in a rather grufftone. "We're growing a new variety of corn and want to keep the seed toourselves."
"What's that?" demanded Chet in astonishment
"You heard what I said. You can't stay here, and you can't go that way."
"You want to get out of here," growled the second man. "Come, move on."
"You can't steal any of our corn-growing secrets. Move on," and the firstman shook his club suggestively.
The strange men looked ugly, and the boys and girls, after a pause,turned off in another direction.
"Humph!" grunted Ted, with a curious glance at the place where the menhad been. "They made a mistake. That wasn't a corn story. It was afish story!"
"Maybe," returned Billie. "But what does it mean?"
Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance; Or, The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners Page 18