Part 16 (1/2)

As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for silence.

”Listen,” she said. ”That murmuring sound and the splash of water--”

”It's the river and the falls,” explained Mollie. ”Let's go down and have a look at them.”

But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly surrounded by them.

”Oh, you darlings!” cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once.

”I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I came!”

Chapter XVI

The Whirlpool

All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first glimpse it was of the country.

They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life.

”But I want to see the river,” Betty called to them, stopping once more to listen to the rhythmic sound of splas.h.i.+ng water. ”Come on, girls. It can't be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence.”

But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held back.

”What's the matter?” Grace asked, turning to her curiously.

”I--I was just thinking,” stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, ”about last night.”

”About last night,” Betty prompted, still at a loss.

”You haven't forgotten, have you?” she asked, incredulously. ”That--thing --on the porch.”

”Oh!” they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces.

”Why, yes,” said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite explain the phenomenon herself: ”I suppose we did forget all about it.”

”Or if we didn't, we should have,” said Mollie, ungrammatically but decidedly. ”Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing like that frighten us out of a good time.”

”It seems,” said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, ”almost as if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and indistinct.”

”Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either,” said Amy, feeling rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. ”I hardly slept all night long just thinking about it.”

”Oh, Amy Blackford!” said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned twinkling eyes upon her. ”If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost snoring.”

”Oh, I did not,” protested Amy, flus.h.i.+ng indignantly, but here Mollie and Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it.

”Let's not fight about it,” said Betty, when she could make herself heard.

”We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?”

”Now you're talking, Little Captain,” said Mollie approvingly. ”All in favor please say Aye.” Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her w.i.l.l.y-nilly with them into the woods.