Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance - Janet D. Wheeler
"Why do they call it 'Cherry Corners?'" asked Billie, for she had
been following a little train of thought all her own. "It's a very
queer name."
"Oh, they come by it naturally enough," her mother answered. "It is
surrounded by a grove of cherry trees and is near a crossing of two rocky
roads. So you see the reason for 'Cherry Corners.'"
"Goodness, that sounds as if it were away off in the wilderness!" cried
Billie, adding: "But wouldn't it be awful to have to live in that spooky
old house all alone? Are there any houses near it, Mother?"
"Not one for more than a mile," said Mrs. Bradley. "They are almost as
isolated now as they used to be in the old Indian days."
"Indians!" cried Chet, pricking up his ears again. "Did you say something
about Indians, Mother?"
"Why, I've heard Aunt Beatrice say," answered Mrs. Bradley, beginning
to share in her children's enthusiasm, "that the Powersons who
originally built the house built it especially for the purpose of
resisting Indian attacks. Now that I come to think of it," she added,
her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "that was the reason for
the winding tunnels and secret rooms. As the last resort, the family
could take refuge in them."
"Oh, boy!" cried Chet, springing to his feet for the second time. "Did
you hear that, did you? Indian raids and--oh, gosh!" Words failed him and
he sank back in his chair with a sigh of joy.
"Isn't it wonderful!" breathed Billie. "At first I was disappointed but
now--Is that all she left, Mother?"
"Isn't that enough?" her father interjected, with a laugh.
"I suppose so, but I thought--"
"Why, yes, that was all," said her mother, adding the next moment,
surprised that she should have forgotten the most important part of all:
"Oh, I forgot to tell you--Aunt Beatrice left you the house with all its
contents."
"Oh!" breathed Billie again. "Now I know we're going to have a
wonderful time!"
"What does the old house contain?" questioned Chet. His mind was on
getting some money out of the inheritance for Billie.
"I am sure I do not know," answered his mother, "It may be completely
furnished or it may be quite bare. I imagine, though, that Aunt Beatrice
left it furnished. But everything is very old, and maybe the rats and
moths have played sad havoc there."
They talked for a little while more about this strange thing that had
happened. Then Mr. Bradley went off to pick up the loose ends of his
business and Mrs. Bradley adjourned to the kitchen to discuss supper
preparations with the mountainous Debbie.
Left alone, Billie and Chet looked at each other wonderingly.
"Well," said Billie in a slightly, awed tone, "we expected something to
happen, and it certainly did."
"But we didn't expect her to leave you an old stone mansion," crowed
Chet. "Say, Billie," he added, stopping before her in his excited
pacing of the room to gaze at her eagerly, "aren't you crazy to go out
and see it?"
"I'd like," said Billie fervently, "to start for Cherry Corners on the
very next train. But I'm not so sure I'd like to stay in that place after
nightfall," she added on second thought.
"Why, you're not afraid of the ghosts, are you?" he asked, with intense
scorn. "Don't you know that ghosts are all in the imagination?"
"Of course I do. Who said I was afraid of ghosts?" retorted Billie with
spirit. "You know that I don't believe in them any more than you do."
"Well, then what are you afraid of?" insisted Chet.
"Oh, thieves and things. Tramps maybe," said Billie thoughtfully; then
she added with spirit, as Chet smiled a superior sort of smile: "I just
guess you wouldn't be able to spend a night in that sort of a gloomy old
house away off from everybody without feeling nervous. Goodness! I'd be
expecting every minute to have the ghosts of dead and gone Indians rise
up and scalp me."
"Thought you didn't believe in ghosts," gibed Chet.
"I don't," flared Billie, adding rather weakly: "But I'm not going to
take any chances, anyway."
"But oh," she added after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, "I can't
help it if it is ungrateful, but I do wish Aunt Beatrice had left me a
few hundred dollars instead. We've still got that old statue to worry
about, and Three Towers Hall and the military academy."
Chet was silent for a minute, then he said with sudden inspiration:
"There's the watch Aunt Beatrice left me, you know. Mother said it was
very valuable."
Billie's face lighted for a moment, then fell again.
"But you know Uncle Bill always said that you never could get anything
like the value for old gold. And anyway," she rose and put a loving arm
about him, "I couldn't let you do that for me, Chet, dear. I think you're
the dearest brother in the world."
A few hours later Laura Jordon and Violet Farrington came over, trying
their best not to look curious. They had waited as long as they could,
but knowing about the death of Billie's queer old aunt and knowing also
that Billie, as her namesake, might expect some share of the fortune--if
there was one--they had been filled with excitement, and now as they ran
up the steps to Billie's porch it was all they could do to keep from
blurting out the question.
For both Laura and Violet had been perfectly certain that Billie's Aunt
Beatrice had been some sort of miser who had piled up an immense fortune
simply for their chum's benefit.
"Just think," Violet had said in one of their excited conferences on the
subject, "what a wonderful thing it will be for Billie just now when she
is so worried about that miserable old statue. And for Chet too!"
"Yes, it would mean they could both go to school and we'd all have such a
good time," Laura had chimed in. "Goodness!" she had added with a
chuckle, "I feel almost as much obliged to Aunt Beatrice as Billie will."
But now that the great moment had come, they sat decorously in Billie's
porch swing and tried to appear not at all curious as to whether Billie
had gathered in a fortune since they last had seen her or not.
And Billie, her little imp of mischief at work again, guessed the object
of their visit and decided with an inward chuckle to keep them guessing.
She managed to accomplish her purpose for just about five minutes. Then
Laura, unable to stand the suspense a moment more, took the bit in her
teeth and bolted.
"For goodness' sake, Billie," she cried desperately, "why don't
you tell us?"
"Tell you what?" asked Billie, trying to look innocent. "Haven't I been
telling you--"
"Yes, about the way Debbie makes potato salad," cried Laura disgustedly.
"You know well enough why we came."
"Why you came?" Billie repeated, looking still more surprised. "Why,
naturally, I thought you came to see me."
"Billie Bradley, if you don't tell us what we want to know this instant,"
cried Laura, jumping to her feet and making a threatening movement toward
Billie's mischievous head, "I'll--I'll--oh, I don't know what I'll do.
Are you going to be good? Are you?"
"Yes, yes," cried Billie, pretending immense fright, while her eyes
danced with mischief. "Tell me what it is you want to know and I'll do
my best, Your Highness," this last in such a very humble tone that
Laura chuckled.
"All right, go ahead then," she said while Violet leaned forward eagerly.
"What did your aunt leave you?"
"Straight from the shoulder," Billie murmured. Then as Laura made another
threatening gesture toward her, added hurriedly: "All right. Don't shoot
and I'll tell you everything. Only it will take time."
Billie paused, to allow the proper amount of emphasis, then said, in a
deep whisper:
"She left me a--haunted house!"
CHAPTER X
OLD FURNITURE
Laura screamed and Violet jumped clear out of her seat.
They stared at Billie, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
"Wh-what did you say?" asked Laura when she could get her breath.
"I said," said Billie, speaking very distinctly and enjoying the
sensation she had caused, "that Aunt Beatrice left me a haunted house."
"Th-then I wasn't dreaming," stammered Violet, while Laura just continued
to stare. "Is th-that all, Billie?"
"Isn't that enough?" asked Billie, just as her father had done a few
hours before.
"It's either not enough or it is too much," replied Violet. "If I had to
have the ghosts, I should want some very substantial compensations to
make up for such housemates as those airy and playful ladies and
gentlemen are said to make."
"But it is a house," persisted Billie. "And you know it isn't everybody
who can own a haunted house."
"A haunted house!" said Laura, speaking in a hushed tone. "Is it a real
haunted house, Billie, or are you fooling?"
"Well, I don't know that it is a regular honest-to-goodness one,"
admitted Billie reluctantly. "You see, it is the house Aunt Beatrice
used to live in when she was at home, and she left it to me, with
everything in it."
"How perfectly glorious!" cried Laura, clapping her hands with delight.
"Tell us about it, Billie. What made you say it was haunted?"
Then did Billie tell them all that her mother had told her about
her inheritance and, if the truth be told, even added a few details
of her own.
However that may have been, the fact remains that when she had finished
the girls were as perfectly wild as Chet had been to visit the queer old
place and, if need be, even confront its "ghosts!"
"Think!" cried Laura, clasping her hands rapturously. "Just think of
being able to roam all over that romantic old place and pry into
corners--"
"And get your hands dirty," interrupted Billie drily.
"Why, Billie," Laura stopped in her transports to regard her friend with
wide eyes, "aren't you simply wild about the place too?"
"Oh, I suppose so," said Billie, adding as a shadow crossed her face:
"The folks think I'm awful, all 'cept Chet, and I suppose I am--but I'd
give the whole place, tunnels, spooky hallways, ghostly attic, and
everything for just a few little hundred dollar bills."
The girls were silent for a few minutes, realizing that Billie's strange
inheritance did not do a thing toward solving the old problems of the
broken statue and of going to boarding school.
Then Violet, who was always thinking up some happy way out of a
difficulty, gave a little bounce in the swing.
"How do we know," she cried, as the girls looked at her half hopefully,
"but what you could sell some of the furniture in the old house and get
enough to pay for the statue?"
"We might, at that," said Billie, her face lighting up again. "But mother
said it must all be awfully old," she added doubtfully.
"All the better," cried Violet, growing more and more enthusiastic. "You
say that the old house dates back to revolutionary times, Billie. How do
we know but what some of the old furniture would be very valuable as
antiques?"
"Violet, you're a wonder!" cried Billie, hugging her so hard that she
gasped for breath. "I'd never have thought of that in a thousand years.
Now you speak of it," she added thoughtfully, "I remember some antique
furniture that Uncle Bill has in his library. He says it's worth all
sorts of money, but I wouldn't give two cents for it."
"Well, as long as somebody will, what should we care!" cried Laura
flippantly. "Maybe you'll make a fortune for yourself after all, Billie."
"Oh, and think what it would mean!" cried Violet, her eyes shining. "It
would mean that you could pay for that beastly old statue, Billie. And it
would mean that you could go to Three Towers with us."
"And Chet could go to the military academy with Teddy and Ferd,"
Laura added.
"For goodness' sake!" cried poor Billie wildly. "You make me feel dizzy.
What is the use of getting my hopes all raised? Probably Aunt Beatrice's
furniture will be old, fallen-to-pieces stuff that nobody would give two
cents for."
"Goodness, what a wet blanket!" cried Laura reproachfully.
"Well, I'd rather be a wet blanket," retorted Billie desperately, "than
to plan for a lot of fun and then be disappointed. I--I've been
disappointed enough, goodness knows."
There was a quiver in Billie's brave little mouth and instinctively
Violet and Laura put an arm about her.
"We know what you mean," said Violet, soothingly. "And if you don't want
us to, we'll try not to hope too hard."
"Or if we do, we'll keep it to ourselves," added Laura, and Billie
hugged them fondly.
"I don't want you to stop hoping," she cried plaintively. "And I don't
want to be a wet blanket, either. I'm just afraid, that's all."
The girls swung back and forth in silence for a few minutes. Then it was
Laura who spoke.
"When are you going out to look over your property, Billie?"
"Why, I don't know," answered Billie thoughtfully. "As soon as we can
arrange it, I suppose. Dad says it's a full day's trip to get there, so
we would have to make some arrangement to stay over night."
"Couldn't you spend the night in the house?" suggested Violet.
"We might," Billie answered doubtfully. "Although I must say I wouldn't
like to--not the first night anyway. I'd want time to become acquainted
with the place first."
"If you will promise on your word of honor not to laugh at me," said
Violet after another short silence, "I'll tell you that I have
another idea."
"We won't laugh," they promised, and Billie added eagerly: "Tell us about
it, Violet. Even if we do laugh at your ideas at first, we generally end
by following them."
"But you said you wouldn't laugh this time," Violet reminded her, adding,
as the worst threat she could think of: "If you do I won't let you
follow out my idea."
"All right," said Billie. "As Chet would say--'shoot.'"
"Why, I was just thinking," said Violet, looking at them intently, "that
we haven't a plan in the world for spending our vacation--"
"Vi!" cried Laura joyfully, not waiting for her to finish, "you _have_
a good idea this time. You were going to say, why not spend our
vacation there?"
"At Cherry Corners?" asked Billie surprised, adding with a demure
glance: "Nobody seems to think of asking me about it. And it's my
property, you know."
"Gracious, isn't she stuck up?" cried Laura flippantly. "I'll have you
know you're not the only property holder in the community, Billie
Bradley. Dad gave me the deed to three lots in some outlandish place, I
don't even know where it is."
"Probably didn't have anything else to do with them, so wished them on
you," said Billie cruelly.
"Shouldn't wonder," said Laura, adding with a rueful little smile:
"I've never been able to find out whether it was an April Fool's
present or not."
"Well, I don't see what all that has to do with my proposition," put in
Violet patiently. "Now own up--don't you think it's a great idea?"
"Wonderful," said Billie unenthusiastically. "I don't know when I've
ever heard of anything so brilliant."
"There's something wrong with Billie," said Violet, beginning to look
anxious. "Don't you think we'd better send for a doctor, Laura?"
"I think you are the one who needs a doctor," retorted Billie. "Who ever
thought of spending a vacation out in the wilderness a million miles or
so from nowhere in an old tumbled-down house that makes your flesh creep
and the hair rise on your head just to look at it?"
"My, but that must feel funny," said Laura, the irrepressible. "That's
one experience I never did have."
"What?" asked Billie.
"Have my hair rise on my head. Please excuse me, Billie," as Billie in
her turn looked threatening. "What was it you were about to say?"
"Goose," commented Billie and then turned to Violet. "Did you really mean
that about spending our vacation there?" she asked.
"Of course I did," said Violet. "And I don't see what's so very funny
about it anyway. We could take a chaperone, and maybe the boys could come
along too."
"Oh, that would be fun," cried Billie, then flushed as she met
Laura's laughing eyes. "I meant," she added, angry because of the
blush, "that the place wouldn't be quite so lonesome and horrid with
the boys around."
"Oh, yes, we know," said Laura, with an aggravating twinkle that made
Billie long to shake her. "We know all about it, honey."
Why, thought Billie, as she ignored the remark, pretending not to hear
it, would Laura always be such a goose as to make a joke of the very
real friendship between her and Teddy Jordon? She liked Teddy immensely
and she was not going to stop liking him even if Laura would persist in
being foolish.
"Then you will admit it is a good idea?" Violet asked eagerly.
"I liked it all, but Billie only likes the last part--about the boys,"
said Laura, and again Billie had a wild desire to shake her.
"It will be lots of fun," she said, beginning to see the possibilities in
a vacation spent at Cherry Corners. "Mother says the rooms are large and
there are plenty of them so we could have as big a party as we wanted.
But I don't know how comfortable you would be," she warned them.
"Who cares about being comfortable on a lark like that?" cried Laura
airily. "The more uncomfortable we are the more fun we'll have. I say,
Billie, don't you think we'd better take Gyp along?" Gyp was a
thoroughbred bull terrier of which Laura was the proud owner. "He might
come in handy if any ghosts showed up."
The girls laughed at her.
"As if Gyp would be any good against ghosts!" scoffed Violet. "Why, they
would walk right through him."
"Well," said Laura, with a little chuckle, "he could at least bark and
let us know when they were coming!"
CHAPTER XI
BILLIE WINS OUT
"But whom shall we get for a chaperone?" asked Laura Jordon, after they
had thoroughly discussed these new and startling plans for a vacation.
"We don't want to get any one who is too old and grouchy, and yet the
folks probably wouldn't let us go unless we did."
Billie and Violet laughed, for they realized the truth of what she said.
"We do seem to be 'up against it,' as Ted says." Laura was always using
her brother for an excuse for her own slang. "I can't think of a single
person jolly enough to please us and dull enough to please the folks."
"How about one of our mothers?" Violet suggested.
"I know my mother wouldn't do it," said Billie. "The last time I
asked her to chaperone us girls she said she would as soon chaperone
a trio of eels."
"And when I asked mother," Laura added, "she said she would have nervous
prostration in a week."
"My, we must have a terrible reputation," sighed Violet. "I never knew
we were as bad as all that."
"Oh, I have an idea!" cried Laura suddenly, clapping her hands.
"Well, don't let it bite you," murmured Billie.
"Wait till you hear and you won't be so sarcastic," retorted Laura. "I'm
sure I have just the very person that we want."
"Oh, who?" cried Violet.
"Maria Gilligan, our housekeeper," Laura announced, and then sat back
with an air that said just as plainly as words: "There! how's that for an
inspiration?"
"Maria Gilligan, your housekeeper?" Billie repeated.
"I think it's a rather good idea, Laura," said Violet. "Isn't Mrs.
Gilligan the one who is always playing jokes on her husband?"
"Yes, she's the funniest thing you ever saw," Laura answered, her eyes
beginning to twinkle at the memory of some of Mrs. Gilligan's
escapades. "Why, one April Fool's Day she set the clock back an hour
and Mr. Gilligan got up grumbling that it was awfully dark for six
o'clock. Then when he was all ready and was starting out to work she
told him about it."
"What did he do?" asked Violet, interested.
"I know what I'd have done if I'd been in his place," sniffed Billie.
"I'd have tied her in a chair and gagged her and left her there all day."
"Billie! how barbaric!" cried Violet. "What would you have done
that for?"
"Just so she could have thought over her sins," said Billie with a
chuckle. "I never did believe in practical jokes."
"And then another time," said Laura, her eyes twinkling, "she was
upstairs straightening up the store-room when she pretended to have a
tumble. You know she weighs about two hundred pounds--"
"At a rough guess, I should say three hundred," murmured Billie, for
Billie was in a very contrary mood that day.
"And she came down with a thump that shook the chandeliers," Laura went
on, ignoring the interruption, "and when Mr. Gilligan--you know he weighs
only a hundred and fifty and is about half her size--"
"Now I _know_ she weighs three hundred," interposed Billie again. "It's
just a matter of arithmetic."
"There she was with her head in her hands," went on Laura, too much
amused by her story to notice the interruption, "sobbing as if her heart
would break. And when he got down on his knees to comfort her, she just
looked at him with a grin and said: 'April Fool.'"
"Well, I should say he was," said Billie, with another sniff. "And not
only an April Fool, either. She would try a trick like that just about
once with me."
"Well, anyway," Laura concluded, "I think she would be just the one
to take on our trip with us. She's jolly and full of fun and yet
she's old enough and fat enough to please our fathers and mothers.
What do you say?"
"Do you suppose she's fat enough to scare away the ghosts?" asked Billie,
with a chuckle.
"My, but I'd be sorry for any mistaken ghost that tried to have a set-to
with her," laughed Laura. "She'd just laugh at them and say: 'Shoo,
ghost, don't bodder me.'"
"All right, let's ask her," decided Billie. "Now that we have made up
our minds to change Cherry Corners into a summer resort, I can't wait to
get started."
"If only the folks will be willing," said Violet, looking worried.
"Mother is funny about letting me go anywhere away from home
without her."
"I guess all our parents are," said Billie, then added, with a sudden
inspiration: "I tell you what! Let's all go together and ask them. Three
are always stronger than one."
"You do have a good idea once in awhile, Billie!" exclaimed Laura,
jumping out of the swing and holding out a hand to each of them. "Come
on, we can't afford to waste any time."
"Where shall we go first?" asked Violet.
"To Laura's," Billie decided. "If we can get her mother and father to
consent and then can get Mrs. Gilligan to go with us as chaperone, we'll
have a pretty good argument to give our folks. Eh, what?"
Gaily the girls set off to win Laura's parents over to their side, and
they were lucky enough to find Mrs. Jordon at home. Also Teddy was there,
sitting beside her on the veranda. At sight of Billie the boy jumped to
his feet and came running down to her.
"Hello," he cried. "I was just coming over your way, to see if Chet
didn't want to fight out our singles tournament. He's two sets ahead of
me now, and I'm thirsting for r-revenge."
"I think he'll give it to you all right," laughed Billie, as Violet and
Laura ran up the steps in front of them. "I've never seen the time yet
when Chet refused a tennis game."
"All right, I'm off then," he cried, and was starting away when she
called him back.
"Don't you want to know about my--inheritance?" she asked him, with a
demure little glance.
"Your what?" he cried, then suddenly he grasped her two hands and swung
them joyfully back and forth. "Do you mean to say," he cried, "that your
aunt really left you something? What is it, Billie? Go on, tell me."
"If you want to hear all about it just stay around for a little while,"
she laughed, leading him toward the group at the other end of the porch,
two members of which were already in animated conversation.
"May we get in on this?" she called, interrupting an eloquent appeal on
Laura's part.
"Oh, yes, come here, do," cried Laura, clutching at her dress and
dragging her into the circle. "Mother's beginning to shake her head, and
you mustn't let her, Billie. She'll do anything for you."
Mrs. Jordon laughed and made room for Billie on the divan beside her.
"Now perhaps you'll tell me," she said, "what this crazy daughter of mine
is talking about. So far I've got a sort of confused jumble of a haunted
house and vacations and Mrs. Gilligan. I must confess I don't see how the
three can possibly be connected."
Then Billie told all over again the story of her strange inheritance,
while Mrs. Jordon and Teddy listened with interest and Violet and Laura
now and then put in a word to plead their cause.
As for Teddy, he was so busy watching Billie's flushed, excited and
altogether charming face that he more than once lost the trend of the
conversation.
"I don't wonder Laura said mother couldn't refuse her anything," he
thought. "I don't see how any one could refuse her when she talks and
looks that way. Billie's a wonder, that's all."
And in this case Billie did indeed prove herself to be a wonder. Within
half an hour she had not only won Mrs. Jordon over to their side, but
had persuaded her to let the girls borrow Mrs. Gilligan for the time of
their vacation.
"Of course," Mrs. Jordon warned them, as the girls were hugging each
other triumphantly, "we aren't at all sure that Mrs. Gilligan will want
to undertake such an expedition. I couldn't blame her very much if she
didn't," she added, with a rueful little smile, "knowing you girls as
she does."
"I'll get her!" cried Laura, and promptly put her words into action.