CHAPTER XXVI

RETURNING HOME

The stay at Mount Hope came to a close much too swiftly for the girls, who had never enjoyed any outing so much. Bob had come on Saturday for the two days and after the first half hour of stiffness and shyness over being in the company of so many girls he found himself thoroughly at home.

The boy had grown more manly. Mary Lee soon found that he preferred the company of boys now. She was glad of that, even though she knew that it took something from their own close friendship. She wanted Bob to be a boy's boy and he was certainly proving himself that.

He was greatly interested in the success of the girls' "Liberty" sale. Mary Lee told him of the plans for the Red Cross week which was to begin on June 18th. The boy knew of that for his mother had written to him about it and he told Mary Lee of the plans his school had made to help during the same week.

"I'm one of the committee, too," he told her with great pride.

It was a still bright day when the party started for the station in the automobiles after waving a farewell to the caretakers. The train was due at the station at five o'clock. Aunt Madge had no wish to rush things and so had decided on an early start.

Bob left them at Plattsburg. He was to cross Champlain to Burlington and from there take a train for the school.

It was the idea of the girls that they would stay awake until late in the evening. But ten o'clock found most of them in their berths. At seven o'clock the following morning, the train arrived at the Grand Central. Letty, Edith and Mary Lee still showed traces of the scratches they had received in the woods. But they were not in the least disturbed by this for they carried the pleasantest recollections of a delightful party. If the truth were told, the incident of being lost, now that it was a thing of the past, carried a certain zest.

Letty had been quite vexed at herself for having cried when Mary Lee found them. She would have liked to pretend that she had not been at all frightened.

Edith, however, made an outright admission of how frightened she had been.

"And Letty," she rebuked the latter, "you know how scared you were. You needn't try to pretend you weren't."

"Well, _I was_, and so was Ruth," Mary Lee admitted.

"I suppose I must admit that I was, too," Letty ruefully added. "Though I would have liked to pretend that I was brave."

"Letty," said Aunt Madge very gravely as she put her arm about her and gave her a hug, "it's the brave people who are scared and frightened. It's people who are able to overcome their fear who are truly brave."

The girls gathered together at the station and surrounded the Andersons. Aunt Madge, happy, somewhat embarrassed, was the center of the group and received the evidence of the good time the girls had had with flushed face and genuine pleasure. People passing by stopped to watch the pretty party.

"Now for school," said Edith, as the girls began to separate to get ready for the same. "Another month and our real vacation time begins."

"Yes," replied Mary Lee, "but we mustn't, in the meantime, forget the things we must plan and do for the Red Cross before that vacation time comes. Remember our promise, don't you, for the week of June 18th?"

"We certainly do," replied the other girls enthusiastically.