CHAPTER XV
OFF TO INVESTIGATE
Drip! drip! drip!
Betty listened sleepily, and then, as she raised herself on oneelbow to hear better, she knew the noise was made by the rain.
"If that isn't too provoking!" Bobby sat up with an indignant jerkand surveyed Betty across the little table at the head of the beds."I thought we'd all go down to Mount Vernon to-day, and now it's goneand rained and spoiled it all. Oh, dear! I don't think I'll get up";and she curled down in a dejected heap under the white spread.
"Well, I'm going to get up," announced Betty decidedly, springingout of bed with her accustomed energy. "Rainy days are just as muchfun as sunny ones, and there's something I have to do to-day, weatheror no weather."
"She's a dear," said Louise warmly, smiling as the sound of Betty'scarolling came to them above the sound of running water in thebathroom. "Mother says she likes her more and more every day. I wishher uncle would never write to her and she'd just go on living withus all the time."
"And go to school with us in the fall. That would be nice," agreedBobby reflectively. "But, of course, Betty's heart would be broken ifshe never heard from her uncle. However, we'll be as nice to her aswe can, and then maybe she will want to stay with us anyway, even ifhe does send for her."
"What are you two plotting?" asked Betty gaily, emerging warm androsy from her vigorous tubbing. "Do you know, I've just rememberedthat I promised to show Libbie how to make mile-a-minute lace beforebreakfast? I hope there is time."
"What on earth do you want to make lace for?" demanded the practicalBobby, as her cousin appeared in the doorway, rubbing sleepy eyes."It's too early to begin on Christmas presents."
Libbie was not at all confused in her ideas, and she had a veryclear reason for wishing to add this accomplishment to her ratherlimited list.
"It's for my hope-chest," she informed Bobby with dignity, and noteven the shout of laughter which greeted this statement could ruffleher. "You may think it's funny," she observed serenely, "but I havesix towels and three aprons made and put away all ready."
"My aunt!" sighed Bobby inelegantly, shaking her head. "You believein starting young, don't you? Why, I'm fourteen, and I've never givena thought to a hope-chest."
Here Esther, the early riser of the family, created a diversion bycoming in fully dressed and announcing that Mammy Lou was willing toteach as many girls as cared to come after breakfast how to makebeaten biscuit.
"Take Libbie," giggled Bobby, whose sense of humor was easilytickled. "She's collecting stuff for her hope chest and I shouldthink biscuit recipes would be just the thing. Do you want to learnto cook, Betty? Esther has a kitchen hobby and rides it almost todeath."
"I do not!" retorted Esther indignantly. "Do I, Louise? Mother lovedto cook when she was a girl, and she says she likes to see me fussingin the kitchen."
Betty was showing Libbie how to hold her crochet hook, and now shelooked up from her pupil.
"Why, I'd love to learn to make those wonderful biscuits Mammy Loumakes," she said slowly, "but I really have to go into Washington to-day.That is, if it will not upset any one's plans? I can easily walkto the trolley line, and I won't be gone longer than a couple ofhours."
A trolley line ran about half a mile from the house, and to Bettywho had frequently walked ten miles a day while at Bramble Farm, thisdistance seemed negligible.
"Let me go with you, Betty?" coaxed Bobby. "Carter will take us inthe machine. I won't bother you, and if you have personal business toattend to, I'll wait for you in the library or some place. Cookingand making lace drives me wild, and if you leave me at home as likelyas not I'll pick a quarrel with some one before the morning is over."
"Worse than that, she'll insist on singing while I'm trying topractice," said Louise. "I'm three or four days behind with myviolin, and a rainy morning is a grand time to catch up. Do take herwith you, Betty."
"Why, goodness, she will be taking me," insisted Betty. "Of courseyou know I'll love to have you, Bobby. As a matter of fact, I wantedto ask you to go with me because it is a strange place and yourfather said not to go alone. Only I didn't want to disturb any plansyou might have made for to-day. I'll tell you about it on the way,"she added noting the look of growing curiosity on Bobby's face.
After breakfast the girls scattered to their chosen occupations, andMrs. Littell settled herself to read to her husband on the glassenclosed piazza that extended half way across the back of the house.The car was brought round for Betty and Bobby and, commissioned to doseveral small errands in town, they set off.
"Now where are we going?" demanded Bobby bouncing around on the seatcushions more like a girl of seven than fourteen. "Do tell me, forI'm simply devoured with curiosity."
So Betty briefly outlined for her a little of Bob's history and ofwhat she knew Lockwood Hale had told the poorhouse master. She alsoexplained how she had obtained the old bookshop man's address fromthe bride they had met in the Monument the day before.
The rain came down steadily, and the country road was already muddy,showing that it had stormed the greater part of the night. Carter wasa careful driver, and the luxurious limousine had been substitutedfor the touring car so that the girls were protected and verycomfortable. Quite suddenly Carter brought the car to a stop on alonely stretch of road just above a sharp turn.
"Goodness, I hope he hasn't a puncture," said Bobby. "I was sointerested in listening to you I never heard anything. What's wrong,Carter?" she called.
"There's a little dog in the road, Miss Bobby," said Carter slowlyand distinctly, as he always spoke. Bobby had once declared that shedid not believe a fire would shake Carter from his drawling speech."A puppy, I guess you'd call it. I'll have to move it to one sidebefore we can drive past, because it is in the middle of the road."
Bobby leaned out to look.
"It must be hurt!" she cried. "Bring it in here, quick, Carter. Why,it's just a tiny puppy, Betty," she added; "a black and white one."
Carter, mingled pain and reproach in his face, brought the dog tothem, holding it gingerly away from him so as not to soil his coat.
"It's very muddy, Miss Bobby," he said disapprovingly. "Your motherwon't like them nice gray cushions all stained up."
"Well, couldn't you lend me your handkerchief, Carter?" suggestedBobby gently. "I'll wipe him off. There now, he's all right. Myhandkerchief's so small it wouldn't have done one of his paws."
Carter, minus his handkerchief, started the car and they rounded thecurve. The puppy seemed to be all right except that he was wet andshivering, and Bobby and Betty had decided that he was very young butotherwise in perfect health when the car stopped again.
"There's another one of 'em, Miss Bobby," groaned Carter. "You don'twant this one, do you?"
The girls thrust out their heads. Sure enough, another black andwhite puppy lay abandoned in the roadway.
"Certainly, we'll pick it up," said Bobby indignantly. "Do yousuppose we're going to go past a dog and let it die in the rain?Bring it here, please, Carter."
The old man got down stiffly and picked up the dog. This time hehanded over a second handkerchief with a ludicrous air of"take-it-and-ruin-it."
"That's the last handkerchief I have with me, Miss Bobby," heannounced feelingly, watching his young mistress mopping water andmud from the rescued puppy.
"Well, there won't be any more puppies, Carter," Bobby assured himcheerfully.
But they had not gone twenty rods when they found another, and,after that, a few rods further on, a fourth.
"Here's where we use our own handkerchiefs," giggled Bobby. "Andwhat are we going to do with a car full of dogs?"
The problem was solved, however, before they crossed the bridge intoWashington. On the hill leading to the bridge they overtook a smallcolored boy weeping bitterly. Bobby signaled Carter to stop, andleaning out asked the child what the matter was.
"I done lost my dawgs!" he sobbed. "We-all is moving, and I had 'emin a basket with a burlap bottom. I don
e tol mammy that burlap wasrotten." He held up the basket for them to see the hole in the clothtacked across the bottom. "I was going to sell them dawgs for fiftycents apiece when they was bigger," he finished with a fresh burst ofgrief.
His joy when the girls showed him the puppies and explained how theyhad found them was correspondingly noisy. He had an old gingham apronwith him, and into this the dogs were unceremoniously bundled andsecurely knotted. Betty and Bobby each gave him a shining ten-centpiece, and a blissful boy went whistling over the bridge, his worldchanged to sunshine in a few brief minutes.
The car threaded a side street, turned twice, and brought up beforea quaint old house with a basement shop tucked away under a bulgingbay-window.
"This is Hale's bookshop, Miss," said Carter respectfully to Betty,