The in the Mountains Part 5 (2/2)
”What a reckless promise! Only you know you are perfectly safe,” she said, half mockingly.
”I really mean it,” protested Dolly. ”I'm going to swear off--for a long time, anyhow. Bessie and Zara and I are going to try to get enough honor beads to be Fire-Makers as soon as we get back to the city, and that's one of the ways I'm going to try.”
”Then you've started already?” said Eleanor.
”No, not yet,” said Dolly. ”I'm going to wait--”
A shout of laughter interrupted her.
”Oh, yes, we know! Until you have just one or two last ones--”
Dolly flushed dangerously for a moment. But her new control over herself, that she was fighting so hard to maintain, saved her from the sharp reply that was on her tongue.
”You might let me finish,” she said. ”If I swore off now I suppose the time while we're here would count toward an honor bead, but what's the use of swearing off something I can't get, anyhow? I'm going to swear off the first time I see a soda fountain!”
”Good for you, Dolly!” exclaimed Eleanor, heartily. ”That's the right spirit.”
CHAPTER IX.
THE PATHFINDERS.
It did not take the two pathfinders long to get so far ahead of the main party that they were out of sight and almost out of hearing. The girls who carried the necessary provisions and utensils, however, made their way light by singing Camp Fire songs as they walked, and their voices echoed through the woods.
”This is great! Oh, I love it!” said Dolly, happily. ”I'm so glad you beat Margery, Bessie!”
”I thought you liked Margery, Dolly?”
”I do, but you're my very dearest chum, Bessie! I think Margery's great, but she is just a little bit superior, sometimes. I expect I deserve it when she gives me a lecture, but I like you because you don't preach, though you're just as good as she is any day in the week!”
”I'll probably lecture you some time, Dolly, if I think you need it.”
”Go ahead! I don't mind when you do it, or if you do it. I don't know why, but it's the same way with Miss Eleanor. She's scolded me sometimes, but she isn't a bit like my Aunt Mabel, or the teachers at school.”
”How do you mean? They're kind to you, I suppose? It isn't that that makes the difference?”
”No. I don't just know what it is, except that she makes me feel as if I had made her unhappy, and they always talk just as if they thought it was their duty.”
”It probably is, Dolly. You ought to have had the sort of scoldings I used to get from Maw Hoover! Then you'd know what a real scolding is like.”
”Oh, I just hate that woman, Bessie, for the way she treated you. Don't you hate her, too?”
”I don't know. I used to, but I'm sort of sorry for her, Dolly.”
”I don't see why!”
”Well, since I've been away from the farm, I've seen that she didn't have a very much better time than I did. She had to work all day long, and she never got much pleasure.”
”That wasn't any excuse for her treating you so badly.”
”I think maybe it was, Dolly. I suppose she was nervous, like a whole lot of other women, and she had to have something to wear herself out on. She took things out on me. I'm beginning to think that maybe she wasn't really mad at me when she acted like that. I believe she used to get so upset about things that she had to sort of kick out at whatever was nearest--and it happened to be me.”
”Well, I hate her, just the same! You can forgive her if you like, but I'm not going to!”
”It's a good thing she never did anything to you, Dolly. If you hate her like that when you've never even seen her, what would you do if you had some real reason for it?”
Dolly laughed.
”I suppose I am silly,” she said, ”but I can't help it. I just feel that way, that's all. Do you know what I wish, Bessie?”
”Nothing dreadful, I hope, Dolly.”
”She'd think it was, I'm sure--spiteful old cat! I wish you'd find out all about your father and mother, and that they'd not be lost any more.”
”Oh, Dolly, so do I! But that wouldn't seem dreadful to Mrs. Hoover, I'm sure. I think she'd be glad enough.”
”Let me finish. I wish you'd find them or that they'd find you, and turn out to be ever so rich. They might, you know. It might all be a mistake, or an accident, or something.”
”I wouldn't care if they weren't rich, Dolly, if only I knew what had become of them, and why they had to leave me there all that time with the Hoovers.”
”I just know there's some good reason, Bessie. You're so nice that you're bound to be happy some time. Of course you'd like to have your father and mother, whether they were rich or not. But wouldn't it be great if they really were rich?”
”I don't know. I don't know what it's like to be rich, Dolly.”
”Oh, you could do all sorts of things! You could make them take you back to Hedgeville in an automobile, just for one thing.”
”There are lots and lots of places I'd rather go to, Dolly.”
”Oh, yes, of course! But think of how everyone would stare at you, and how envious they would be! I bet they'd be sorry then that they weren't nice to you.”
Bessie smiled wistfully at the fantastic idea Dolly's lively brain had conjured up.
”It would be fun,” she sighed. ”They did tease me dreadfully, some of the girls. You see, the Hoovers didn't have so very much money, and my clothes were mostly old things that Maw made over to fit me when she was through with them.”
”You could go back in better dresses than any of those Hedgeville girls ever even saw, Bessie. And just think of how that horrid Jake Hoover would feel then.”
”Oh, well, there's no use thinking about it, Dolly. It won't ever happen. So I shan't be disappointed, anyhow.”
”Well, it might happen and I think it's simply great to dream about things that might happen to you. It doesn't do any harm, and it's awfully good fun.”
”You do the dreaming, Dolly, and tell me about your dreams. You can do it better than I could. I'm no good at dreaming that way at all.”
”All right, that's a bargain. And right now I guess we'd better stop thinking about dreams and attend to pathfinding. Here's a turn. Which way ought we to go?”
”Straight ahead, I'm sure,” said Bessie. ”See how the trail narrows in the other direction, and it doesn't look as if it had ever been made like the main trail. It's more as if people had just broken through one after another, until a sort of trail was made.”
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