Margaret Penrose

“ The girls managed to pull the door toward them, got a firm hold upon the edge of it, and pried the bolt loose. The door was shoved back against the wall of the room and they could look out into the empty classroom. Light from out of doors—and that very faint—was all that illuminated the larger apartment.
“Oh! if she catches us!” gasped Dorothy.
“Don’t you fret. This is a regular hunger strike—just as though we were suffragettes and had been imprisoned. Only we don’t refuse to eat; we just refuse not to eat,” and Tavia giggled as she hastily laced up her shoe again. ”

“ But I love the old crowd, and I’m sorry to lose the fun we have here,” Tavia admitted.
“The whole world’s before us now,” sighed Dorothy.
“Dish-washing, and sweeping, and bed-making, and all that is before your humble servant,” laughed Tavia. “I’m going home, as you know, to keep father’s house for him spick and span. Mother will be glad. She hates housework.” ”

“ Tavia kept very still. She had no part in this discussion, but she felt “mean all over.” She believed she could explain the sudden dislike Miss Olaine seemed to have taken to Dorothy Dale.
“If we hadn’t all promised to treat her just as nice as we could——” began Molly.
“And we’ll keep it up to the end of the term,” said Dorothy, decidedly.
“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Ned. “We’ll be ladylike, be it ever so painful.”
“It’s easy,” interposed Tavia, with a grin, “to be as polite as she is. Whatever is working on Olaine’s mind——”
“It must be something awful. Nothing less than murder,” declared Ned. ”

“ There was great confusion for the next few moments—not only at the gate, where Dorothy and Tavia took turns in hugging and quieting the sobbing child—but when they returned with Celia to the porch, where the other girls had gathered to satisfy their curiosity about the stranger.
“No,” said Dorothy, decidedly; “you must not all talk at once. It bothers her. Tavia and I are going to take her to our room—— No! you can’t all of you come. Go on about your business. By supper time Celia will be all right and you shall all get acquainted with her.” ”

“ That is the way it must have looked to an aviator had one sailed over the old school and looked down upon the campus on this beautiful June day.
But the snow drifts were of lawn and roses. Every girl in the school was dressed in white, and every girl wore, or carried, white roses. They were grouped by classes, or in little cliques, while a photographer from the city with a great camera arranged to take a picture of the scene.
“Hope he’ll hurry up,” groaned Cologne, sitting with Dorothy and Tavia and some of the other girls. “My foot’s asleep.” ”

“ I’ll relieve you,” interposed Tavia. “There are lots of nice boys—real dressy boys—and it’s fun to go to the tea-rooms, for you see everybody—and they dance! And we’ve learned to dance the very newest dances——”
“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy. “Only with each other—you know that. We’ve just picked up some of the steps, seeing others do it—and practised in our room at Aunt Winnie’s.”
“There! She always spoils everything,” declared Tavia. “I was just making Ned Ebony’s eyes ‘bulge right out’ at our wickedness. ”

“ Dorothy saw that the whole world outside seemed to be one vast snowbank. Mrs. Hogan, puffing and blowing, in knee boots and her man’s outfit, was covered with snow.
“That Jim Bentley’s gone home—bad ’cess t’ him. Though ’tis me saves a supper thereby. An’ he niver got the hoss up at all, at all!” she cried, wiping her red face on a towel hanging by the sink, and then shedding her outside garments, boots and all, in a heap by the hot stove. ”

“ But the boys laughed uproariously.
“Ain’t that just like a girl?” cried Johnny. “Woodchuck is as good eating as ’possum, or coon, or squirrel.”
“That’s all right,” laughed Tavia, tossing her head. “Everybody to their taste, as the old woman said when she kissed her cow. I’ll choose squirrel—and I reckon Doro will, too—and the bigger boys. And I know where we can get some, for there’s no law on squirrels in this county. We’ll have some potatoes in the bake, too.”
“Goody!” cried Roger, jumping around. “It takes girls to think of the fixin’s.” ”

“ That isn’t the very next thing I’m going to do.”
“What is ‘next,’ then?”
“Going to hug you!” declared Tavia, and proceeded to put her threat into execution, smashing Dorothy’s hat down over her eyes, and otherwise adding to the general “mussed-up condition” resulting from the long journey from Glenwood to the town which was still Tavia’s home, and for which Dorothy would always have a soft spot in her heart.
“Oh, dear me!” gasped Tavia. “It is so delightsome, Doro Doodlebug, to have you really going home with me to stay at my house for two whole weeks. It is too good to be true!” ”

“ She’s got a headache and has retired to her den,” said Dorothy, shaking her head.
“I tell you!” gasped Tavia, quickly. “Let’s play a play—a real play. All dress up, and paint our faces—Ned shall be the hero, and we’ll dress her up like a boy. And I’ll be the adventuress—I really just love to play I’m wicked—for I never get a chance to be.”
“You’re wicked enough naturally. It would be more of a stunt for you to play the innocuous heroine—or the ‘on-gi-nu,’” drawled Rose-Mary Markin.
“Oh! what an awful slap on the wrist!” cried Molly Richards. ”

“ Molly Richards was nearest, and she jumped up and ran to the platform. Tavia felt as though her own limbs were powerless. The girl realized that the teacher had fainted.
“Oh, dear me! whatever shall we do?” gasped Dick, chafing the teacher’s hands.
“Run get some water—or some smelling salts!” cried Edna Black; but she never offered to go herself. ”

“ Miss Olaine certainly was trying!
“Go to your class, then—at once!” commanded the teacher. “And remember that while I am in charge of Glenwood School, you girls do not have free access to this office. Ask permission if you wish to consult any book here.”
And Dorothy had not found the address she desired! She went out of the room very angry at heart with Miss Olaine. She was so angry, in fact, that she felt just like disobeying her flatly!
That was not like sensible Dorothy. To antagonize the teacher would aid nobody; yet she felt just like doing so. ”

“ Hogan threatens to strike her. I noticed that when I stayed over night at the farmhouse,” said Dorothy.
“But she isn’t half fed,” declared Tavia. “See how thin her little arms and legs are! It’s a shame.”
“I am afraid Celia doesn’t have proper nourishment. She gets no milk nor eggs. Mrs. Hogan sells every pound of butter she makes, too. Now those things are just what a frail little thing like Celia needs. Mrs. Hogan is a female miser.” ”

“ Is that right, Doro?”
“Oh, yes; boys are only a nuisance—except our brothers and cousins. Don’t you say so, Tavia?”
“Sure! And a few thousand more,” she added, sotto voce. “But we’re going to marry twins if we marry at all. That is decided, Doro?”
“Certainly,” returned Dorothy, gravely.
It was growing late. The nine o’clock bell meant nothing to the girls of Glenwood Hall this night. There was bustle in every room, laughter in the corridors, and a running back and forth until late. Suddenly Tavia had an idea. It grew out of the over-crammed boxes and trunks of “loot” from the walls. ”

“ The train started a second after the two almost breathless girls entered the half-empty chair car. They came in with a rush, and barely found their seats and got settled in them before the easily rolling train had pulled clear of the station and the yards.
“Back to dear old Glenwood School, Doro!” cried Tavia Travers, fairly hugging her more sober companion. “How do you feel about it?”
“De-lighted, Miss,” laughed Dorothy Dale. “After our trying experiences in New York——Well! a country life is strenuous enough for me, I guess.” ”

“ ON THE TRAIL
“It seems almost impossible that a man with such a red head could so completely drop out of sight,” sighed Tavia the next day.
The boys had just combed Dalton “with a fine-toothed comb” for the elusive Tom Moran, and had bagged nothing. He had gone—vamoosed—disappeared—winked out; all these synonyms were Tavia’s. The girls had discussed the disappearance until there seemed nothing more to be said.
“We don’t really know that he was Celia’s big brother,” said Dorothy, reflectively. “But it seems very probable. Even your father knew that he was a bridge builder.” ”

“ We haven’t had one this winter.”
“It’s kid tricks, girls,” complained Dorothy.
“List to her! Wow!” gasped Tavia, and landed a soft sofa pillow right in the back of Dorothy’s neck. “Don’t you dare suggest we’re growing old.”
“‘Silver threads among the gold’,” quoted Cologne. “I know. She’s getting rheumatic, too. Second childhood is close upon her——”
“Stop ranting and come on!” commanded Ned Ebony. “High overshoes—mittens—everything! the snow is just soft enough. If we’re careful we’ll make Olaine’s eyes bulge out in the morning. ”

“ If he’s just one of the ordinary workmen I suppose he belongs to the union. If he’s a foreman, or something big in the work, he might not belong to the union; but they would know his name, just the same.
“Now!” reflected Dorothy. “I don’t believe that asylum matron ever thought to ask the union, in all these four years little Celia has been in her care. I’ll look up the local headquarters in the directory, and write them a nice letter about Tom Moran.
“As for learning where Mrs. Hogan has taken Celia, I’ll inquire of every farmer I see. Mrs. Hogan’s farm can’t be very far from here.” ”

“ The man who marries either of us will have to agree to let us live right next door to each other. Isn’t that right?”
“Oh, more than that,” agreed Dorothy.175 “He’ll have to agree that we shall be together most of the time anyway. But don’t worry. I think seriously of being a she philanthropist, and of course no man will want to marry me then.”
“And I’ll be a—a policewoman—or a doctress,” gasped Tavia. “Either job will drive ’em away.”
“And—Bob—is—coming—to-morrow,” yawned Dorothy, and the next minute was asleep.
Before the boys came, however, Dorothy and Tavia went to see Sarah Ford. ”

“ If you mean antiseptic, say so.”
“Wow!” cried Ned. “Our Tavia has become a purist.”
“Oh, dear, that’s worse!” declared Tavia. “Come on, Doro, I don’t like these boys any more. I am going to become a man-hater, anyway, I think. They’re always underfoot—— Oh! what a cute dog you’ve got, Ned.”
“’Tain’t mine,” said Ned. “It’s Nat’s.”
“But he seems a long way from his head to his tail for a short-legged beast,” observed Dorothy.
“That’s some dog, let me tell you,” Nat declared, stoutly. “He’s a real German dachshund.” ”

“ But Tavia and the boys—all Dorothy’s friends, in fact—were quite unaware of the trouble into which Dorothy’s impetuosity had gotten her.
The old pasture in which the boys had discovered the woodchuck burrows was full of sheltering clumps of dwarfed trees, and piles of stone. A woodchuck always has two openings to his home, and unless a watch is set at both holes no amount of smoking out will enable the hunter to grab Mr. Woodchuck. ”

“ So, inside of a week, Tavia was “conditioned.” Each black mark that she had against her in deportment had to be “worked off” before the end of the half, or she could not graduate.
And in seeking to shield her chum again from the consequences of her folly, Dorothy found herself conditioned, too. Mrs. Pangborn demanded her presence in the office, and for almost the first time in her career at Glenwood, Dorothy Dale found herself at odds with the kind principal of the school. ”

“ And a very bad, ignorant man, I am afraid.”
“He doesn’t belong to Dalton, then,” declared Tavia, earnestly. “Since the liquor crusade, when the saloons were all shut, we haven’t had many men of bad character in Dalton.”
“That’s right,” agreed Dorothy. “But you see, there is always a ‘floating population.’ Work such as your father’s company is doing brings in irresponsible men from outside. They have no interest in the fair name of Dalton, so we mustn’t be surprised if they misbehave,” said sensible Dorothy. ”

“ And Mrs. Pangborn would not have allowed such a thing. We—we are almost grown up. It is an insult.”
But she said nothing like this to Tavia. Besides, Tavia had brought punishment upon her own head in the first place by her practical joke. At the moment, Dorothy could not see that she was in anyway at fault. Miss Olaine had just “pounced upon” her, with neither right nor reason on her side!
“And here we are, shut into this little old room,” croaked Tavia. “Not even pigs for company.”
“Do be quiet, Tavia,” begged Dorothy. “You’ll have her back—and she’ll do something worse to us.” ”

“ If I could jes’ find him once I know I wouldn’t have to stay with Mrs. Hogan. For I jes’ know,” concluded the old-fashioned little thing, shaking her head, “that she’s goin’ to have a—nawful job bringing me up strict—I jes’ know she is!”
“You poor, motherless little thing!” choked Dorothy. “I’ll try my best to find your brother. I really will, dear.”
“That’ll be nice,” confided Celia. “For I think I shall like better bein’ with him than with Mrs. Hogan.”
“And where is Mrs. Hogan going to take you, dear?” asked Dorothy.
“To her farm. A farm is a nawful nice place,” said Celia, gravely. ”

“ Oh, dear me!” sobbed Celia, “I was a great deal happier there!”
“Ungrateful——”
“No, ma’am. It isn’t that,” declared the child, grown desperate at last, perhaps. “But you don’t love me. You don’t love any little girls. And I’d go without a sup to eat, or a roof like you give me, or—or a bed, jes’ to be loved a little.” ”