The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point

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"An' me's goin' do it 'dain," declared Dodo vengefully, when Betty
reached over suddenly and pulled the little girl into her lap.

"Stay here a minute, Honey," she coaxed, and as Dodo tried vainly to
wriggle loose added: "Sister wants to speak to Paul."

"An' I," said Dodo soberly, "want to pull his hair."

Again the girls had to strangle their mirth while Mollie reiterated her
command to Paul. The latter, after regarding the wriggling Dodo for a
minute uncertainly, reluctantly left his refuge and stood before Mollie,
head hanging.

"I'se sorry," he said in a small voice, trying to forestall the
scolding he knew was coming. "Me never do it any more!"

"That," said Mollie sternly, though the corners of her mouth twitched
and there was a twinkle in her eye, "is just exactly what you say every
time you're a bad naughty boy. Now, just to make you remember how
naughty you were, you shan't have another piece of candy for a whole
week."

Paul's protest was drowned in a wail from Dora.

"But me wants some tandies," she cried. "Me didn't take any."

"She would, if Paul hadn't seem them first," murmured Grace, but Mollie
shot her a warning glance.

"No," she said, "and just for being such a good girl, sister's going to
give you six big chocolates all for yourself."

Dodo gave a shout of glee and disengaging herself with one last frantic
wriggle from Betty's embrace, precipitated herself upon Mollie like a
young cyclone.

"Ooh dive 'em to me, dive 'em to me quick," she demanded, then as Mollie
made good her promise the little girl turned upon the erring Paul a look
of conscious virtue and said gravely; "If you were a dood boy I would
div you one, but now me's goin' eat 'em up, every one till dey's all
gone."

Then she took to her heels, scurrying down the steps and around the
corner of the house with Paul in hot pursuit.

"Dodo," they heard him crying plaintively, "I'll let you play wiv my
best bunny if you will div me one candy, just one--"

"I wouldn't give much for his chances," chuckled Mollie, adding with a
sigh that was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "Aren't they
perfectly terrible? There isn't a minute of the day when they're not in
some mischief."

"No, they're adorable," cried Betty fondly. "I wouldn't give two cents
for children that didn't get into mischief all the time."

"I don't care so much about the mischief," said Grace, eyeing her empty
chocolate box ruefully, "if they would only leave my candies alone."

"Never mind, Gracie," replied Mollie, laughing at her, "you shall have a
whole box of mine, so you shall."

"Fine," agreed Grace, adding with a chuckle as Mollie handed over the
almost full box: "Since my candies were more than half gone, I don't
call it such a bad bargain at that."

"I'll say it wasn't," dimpled Betty.

"Just the same," said Mollie, after a little pause, "even though the
twins are a great deal of trouble, Mother said she just wouldn't have
known what to do without them--especially after I went to Camp
Liberty--the house would have been so frightfully dull."

"I should think so," said Grace, adding suddenly, as though she had
thought of it for the first time: "Why she would have been all alone,
wouldn't she? How awful!" For Mollie had no father, he having died
several years before.

"And the other day she said the strangest thing," Mollie continued,
suddenly earnest. "You know how she adores Paul. Well, I caught her
looking at him with the most wistful expression, and when I asked her
what the matter was she looked up at me and I saw there were tears in
her eyes.

"'It's Paul,' she said softly. 'Of course I'm thankful he is so little
that I can keep him safe at home with me, but sometimes when I think of
my dear country and the terrible wrongs she has suffered, I almost wish
that my little son were old enough to bring retribution upon those
hideous Germans. Sometimes I feel cheated--yes, you needn't stare--that
I have not a son "over there".'"

"Oh, Mollie!" cried the Little Captain softly, "what a wonderful thing
to say. And yet I think she would die if anything happened to either of
the twins."

"That's just it," said Mollie, her eyes glowing with pride. "Loving them
as she does, she almost wishes it were possible to make the supreme
sacrifice for her country."

"It was that spirit," said Grace thoughtfully, "that won the battle of
the Marne."

For a long time after that the girls worked quietly, each busy with her
own thoughts. It was Amy who finally broke the silence.

"And here we are," she said plaintively, "letting another whole
afternoon slip by without deciding what we are going to do on our
vacation. Can't somebody suggest something?"

"I have already suggested half a dozen things, only to be laughed to
scorn," said Mollie, adding decidedly: "I'm through."

"And nothing I can say seems to meet with approval," added Betty
plaintively.

"Well," said Grace, stretching herself, sitting up in the swing, and
looking important, "nobody asks me whether I have anything to suggest,"
adding as they turned a battery of surprised and eager glances her way:
"I don't know whether I can be persuaded to tell you now or not."

"Tell us!" they cried, piling into the swing till the supporting ropes
creaked with the strain.

"Can't we bribe you with candy?" pleaded Amy.

"No. I just made an advantageous trade in that article, you will
remember," was the answer.

"Anyway, we don't bribe, we command," put in Betty. "Grace, we refuse to
be trifled with. What have you to suggest? Out with it!"

"You'd better hurry," added Mollie, raising her knitting needle
threateningly, "before I spit thee like a pig!"

CHAPTER IV

GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS

"I'm not a pig," cried Grace, striving to look dignified, which is a
rather difficult procedure when one is being hugged by three pairs of
arms at once. "I don't care how many times you spit me, whatever that
is, Mollie, but you shan't call me a pig."

"Of course she shan't," said Betty soothingly. "If she does it again,
we'll try our hand at this spitting business--"

"Goodness, sounds like a cat fight," chuckled Grace, but Mollie
unceremoniously shook her into attention.

"Grace, behave and tell us," she ordered.

"What?" asked Grace aggravatingly, but added hastily as Mollie again
raised the knitting needle at a threatening angle: "All right, if you'll
just give me space enough to breathe I'll do any little thing you ask."

With that the three jumped from the swing so suddenly that Grace, the
only occupant left, bounced into the air and landed with a thump on the
cushions.

They laughed and drew up three chairs in a semi-circle in front of her
to make escape impossible. Then three pairs of merry eyes focused
commandingly upon her.

"I didn't know it myself till last night," she said in response to the
tacit order. "Then it was patriotic Aunt Mary who proposed it."

"Proposed what?" they cried.

"Well, that's what I'm going to tell you if you give me half a chance.
She said she felt as if she owed something to us girls for having stood
so loyally behind Uncle Sam, and had decided to offer us her cottage at
Bluff Point to use as long as we wanted it."

"Bluff Point!" cried Betty, while her eyes began to sparkle. "Why Grace!
isn't that the place you were telling us about--"

"Where the quaint little house stands on a bluff--" added Amy eagerly.

"Overlooking a sparkling white beach that leads down to the ocean?" went
on Betty.

"The very same," nodded Grace, and they heaved a sigh of pure excitement
and happiness.

"Isn't it wonderful," cried Mollie joyfully, "how somebody is always
doing something to make us happy?"

"Yes, but when I said that to Aunt Mary last night she smiled and looked
wise--you know how sweet she is--and said that that was the way
happiness always came to us--by helping others to be happy."

"But we haven't done anything to make anybody happy--particularly that
is," said Mollie wondering.

"I said that too," nodded Grace. "But she only went on smiling, and I
realized she must have meant our work at the Hostess House."

"It's strange how everybody persists in calling it work and giving us so
much credit when it was all such fun," said Betty. "But girls," she
added, laughing breathlessly, "the great fact is that we are going to
have another adventure in the open. The very thought of it makes me want
to roll in the buttercups."

"Goodness, there's one open in the back meadow," suggested Mollie. "You
can roll in it, if you want to."

"Well, I don't--I want a whole patch of them!" cried Betty, while the
rest laughed at Mollie's picture. "My, I feel younger already."

"Well of course you need to," drawled Grace, adding with a fond glance
at the glowing Little Captain: "You look so terribly like a dried-up
ancient, dear."

"But when shall we start?" cried Mollie, coming back to the
all-absorbing topic at hand. "Goodness, I'd like to throw a few clothes
in a suitcase and start right away--quick--this minute--I can't wait!"

"Do you think it's catching?" asked Grace, anxiously.

"From the way I feel I should say it was already caught," twinkled
Betty, adding eagerly: "How long do you suppose we will have to wait,
Grace? Did your Aunt Mary say when we could have the cottage?"

"As soon as we want it," replied Grace, looking surprised. "Didn't I
tell you?"

"No you didn't," mimicked Mollie, adding as she sprang to her feet
impatiently: "I'd like to know what we're waiting for anyway! Why don't
we get started?"

"Now I know she's crazy," cried Betty, seizing her chum and pulling her
down upon the arm of her chair. "Why we haven't decided anything yet."

"What is there to decide?" cried Mollie, trying to be patient and
looking like a martyr.

"Why we don't even know how we're going to get there yet," explained
Betty soothingly.

"In the automobile, of course," cried Mollie, jumping up again.

"Oh, can we?" cried Grace, forgetting to be languid and bouncing eagerly
in the swing. "Mollie, that would be wonderful."

"Why of course we'll go in the car!" it was Mollie's turn to look
surprised. "What did you think we were going to do--walk?"

"There are railroads, you know," Grace reminded her, relapsing into
irony. "And as to walking--well, we did that too before you got your
car, Mollie."

"Yes, and got sore feet," added Mollie.

"Well, now that we've decided not to go on the railroad or walk," Amy
broke in unexpectedly, "I really don't see what we are waiting for."

"My goodness, there's another lunatic," cried Grace, looking
despairingly at the Little Captain, whose eyes twinkled merrily. "What
do you expect us to do--go just as we are?"

"No, but we can throw some things into a suitcase--"

"How long do you suppose it will take us to get there?" asked the Little
Captain, coming to Grace's rescue.

"Why, even in Mollie's car it will take two days," said Grace, turning
to Betty with the relief of one who at last had a sane person to reckon
with. "Mollie and Amy evidently expect to make it in a couple of
hours."

"Oh well, I didn't know it was so far away," murmured Mollie, somewhat
taken aback. "Of course, then, we can't go until to-morrow."

The girls laughed merrily, and Betty hugged her.

"We might," chuckled the latter, "even be forced to wait till day after
to-morrow."

"I won't do it!" cried Mollie, jumping up again. "There's no reason in
the world why we can't start to-morrow."

"But, Mollie dear," insisted Betty mildly, "we haven't even asked our
folks whether we may go or not--"

"As if we didn't know what they will say," broke in Mollie, but Betty
went on without heeding her.

"And we must have a chaperone, you know."

"Oh, I suppose so," sighed Mollie sinking down in her chair resignedly,
"but it's horribly tiresome. I want to go now."

"You sound like Dodo with her candies," remarked Grace, amiably helping
herself to a luscious milk chocolate filled with nuts. "Have one,
Mollie--it may make you feel better."

"It won't, but I will," said Mollie rather enigmatically, reaching out a
hand for the proffered sweet. "Thank you, dear."

"But whom shall we have for a chaperone?" cried Amy impatiently. "I'm
almost as bad as Mollie--I can hardly wait till to-morrow."

"Why," said Grace, nibbling daintily, "I thought maybe you girls
wouldn't mind if I asked mother to go with us."

"Mind!" echoed Betty, while the others looked at her in surprise. "Why
of course we'd love to have her! You know that. But I never imagined she
would care to go, she is so interested in Red Cross work and her
clubs--"

"That's just it," said Grace, sitting up quickly. "She's entirely worn
out with work and worry about Will, and I thought a little vacation with
us girls would help her out wonderfully. I'm not sure she will go--I
haven't asked her yet."

"Well, let's," cried Betty impulsively, jumping to her feet. "She simply
can't refuse if we all ask her at once."

"Now you're saying something!" cried Mollie fervently, albeit slangily,
as she flung her arm about the Little Captain and dragged her down the
steps. "Action is what we need--action, and plenty of it."

The girls fairly ran the short distance from Mollie's home to Grace's,
and the people they met on the way, greeted them heartily, musing as he
or she turned to go on: "There's probably something interesting in the
air--the Outdoor Girls always look like that when they have some new
adventure in tow." For Deepdale was very proud and fond of its Outdoor
Girls.

Mrs. Ford was just coming down the stairs dressed to go out when the
quartette burst in upon her. She did look very tired and worn, as Grace
had said, but the smile that lighted her face at sight of the girls made
her appear ten years younger.

"Mother," said Grace, taking one of her mother's carefully gloved hands
in her own and leading her gently but firmly into the library, "we have
something very important to say to you."

"Will it take long?" queried Mrs. Ford, smiling at the other girls over
her shoulder. "Because, if it will, I'm very much afraid I can't wait.
I'm a little late now."

"That," said Grace decidedly, as her mother sank into a chair and the
other girls grouped themselves about her, "is exactly what we have come
to talk about. We think you need a little vacation."

"Vacation!" cried the lady, half rising from her chair. "Why, my dear!
how can I take a vacation when my hands are so full of work now that I
am--"

"You don't have to take it," Grace interrupted argumentatively, "we'll
just give it to you."

Mrs. Ford laughed helplessly and regarded the eager young faces with
amusement.

"Out with it, girls," she commanded. "I know you are plotting some
terrible thing. What do you intend to do, kidnap me?"

"No, we're keeping that for a last resort," returned Betty, and Mrs.
Ford laughed outright at the confession.

"We want," explained Grace, speaking fast for fear of being interrupted,
"to have you go with us to Bluff Point. We need a chaperone, you know."

"I've no doubt of it," retorted her mother, laughing, adding, with
another anxious glance at the clock: "But I'm afraid you will have to
get someone else, Honey. If I were free, I should like nothing better,
but you see how rushed I am--"

"But you're terribly tired, Mother, you know you are," said Grace with
unusual gentleness, adding diplomatically: "What good will you be to the
Red Cross or to anyone else, I'd like to know, if you let yourself get
sick?"

"But I'm not sick," protested her mother, then added with a sudden
longing as the wild solitude of Bluff Point rose before her eyes
suggesting utter peace and quiet, a chance to rest tired nerves and
gather strength for the last great drive:

"You're right, I am tired, terribly tired," and the lines of weariness
returning to her face. "I'd love it, girls, but there's my work!"

It took the girls about five minutes of the hardest work they had ever
done in their lives. But they did what they had set out to do. At the
end of that time Mrs. Ford consented to start with them whenever they
were ready.

"Day after to-morrow?" asked Mollie, her eyes shining.

"I don't know why not," said Mrs. Ford, then sprang to her feet with a
cry of dismay. "Girls, I completely forgot to telephone the Red Cross.
What will they think of me?"

CHAPTER V

A PROBLEM SOLVED

"I wish," said Mollie, sitting back to view approvingly the shining
black hood of her car, "that we had another machine. I'm afraid by the
time we've packed our bags and things into the tonneau we'll find it
rather crowded. And for such a long trip we ought to have plenty of
room."

"That's what I was thinking," agreed Amy, rubbing a bit of nickel to a
gleaming polish, for the girls had gathered at Mollie's to help her put
the car in shape for the anticipated trip to Bluff Point. And they had
gone to their work with a will, rubbing and polishing the big machine as
they would have groomed a well-loved horse. "We will have our trunks
sent, of course, but we shall have to take our nighties and combs and
brushes and such things. We might put 'em on the roof," she added
hopefully.

"Yes, and we might wear 'em," said Grace scornfully. "That is a
brilliant idea."

"Well, I have one worth two of that," said Betty, trying not to look
mysterious.

"Betty, are you going to spring anything on us?" cried Mollie, while the
other two paused with dust cloths uplifted.

"Not if you don't want me to," returned the Little Captain demurely.

"Betty, dear, I love you so," crooned Mollie, running around the car and
putting a rather oily hand about Betty's waist. "You wouldn't want such
an ardent admirer to drop dead at your feet, would you, now?"

"It would have the charm of novelty," chuckled Betty, only to add
quickly as Mollie made a threatening gesture: "No, please don't kill me
yet. Come over here on the steps and I'll tell you all about it."

"Yes, yes, go on," they cried, obediently ranging themselves on the
steps of the back porch and fixing eager eyes upon her.

"Shoot!" Mollie commanded inelegantly.

"Well," said Betty speaking slowly to add to the effect of her
announcement, "I have a car!"

"A car!" they echoed, and Grace added: "Now I know she's crazy!"

"When?" demanded Mollie, her eyes round and black, as they always were
under excitement.

"If you mean, when did I get it," answered Betty, enjoying their
surprise to the full, "I might tell you that up to six o'clock last
evening I had no more idea of owning a car than you did. However, at
six-fifteen, I owned it," and her eyes danced with the pride of
ownership.

Then the girls fell upon her, all demanding explanation of the miracle,
till she raised her hand pleadingly.

"Give me a chance," she begged. "How can I tell you anything when you're
making such a noise?"

The girls seemed impressed with the common sense of this. At any rate,
they stopped talking for the space of a half a minute.

"It was last night at dinner," explained Betty hurriedly, seizing her
opportunity. "Dad came in a little late, and as he sat down he
laughingly asked us how we would like a racing car in the family."

"A racing car!" they echoed.

"Of course we thought he was joking," continued Betty, "but when we
found he was very much in earnest of course we went wild with
excitement."

"I should think so," breathed Amy.

"But, Betty darling, how--" Mollie was beginning when Betty cut her
short by hurrying on with her story.

"That's what we wanted to know, of course," she said. "It seems that one
of Dad's clients owed him a good deal of money, and although he, the
client, that is, had plenty of money, it was all tied up in such a way
that he couldn't get hold of it right away, so he offered to give Dad
his almost new racing car in exchange. And," here Betty came to the most
wonderful part of her story, "since mother doesn't care for that type of
car--he gave it to me!"

"Betty, how mar-ve-lous!" breathed Mollie, while Amy and Grace just
stared.

"Can we see it? Have you got it at home?" asked Amy, after a few minutes
during which the girls had been getting used to the wonderful idea of
Betty with a machine, and a racing machine at that.

"Oh, Betty, lead us to it," added Mollie yearningly.

"I don't know whether it's come yet or not," explained the Little
Captain, as the girls threw aside dust rags and gingham aprons
preparatory to a concerted rush upon the new acquisition. "That's why I
didn't tell you about it sooner. I was going to surprise you by taking
you to it," she added, as they set off at a walk that was almost a run
for the pretty Nelson house; "but when Mollie spoke about another car I
just couldn't hold back any longer. Oh dear, I hope it has come!"

"Won't it be fun?" cried Mollie joyfully, executing a little
irrepressible skip in her delight. "You can run it, Betty, of course,
and take Grace or Amy with you while our car comes behind--"

"With the luggage," finished Betty wickedly.

"Well you needn't be so conceited," retorted Mollie, her nose in the
air, while Betty looked innocent.

"Wasn't that what you were going to say?" she inquired.

However, there was no time for more conversation, for at that moment
they turned a corner, bringing Betty's house to sight, and what should
be going up the drive at that particular and ecstatic moment but the
graceful, low-bodied racer itself!

With a shout the girls rushed forward. They overtook the driver as he
slowed to a stop, and fairly danced with impatience while the man pushed
up his goggles, took off his hat, wiped his perspiring forehead, and
slowly turned to smile at them.

"This is where Mr. Nelson lives, isn't it?" he asked. "Mr. Todd asked me
to bring the car around--"

"Yes, yes, we know all about it," interrupted Betty, then added with a
smile, as the man looked surprised: "I suppose you think I'm terribly
impatient, but, you see, the car is mine, and I can't wait to try it
out."

The man whistled and descended with alacrity. The girls noticed rather
absentmindedly that he was a rather good looking young fellow, probably
one of the young men from Mr. Todd's office who had volunteered to run
this errand for him.

"Well, I don't blame you a bit for being in a hurry," he said heartily,
eyeing the beautiful lines of the car with approval. "She sure is a
great little machine! You are Miss Nelson, I suppose?" he added, turning
to Betty. "You see," with evident embarrassment, "I promised to deliver
the car in person to Mr. Nelson--"

"Here he is, so there ought to be no difficulty about that," said a
jovial voice, and they turned to find Mr. Nelson himself coming toward
them. "Good afternoon, Mr. Jameson. How do you like my new acquisition?
A beauty is it not?"

"I say so!" agreed the young fellow, and after a few moments of general
conversation, Mr. Nelson led him off toward the house, leaving the girls
to themselves. And that, as Mollie afterward remarked, "was just the
most beautiful thing he could have done!"

Before they had turned the corner of the house, Betty had clambered in
behind the steering wheel and was bidding the girls follow.

In their excitement they all tried to climb in, forgetting that a car
designed to seat two people cannot by any stretch of imagination
accommodate four. Then suddenly realizing what an absurd picture they
must be making, they began to laugh.

"Well, now what are we going to do?" wailed Mollie. "We can't all go at
once."

"Of course you can," cried Betty busily examining her treasure, touching
a lever here, a button there, with loving fingers. "What, may I ask, is
the matter with the running boards?"

"Betty, you don't mean--"

"Yes, I do," firmly.

"But we can't--"

"Well, then I'll have to take one at a time," decided Betty, tooting the
horn experimentally. "Come on--who goes first?"

"Oh, come on, we'll all go," cried Mollie dancing with impatience. "You
get in beside Betty, Grace, since you're afraid of the running board,
and Amy and I'll hang on somewhere. Come on, Amy. Be a sport, old girl."

Amy wavered for a moment, but the challenge was too much for her, and
she nodded her head in assent.

"Thank goodness I can only die once," was her cheerful comment.

So Grace climbed in beside the Little Captain, while Amy and Mollie
scrambled up on the running boards and clung to the sides of the car.
Then Betty tooted the horn triumphantly and began slowly to back down
the drive.

"I don't know about this," she remarked, as the car made rather
zigzagging work of it. "I've driven mostly on a straight road, you know,
and I'm not very expert, even if I do know all about a motor boat."

"So we see," commented Mollie wickedly, as Betty nearly backed into a
flower bed at one side of the drive.

"Don't you think we'd better get off?" asked Amy. "Till you turn into
the road, anyway, Betty?" she added.

"Don't you dare," cried Betty, giving the wheel a nervous little twist
that caused Amy to groan and clutch the side of the car tighter. "If you
make me stop now, I'll never get started again. There!" as the car slid
into the roadway, hesitated a moment, then without a jar or a jerk,
glided swiftly along the smooth road, gathering headway as it went. "Now
we're all right."

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