Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance - Janet D. Wheeler
She appeared the next minute, dragging a very much astonished housekeeper
after her, and proudly presented her prize to her mother.
"She said she was busy, Mother, and couldn't stop," Laura said, adding,
with a bright smile: "But I told her it was something awfully important
you wanted to say to her."
"Sure and I suppose the young girl is up to some of her tricks," said
Mrs. Gilligan, beaming fondly upon her captor, "but I came with her,
thinking it possible you might really have something to say to me,
Mrs. Jordon."
"Yes, I have, Mrs. Gilligan. Sit down, won't you please? It may take
some time to persuade you--"
And then and there began another campaign. However, with Mrs. Jordon as a
powerful ally the girls had little trouble in overcoming Mrs. Gilligan's
objections, and in the end came off with colors flying.
"Now to see Billie's mother!" cried Laura.
The girls hugged Mrs. Jordon, waved to their new chaperone, and ran
gayly down the steps. Teddy, with a whispered word to his mother,
followed them.
"Say, wait for a fellow, can't you?" he cried, and they turned to
wait for him.
"Come on, Vi," cried Laura, catching hold of Violet's arm and
hurrying forward. "Ted and Billie will get there some time. We can't
wait for them."
"How do you like our new plans?" asked Billie, looking up at him with
sparkling eyes.
"I think you ought to have all sorts of fun," he told her, adding
with a funny little smile: "But I can't quite make out yet where we
fellows come in."
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" she asked, surprised. "Why, you are going with
us!"
CHAPTER XII
GREAT PLANS
After permission for the outing was gained from all the parents concerned
everything was bustle and excitement. For a week the girls spent the
whole of every day at each other's houses, planning their vacation,
talking about the clothes they would need to take with them, and
generally enjoying themselves.
As the time drew near they could hardly contain their excitement, and the
boys, who had decided they would follow the girls some days later, were
almost as bad.
"I don't see why you don't come with us," Billie pouted one night, when
the entire crowd of young folks had assembled at her home. "It would be
lots more fun on the train if you boys were with us."
"But there is the tennis match we promised to play with the fellows of
the south end," Chet pointed out for perhaps the hundredth time. "We
couldn't back out of it at the last minute, you know; they'd think we
were afraid."
"Now how do you know," Violet pointed out, "but what we will all have
been eaten up by the ghosts by the time you get there?"
"Ghosts!" scoffed Ferdinand Stowing, who was to go with Chet and Teddy.
"I don't see where you girls get this ghost stuff. Just because a house
happens to be old doesn't say it's haunted."
"Gosh! listen to him," cried Chet indignantly. "Some one is always taking
the joy out of life."
"Say, you don't think it's haunted, do you?" asked Ferd, in surprise.
"Of course not," answered Chet, adding, with a chuckle: "But I have
my hopes."
"Well, so have I," spoke up Laura promptly. "If there isn't a family
ghost or two about the place, we just won't have any fun. What's the use
of going off into the wilderness to a spooky house if we're not going to
meet a ghost?"
"Well, you know I didn't promise any ghosts," said Billie, looking up
from a piece of fancy work she was embroidering. "If you are
disappointed, you needn't blame it on me, Laura, or you either, Chet."
"Well, I don't see why we shouldn't have a good time without ghosts," put
in Violet. "In fact, I don't think I'd particularly enjoy meeting
somebody's great-great-ancestor in the dark."
"Oh, Vi, you give me the creeps," said Laura with a little shiver.
"Billie, do you think half a dozen middies' would do? We won't want to
dress up very much."
"No, the ghosts probably wouldn't know the difference," said Teddy
wickedly. "By the way, boys," he went on, imitating Laura's tone to
perfection, "that's one important thing we haven't decided, yet. What are
we going to wear?"
"You poor fish!" cried Ferd, throwing a cushion at him. "Who let you in?"
"Stop wrecking the furniture," exclaimed Billie, from her corner. "And do
stop talking all at once. You make my ears ache. And besides, I want to
say something."
"Silence," cried Chet, in a dramatically deep voice. "The queen is about
to speak."
"He said something that time," whispered Teddy in her ear, and a little
pink flush mounted to Billie's face, making her look prettier than ever.
It was so nice to have one's friends like you!
"Why, I was just thinking about the cooking," she said. "Do any of you
boys know how to cook?"
"Heavens, listen at her!" cried Ferd in alarm. "Is she going to set us to
work already--before we get there? What's the idea, Billie?"
"Well," replied Billie, biting off her thread calmly, "we have to eat
while we're there, you know."
"No!" cried Chet sarcastically. "You may, sweet sister, but not us. We
are too ethereal."
"Say, is he insulting us?" cried Ferd indignantly. "Say that again, I
dare you--"
"Oh, for goodness' sake keep still!" cried Laura, clapping her hands to
her ears. "You make me deaf, dumb and blind. Now, Billie, what were you
going to say?"
"Simply, that since we do have to eat, Chet or anybody else to the
contrary," she looked at her brother and dimpled adorably, "we will have
to decide who is going to do the cooking."
"Why, I suppose we'll take our turns at it, as we've done before when we
have been camping," said Laura, in surprise.
"I know. But what I want to find out is, are the boys going to do any of
the work?"
"Good land, is she asking us to cook?" asked Ferd. "Why, Billie, we don't
know a thing about it!"
"And don't want to learn," added Chet fervently.
"Oh, you big fibbers!" Billie's eyes danced as she looked at them.
"I remember--oh, I have a very good memory," and she glanced
sideways at Teddy, who was beginning to look uncomfortable. "I
remember a certain person telling me how beautifully you boys cooked
while you were at camp."
"Say, Billie, that's not fair," cried Teddy, with a guilty note in his
voice that made his two comrades look at him accusingly.
"Aha, we see the villain!" cried Ferd threateningly. "What'll we do with
him, Chet?"
"Nothing's bad enough for such a crime," said Chet ruefully. "What did
you make such a break for, Ted? I thought I'd brought you up better."
"Gee, Billie, do you see what you've let me in for?" said Ted miserably,
but Billie only regarded him with laughing eyes while Laura and Violet
seemed to be enjoying the situation immensely.
"I don't see what I did," Billie replied innocently. "I thought I was
paying you boys a compliment by saying that you could cook well."
"But we can't," cried Ferd, seizing the opportunity eagerly. "Gee,
Billie, you couldn't eat the awful messes we make. Why, you're a
good cook--"
Billie raised a cushion threateningly in the air.
"None of that! None of that!" she warned him. "We see through you,
villain!"
"Say, she must think you're one of the Cherry Corners ghosts," broke in
Teddy whimsically. "It's pretty hard on a fellow when you can see through
him, Billie."
"But honest you couldn't," Ferd insisted, not to be defeated in this one
last hope. "Really, I don't know enough about an egg to take the shell
off when I fry it."
"Idiot," cried Billie, throwing the pillow at him in earnest. "Who ever
heard of fried egg in the shell?"
"I did," cried Ferd, unabashed by the laughter and the scornful glances
turned his way. "Ladies and gentlemen, you see before you to-night the
man that invented it."
"Well, but nobody has answered my question," said Billie demurely,
after the laughter had subsided. "Are the boys going to help cook or
are they not?"
"I tell you what," said Chet desperately. "We'll cook if you will promise
to eat it."
"Billie," cried Laura in alarm, "don't make any rash promises. They would
probably put some awful thing into the food on purpose."
"Laura, that's some idea," cried Ferd, looking at her admiringly while
Teddy and Chet chuckled. "Thanks. We never would have thought of that
ourselves."
"Well," said Billie with a little chuckle, "I imagine we would rather eat
our own cooking anyway, so you needn't worry. Only," she added warningly,
as they sighed with relief, "there is one thing you _will_ have to do."
"And what's that?" they cried fearfully.
"Help wash the dishes," she said; and in her tone was no relenting.
And so, even to the impatient girls the time passed quickly until at last
the great day arrived.
It was a wonderful day, sunshiny and warm without being too hot, and all
three of them were up with the birds. They were to catch the eight
o'clock morning train, and so they had no time to waste in bed.
Billie was in a joyful mood as she got herself into the pretty new dress
she was to wear on the trip. She ran around the room, humming to herself
and every once in a while doing a little dance step as she realized that
they were at last to embark upon their adventure.
And an adventure she somehow felt sure it was to be. For even though,
contrary to Chet's hopes, and she smiled as she thought of him, they did
not meet with ghosts at Cherry Corners, there would be the fun of seeing
for the first time her inheritance.
It might be a queer old house and the contents and the grounds about it
might be of small value, but there was a wonderful thrill nevertheless in
being the owner of it.
And there was the fact that it dated back to revolutionary times, it was
really historic and--it all belonged to her!
No wonder she sang as she gave a last fond pat to the pretty dress and
tucked a wandering little strand of hair into place. Her eyes danced and
her face was flushed, but Billie never noticed how pretty she was.
She was the first in the dining-room that morning, but her mother soon
came in, scattering advice as she came and all through the meal Billie
tried hard to listen dutifully to all the "must nots" and "don't dos."
But all the time her eyes were on the clock and her mind was saying over
and over again:
"In just half an hour we'll be on the train. In just half an hour we'll
be on the train."
Then Chet came in and her father, and, finding that it was almost train
time, postponed their breakfast to see her off. A few minutes later they
started off to pick up the girls on the way to the station.
They found them waiting impatiently, and wildly eager to be off. About a
block from the station they heard the whistle of the train, and the girls
would run for it, though they really had plenty of time.
At last they were in the train with the boys and their parents waving to
them. Then suddenly they realized that they were moving. They were
actually on their way!
"Give my regards to the ghosts!" cried Chet as the train moved off, "and
don't scare them all off before I get there!"
CHAPTER XIII
CHERRY CORNERS
As the train drew out of the station Billie leaned back with a sigh of
pure happiness.
"You know," she said, looking at the girls with sparkling eyes, "this is
the very first time that I have ever been away from North Bend without
the folks."
"But don't forget you've got me to look after you," put in Mrs. Gilligan,
with a twinkle in her eyes. "I'm goin' to see that you don't get into
mischief."
"I don't know but what we shall have to look out that you don't get into
mischief," said Laura with a chuckle. "Mr. Gilligan told me once that you
weren't to be trusted out alone."
"Huh," retorted Mrs. Gilligan good-naturedly, "it's him that I
wouldn't be trusting. But what," she asked, looking curiously at
Billie, "did your brother mean by saying not to scare away the ghosts
before he gets there?"
"Oh," laughed Billie, "he has a sort of idea that the house at Cherry
Corners is inhabited by spirits--just because mother said that the
halls and rooms were spooky. He will be terribly disappointed if he
doesn't see half a dozen ghosts."
"Well, I wouldn't," said Violet with a shudder, for now that they were on
the way to their adventure, her courage was beginning to fail.
"Ghosts!" repeated Mrs. Gilligan, with a fun-loving light in her eyes.
"Better not any ghosts come around me or I'll give 'em a taste of the
rolling pin."
The girls laughed. The picture of Mrs. Maria Gilligan assaulting a ghost
with a rolling pin was indeed a funny one.
"Well," said Billie a little later, as she started to unpin her hat, "I
don't know about you girls, but I'm going to be comfortable. We have a
long ride before us."
"I suppose we might as well take off our hats and stay awhile," agreed
Laura, following suit. "Say, girls," she added, as she stuck her hat up
in the rack above her head, "I just thought of something last night."
"Was it anything important?" asked Billie, with a wicked little look.
"I don't know whether you would think so," Laura retorted calmly. "I was
wondering why we didn't take the night train that reaches Roland, the
nearest station to Cherry Corners, in the morning."
"That would have been a good idea, wouldn't it?" said Billie. "Now we
will reach the house after dark."
"When all the spooks are roaming," added Laura, in a ghostly voice.
"Goodness!" cried Violet, turning uncomfortably in her seat, "if you
girls don't stop talking about ghosts I'll just get out and go home."
"Got your car fare?" asked Laura.
"No. But I could always walk," returned Violet. "And I'd almost rather do
it than spend the night in the company of ghosts."
"Well, you'd better decide in a hurry," said Billie, with a chuckle,
"because the longer you take to make up your mind, the farther you will
have to walk back."
"All right," said Violet, suddenly goaded into an unusual firmness. "You
promise me this minute that you won't say another word about ghosts until
we get there, or I'll get off at the very next station and walk back."
"It's ten miles," Laura warned her.
"I don't care if it's twenty," she returned stoutly, and laughingly the
girls promised.
"It would be a crime to wear out those perfectly good shoes," said
Laura, looking at Violet's trim suede footgear. "Especially with prices
going up."
Billie groaned.
"I think I'll have to try Violet's trick," she said. "If anybody mentions
the high cost of living to me while we're away on this vacation, I'll
get out and walk home. I don't care if it's a hundred miles."
"Going up?" laughed Laura, but they promised just the same. For
underneath Billie's lightness they knew that she was still puzzling her
wits for some way to pay for that broken statue.
"Here comes a man with magazines," said Laura. "We'd better get a couple
to pass the time away. An all-day trip is pretty tiresome. At least I've
heard mother say so."
They bought the magazines, but they might just as well not have done so,
for when they reached Roland late that afternoon they had hardly peeped
inside the covers.
The scenery was so beautiful and wild, the whole trip was so wonderfully
novel that the time flew, and before they realized it they had reached
the station next to Roland.
"Goodness, I didn't think we were anywhere near there, yet!" cried
Violet, as she began to gather up her things. "I never knew a day to go
so quickly in my life. Billie, are these your candies? You'd better not
leave them on the seat."
"Who said I was going to?" cried Billie, rescuing her sweets just as
Laura was in the act of sitting on them. "Here, there's just room
for them in the corner of my grip. Mrs. Gilligan, have you got the
trunk checks?"
"I hope so," said the woman, opening her hand bag.
The girls watched her breathlessly and sighed with relief when she drew
out the checks.
"All safe and sound," she said. "Now get on your hats and coats, girls.
We're apt to have a wild scramble at the last if you aren't ready
beforehand."
So, laughing and excited, the girls obeyed her, putting on their wraps
hurriedly and laughing at Laura when she got her hat over one eye.
"Here, put it on straight," cried Billie, performing that service for
her friend. "We don't want to have our reputations ruined the minute we
step on the platform. Who ever heard of a perfect lady with her hat
over one eye?"
"Well, if you don't like my company--" Laura began good-naturedly, as she
squinted at her distorted reflection in the little two-by-four mirror set
in the tiny space of wall between the windows. "Gracious, Billie, you
took it off of one eye to put it over the other. Do I look more like a
perfect lady with my hat over my right eye?"
Billie chuckled and pushed the hat over Laura's nose, at which Laura
would have protested vigorously and, if must be, forcefully, if there had
not been other passengers in the train besides themselves. As it was, she
had to be content with an indignant stare, which Billie, with twinkling
eyes, calmly turned her back upon.
"Roland! Roland!" called the conductor in stentorian tones, and with
little squeals of excitement the girls found their hand baggage, gave one
last little pat to their hats, and started toward the door.
"You go first, Mrs. Gilligan," cried Violet, pushing that woman
before her.
"I wonder if Vi expects the ghosts to meet us at the station?" chuckled
Laura in Billie's ear. "She reminds me of a relative of ours who always
pushes her escort in front of her when she meets a strange dog."
Billie giggled, caught her grip on the arm of one of the seats, rescued
it again, and finally made her way with the others to the platform.
It was a rather old and broken-down platform, just as Roland proved to be
a rather old and broken-down place, and the girls stood on it ruefully as
they watched the train rumble off in the distance.
"Now we're in for it," said Billie, her eyes taking in a
disconsolate-looking store or two and a drooping post-office. "I wonder
if this is what they call the village?"
"Well, we're not going to live here," said Mrs. Gilligan briskly. "And
you can't expect to find a thriving town away off a hundred miles from
nowhere. Come on, let's see if we can find some sort of a wagon to take
us and our belongings to Cherry Corners. I don't suppose," she added, as
they crossed the street toward a building a little more dilapidated than
the rest that had the words Livery Stable painted on a blurred sign over
the door, "that there is any sort of hotel or boarding house where we
might put up for the night."
"Mother didn't remember about that. You see she had been here only once,"
said Billie. "But I don't imagine there is--any place that we would want
to stay at," she added, making a wry little face.
The place, in truth, was not attractive, nor did it promise much,
outwardly at least, as a refuge for the night. Besides the street on
which were the forlorn looking stores and the post-office and a few
other nondescript looking buildings that might have been used for
almost any possible purpose, there seemed to be but two streets on
which were built the dwelling houses. These, for the most part, were
simple and plain enough, each with its yard, well or ill kept, in front
and a garden and chicken yard behind. Only one was a little more
pretentious in appearance, but that, too, had attached to it its garden
and chicken yard.
However, they found that there was no necessity for their finding a
place, if place there was to be found to stay for the night. They found
the owner of the livery stable with two old but well-preserved vehicles
which he was eager to place at their disposal.
They spent some time in getting enough provisions to last for a time and
to supplement what had been sent from North Bend; then, in half an hour
more, with their luggage coming on behind, they were lumbering off over a
very rocky road toward the house at Cherry Corners.
Mrs. Gilligan was sitting in front with the driver while the three girls
were wedged uncomfortably in the back seat.
"It--it's lucky we're not fat!" gasped Laura, as a particularly rough
place in the road fairly shook the breath out of her. "I don't know where
we would have put ourselves."
"One of us would have had to sit on the trunks on the cart," chuckled
Billie. "Ouch!" she cried, as they bounced over another "thank you
ma'am," "I'm glad we haven't any more than five miles to go. There
wouldn't be any of us left alive."
"Five miles!" grumbled Violet. "And my foot's asleep already."
"Here, have some candy," offered Billie soothingly, fishing one out of
her pocket. "It may make you feel better."
"Well, it couldn't make me feel worse," said Violet, accepting the
offering. "Although," she added, with a laugh, "I don't see how it is
going to help my sleepy foot."
"Well, get up and stretch," advised Laura. "Seventh inning."
Violet started to follow her advice but was flung back full force into
Billie's lap, thereby squeezing out a startled "Umph!" from the sufferer.
"Say, you needn't take it out on me," cried Billie indignantly. "I didn't
put your foot to sleep."
"She's no nurse girl," murmured Laura.
The girls laughed and forgot their discomfort.
After a long time of jostling and squeezing they rounded a turn of the
road and Billie cried out.
"There it is!" she said, standing up in the jolting vehicle. "Over there
through the trees! Oh, girls! doesn't it look gloomy?"
CHAPTER XIV
WEIRD TALES
"Aye, and it is gloomy."
Startled, the girls looked around for the voice, then realized that it
was their driver who had spoken. He had been silent all the way from the
station, and they had all but forgotten him.
"What made you say that?" asked Billie, rather wonderingly. For although
the man had only repeated her own words, the tone in which he said them
made them appear twice as ominous.
"It's a gloomy place," he said once more, with a shake of his head. "Aye,
and there be some folks around here as says it is haunted."
"Do--do they really think so?" stammered Violet Farrington, beginning to
wish herself back in North Bend.
"Aye, they think so," he answered, in the same monotonous voice. "And
there be some times that I don't blame 'em for what they thinks."
"Do you think it's haunted?" asked Billie, with the hint of a laugh in
her voice. Even here, in this forsaken place, with dusk coming on and the
prospect of spending a night in a house people called haunted, Billie's
sense of humor did not altogether leave her. "Do you?" she repeated, the
laughter still more marked in her voice.
The driver twisted around in his seat to see her before he answered.
"It's all very well for you to laugh now," he answered. "But maybe you
won't feel so much like laughin' in the morning."
In spite of herself, Billie shivered a little, and the other girls looked
frightened.
"If I was you," the driver went on with his unasked advice, "I'd turn
right back an' spend the night in Roland. There's a boardin' house--"
"Nonsense, we're not going to turn back," spoke up Mrs. Gilligan, a
trifle sharply, for she could see that the driver's evil prophecies were
getting on the girls' nerves. "If there are any ghosts in that
house--which of course there ain't--they'd just better show their faces
around me, that's all. I'll give 'em such a taste of my rolling pin that
they'll get discouraged for good and all."
She nodded her head vigorously, and the girls laughed.
"All right, all right," grumbled the driver, disgruntled at having his
ideas treated in this highhanded manner. "You can laugh all you're
wanting to. But I tell you, if it was me--"
"Which it isn't," Mrs. Gilligan interrupted shortly.
"I wouldn't stay in that there haunted place for a farm, I wouldn't."
"What makes you think it's haunted?" Laura persisted, for, of the three
girls, Laura was by far the most curious. "Do people see lights and hear
funny noises and such things?"
"Laura--" began Violet in protest.
"Why no, Miss," said the driver reluctantly. "I don't know as they
actually seen things, but they has heard queer noises. There was some
boys once," he went on, warming to his task of story teller, "as
thought they'd have some fun. You know the old lady what owned the
place was nearly allus away and just left it to a caretaker that didn't
take over much care of it--" He stopped to chuckle, and the girls
leaned forward eagerly.
"What about them?" asked Billie impatiently.
"Well, they thought as they'd play burglar an' break into the place an'
make a regular lark of it."
"Weren't they afraid they'd get caught?" asked Laura.
"Not with Sheriff Higgins on the job," chuckled the driver, in high good
humor now that he was getting off his favorite yarn. They were nearing
the house and the girls hurried him on impatiently.
"Well, they heard such funny humming noises and jingling like the
rattling of chains an' things," said the driver, "that they got most
scared to death and ran back home like the old Nick was after them. Ever
since then folks has said the place was haunted."
"Stuff and rubbish!" said Mrs. Gilligan, as the team came to a stop
before the house. "A nice lot o' talk I call that to fill the girls up
with. Rattlin' of chains and hummin' noises! Huh!" And with her nose
in the air to show her contempt of all such notions she swept out of
the carriage.