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Page 3
"Hateful? Did I ever dare to say that my Cousin Louisa was hateful?
She is one of the loveliest women in this world! Just think! Cousin
Louisa has written to say that she can't have me, or rather won't have
me, visit her. She is going to shut up her house, and is going to sail
for Europe. I know it is just to escape my odious presence."
"Why, Madge, what will you do?" Eleanor asked. "You've nowhere else to
go." You know how you hate those awful children at Charlottesville."
"Wait, Eleanor Butler--wait!" Madge cried dramatically. "You do not
know what has happened, nor why I now truly love and adore the same
Cousin Louisa whom I once thought I disliked. Just look here." Madge
waved a small strip of paper in the air. "Cousin Louisa has sent me a
check for two hundred dollars! She says I am to spend the money on my
summer vacation in any way I like, provided Aunt Sue and Uncle William
approve."
"But you can't go off traveling by yourself," objected Eleanor. "I
should think you would hate to spend your summer alone."
"Alone!" Madge answered indignantly. "Who said I meant to spend my
vacation alone? I want you three girls to spend the six weeks with me.
Only last night Eleanor and I said that we four girls could never be
really happy anywhere without one another."
"Generous Madge," smiled Lillian affectionately. "Two hundred dollars
seems quite a fortune. Perhaps you ought not to spend it all. Where
can we go, and what can we do?"
"Young ladies," a stern voice spoke just outside the door, "kindly
remember this is the study hour. You are expected to keep silence."
An unusual stillness fell on the four offenders. Only Madge's blue
eyes flashed rebelliously. "It's that tiresome Miss Jones. You might
know she would be somewhere about. She is the crossest teacher in this
school."
"Sh-sh, Madge," Eleanor lowered her voice, "Miss Jones might hear you.
She is ill, I am sure. That is what makes her so cross. Phil and I
are both sorry for her."
"Oh, you and Phil are sorry for everybody. That's nothing! Thank
goodness, there is the bell! It is the recreation hour. Come, my
beloved chums, I simply must think of some way to spend our vacation
and I never can think indoors. 'It is the merry month of May,'"
caroled Madge. "Come, Phil, let us go down to the water and take Nell
and Lillian rowing. It is a dream of an afternoon, all soft and
sunshiny, and the river folk are calling us, the frogs, and the water
rats----"
"Dear me, Madge," teased Phil, "do hush. We are glad enough to go
rowing without an invitation from the frogs. We have two hours before
supper time. Shall we ask poor Miss Jones to go with us? She does not
have much fun, and you know it is her duty to make us keep the rules.
Miss Jones admires you very much, Madge. She said you were clever
enough to do anything you liked, if you would only try. But she knows
you don't like her."
"Then she knows the truth," returned naughty Madge. "No, Phil, please
don't ask Miss Jones to come out with us this afternoon, there's a
dear. I told you I wanted to think. And I can think brilliantly only
when in the company of my beloved chums."
Phyllis Alden and Madge Morton were good oarsmen. Indeed, they were
almost as much at home on the water as they were on land. Each girl
wore a tiny silver oar pinned to her dress. Only the week before Madge
had won the annual spring rowing contest; for Miss Tolliver made a
special point of athletics in her school, and fortunately the school
grounds ran down to the bank of a small river.
Phil and Madge rowed out into the middle of the river with long,
regular strokes. They were in their own little, green boat, called the
"Water Witch." Lillian sat in the stern, trailing her white hands idly
in the water. Eleanor sat quietly looking out over the fields.
Suddenly Madge, who always did the most unexpected things in the world,
locked her oars across the boat and sat up in her seat with a jerk that
rocked the little craft.
"Girls, I have thought it all out!" she exclaimed. "I have the most
glorious, the most splendid plan you ever heard of in the world! Just
wait until you hear it!"
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