CHAPTER III
MAKING PLANS
"I can't seem to get used to it," sighed Mollie several days later, asshe ran up the steps of her porch and opened the screen door for thegirls. "To think that no matter how much we want to go back to theHostess House--"
"There is no Hostess House to go back to," finished Grace, sinking downin a luxurious porch swing and plumping the cushion behind her back.Grace always had a gift for finding the soft places. "It is ratherdiscouraging."
"Just as we were going to work hard and forget how unhappy we were,too," added Amy plaintively.
"Goodness, but we're not going to be unhappy," put in Betty, rockingvigorously. "I thought we decided that three days ago."
"I know. But when we think--"
"But we musn't think," Betty interrupted quickly, adding with a littletwinkle: "About being unhappy, that is. All we have to do is just holdon to the belief that the boys are coming back a year from now, maybeless--coming back without a hair less than they had when they wentaway."
"We didn't count 'em," said Mollie drolly. "The hairs, that is, so howcan we tell?"
"Isn't she funny?" drawled Grace, catching the pillow Mollie threw ather and depositing it calmly behind her back. "Thanks, old dear," shesaid. "I just needed another one."
"I thought we came to talk over the plans for our vacation," Amy put inmildly, adding with a little laugh: "We have to take one now whether wewant it or not."
"But we haven't the slightest idea what we're going to do," protestedGrace. "I guess we'd just better stay at home and do nothing."
"My, aren't you encouraging?" cried Mollie, looking up indignantly fromthe pair of socks she was knitting. "You might at least suggestsomething."
"Ooh, there you are!"
They turned suddenly to see a mischievous little face peeping at themfrom around the corner of the porch.
"Dodo, you little wretch, come here," cried Mollie, trying to looksevere and failing utterly.
"Now what mischief have you been up to?"
"No," protested Dodo, shaking her curly head vigorously, as shereluctantly abandoned her vantage point and came slowly toward Mollie."No mischief 'tall. Me an' Paul jus' playin'."
This was Dora, nicknamed Dodo, and Paul, Mollie Billette's small brotherand sister, who were nearly always getting into some sort of mischieffrom the time they stepped their little feet out of bed in the morningtill the time they slipped the same little feet, tired out with gettinginto trouble, into bed at night.
"You darling!" cried Betty, catching the little figure to her andadministering a bear's hug. "You're terribly bad, but we can't helploving you."
"Uh-uh," denied Dodo, wriggling free of Betty's embrace and looking ather earnestly. "Me's never bad--only Paul."
"Ooh, Dodo Billette!" cried Paul, bursting in upon them from no onecould quite tell where. "You's a big story teller!"
"You's the big 'tory teller," cried Dodo, coming sturdily to the rescueof her reputation. "You just go 'way. Mol--lie, oh, Mollie, make him go'way!"
"Oh, dear!" cried Mollie, half amused and half vexed as she put asideher knitting and took Dodo on her lap. "I thought you and Paul promisedto play with the bunnies all the afternoon and not bother sister. Can'tyou see she has company?"
"Yes," smiled the little girl, reaching up to pat Mollie's cheekingratiatingly. "Me an' Paul got tired playin' wiv bunnies an' came tosee you. We want," she added succinctly, "tandies!"
"Well, you won't get any, not this time," said Mollie definitely, tryingnot to smile, while the other girls were not even trying. It was alwayshard not to laugh at the twins, naughty as they often were.
"Why?" demanded Dodo severely.
"Never mind why," returned Mollie, putting the little girl down andtaking up her knitting again. "Now run off, both of you, we want totalk."
"But we want tandies," repeated Dodo, looking surprised that Mollie hadnot understood the first time. "Dive Paul an' me tandies--lots oftandies--an' we'll go 'long. Shan't we, Paul? Ooh--" the question endedin an anguished wail as Dora's eyes rested on her faithless twin.
The latter had extracted Grace's half-filled candy box from under acushion where she had hastily hidden it at the first threat of invasionby the insatiable twins and was at the moment busily engaged indevouring its contents. Grace had been too busy watching Dodo to noticehim.
"Ooh, you bad boy! You bad boy!" wailed the little girl, making a dashfor Paul, who deftly evaded her and took refuge behind Betty's chair,"Div me dos tandies--dive 'em to me."
"Can't," mumbled Paul, his mouth full, adding by way of explanation aconvincing: "All gone."
"Paul Billette, come here this minute," commanded Mollie sternly, whileBetty and Amy tried hard to check their rising mirth and Grace lookedbereft. "Come here I say."
"Make Dodo go 'way then," bargained Paul, adding in an explanatory tone:"Last time she pulled my hair."
"An' me's goin' do it 'dain," declared Dodo vengefully, when Bettyreached over suddenly and pulled the little girl into her lap.
"Stay here a minute, Honey," she coaxed, and as Dodo tried vainly towriggle loose added: "Sister wants to speak to Paul."
"An' I," said Dodo soberly, "want to pull his hair."
Again the girls had to strangle their mirth while Mollie reiterated hercommand to Paul. The latter, after regarding the wriggling Dodo for aminute uncertainly, reluctantly left his refuge and stood before Mollie,head hanging.
"I'se sorry," he said in a small voice, trying to forestall thescolding he knew was coming. "Me never do it any more!"
"That," said Mollie sternly, though the corners of her mouth twitchedand there was a twinkle in her eye, "is just exactly what you say everytime you're a bad naughty boy. Now, just to make you remember hownaughty you were, you shan't have another piece of candy for a wholeweek."
Paul's protest was drowned in a wail from Dora.
"But me wants some tandies," she cried. "Me didn't take any."
"She would, if Paul hadn't seem them first," murmured Grace, but Mollieshot her a warning glance.
"No," she said, "and just for being such a good girl, sister's going togive you six big chocolates all for yourself."
Dodo gave a shout of glee and disengaging herself with one last franticwriggle from Betty's embrace, precipitated herself upon Mollie like ayoung cyclone.
"Ooh dive 'em to me, dive 'em to me quick," she demanded, then as Molliemade good her promise the little girl turned upon the erring Paul a lookof conscious virtue and said gravely; "If you were a dood boy I woulddiv you one, but now me's goin' eat 'em up, every one till dey's allgone."
Then she took to her heels, scurrying down the steps and around thecorner of the house with Paul in hot pursuit.
"Dodo," they heard him crying plaintively, "I'll let you play wiv mybest bunny if you will div me one candy, just one--"
"I wouldn't give much for his chances," chuckled Mollie, adding with asigh that was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "Aren't theyperfectly terrible? There isn't a minute of the day when they're not insome mischief."
"No, they're adorable," cried Betty fondly. "I wouldn't give two centsfor children that didn't get into mischief all the time."
"I don't care so much about the mischief," said Grace, eyeing her emptychocolate box ruefully, "if they would only leave my candies alone."
"Never mind, Gracie," replied Mollie, laughing at her, "you shall have awhole box of mine, so you shall."
"Fine," agreed Grace, adding with a chuckle as Mollie handed over thealmost full box: "Since my candies were more than half gone, I don'tcall it such a bad bargain at that."
"I'll say it wasn't," dimpled Betty.
"Just the same," said Mollie, after a little pause, "even though thetwins are a great deal of trouble, Mother said she just wouldn't haveknown what to do without them--especially after I went to CampLiberty--the house would have been so frightfully dull."
"I should think so," said Grace, adding suddenly, as though she hadthoug
ht of it for the first time: "Why she would have been all alone,wouldn't she? How awful!" For Mollie had no father, he having diedseveral years before.
"And the other day she said the strangest thing," Mollie continued,suddenly earnest. "You know how she adores Paul. Well, I caught herlooking at him with the most wistful expression, and when I asked herwhat the matter was she looked up at me and I saw there were tears inher eyes.
"'It's Paul,' she said softly. 'Of course I'm thankful he is so littlethat I can keep him safe at home with me, but sometimes when I think ofmy dear country and the terrible wrongs she has suffered, I almost wishthat my little son were old enough to bring retribution upon thosehideous Germans. Sometimes I feel cheated--yes, you needn't stare--thatI have not a son "over there".'"
"Oh, Mollie!" cried the Little Captain softly, "what a wonderful thingto say. And yet I think she would die if anything happened to either ofthe twins."
"That's just it," said Mollie, her eyes glowing with pride. "Loving themas she does, she almost wishes it were possible to make the supremesacrifice for her country."
"It was that spirit," said Grace thoughtfully, "that won the battle ofthe Marne."
For a long time after that the girls worked quietly, each busy with herown thoughts. It was Amy who finally broke the silence.
"And here we are," she said plaintively, "letting another wholeafternoon slip by without deciding what we are going to do on ourvacation. Can't somebody suggest something?"
"I have already suggested half a dozen things, only to be laughed toscorn," said Mollie, adding decidedly: "I'm through."
"And nothing I can say seems to meet with approval," added Bettyplaintively.
"Well," said Grace, stretching herself, sitting up in the swing, andlooking important, "nobody asks me whether I have anything to suggest,"adding as they turned a battery of surprised and eager glances her way:"I don't know whether I can be persuaded to tell you now or not."
"Tell us!" they cried, piling into the swing till the supporting ropescreaked with the strain.
"Can't we bribe you with candy?" pleaded Amy.
"No. I just made an advantageous trade in that article, you willremember," was the answer.
"Anyway, we don't bribe, we command," put in Betty. "Grace, we refuse tobe trifled with. What have you to suggest? Out with it!"
"You'd better hurry," added Mollie, raising her knitting needlethreateningly, "before I spit thee like a pig!"
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point; Or a Wreck and a Rescue Page 4