CHAPTER VIII--JUST LIKE BILLIE!
Several days followed during which the girls settled down earnestly totheir studies. For scholarship was held very high at Three Towers Hall,and any one who did not stand well in class was apt to find herself notonly in ill favor with the teachers but with the students as well.
The girls had reported to Miss Walters the result of their visit toPolly Haddon, and the principal had seemed unusually interested andsympathetic.
"Now that you girls have taken the Haddon family under your wing," shehad said, smiling at the chums, "I think we shall have to see the thingthrough--at least until the mother is strong enough to begin work again.But in the meantime," she had added, with a nod of the head that meantdismissal, "I don't want interest in the Haddon family to make my girlsneglect their studies. I expect great things of you this year."
And so the girls, "feeling warm all over," as they always did after atalk with Miss Walters, went back to their work, confident in thethought that the Haddons would not be left to starve, at least.
"Saturday we will go over ourselves and see how little Peter is," saidBillie, as, pencil in hand, she prepared to wade into a geometryproblem. "Listen, Laura," she added, looking up at her friend hopefully,"if you will help me with this geometry I'll coach you in history. Is ita go?"
Laura declared it was a "go," and so they settled down to work. But noamount of work could keep their thoughts from straying time and again tothe Haddon family and the mystery of the stolen invention.
As the girls who have read the former adventures of Billie Bradleyalready know, Billie and her chums had been admitted to the "GhostClub," a secret society to which only the most popular girls and thosewho stood highest in their studies were admitted.
The membership had never exceeded fifteen, for the girls knew that tohave too large a membership would only cheapen the club. Rose Belser wasthe president of it, and Connie Danvers and several other of the girls'good friends were members. Caroline Brant had been asked to join longbefore, but had refused because she thought it would take too much timefrom her studies.
Last year's Commencement had taken two of the club's members, so thatnow the girls were watching the freshmen for good material. They werevery careful in choosing, however, for it was far easier to get membersinto the club than it was to get them out.
The club was to have its first real meeting in two weeks, and it was atthat meeting that the names of prospective members were to betentatively submitted to the president. After that, a period of closewatching, and then--the fun of initiations.
But first came news that ran through the Hall like wildfire. Some of theboys from Boxton Military Academy were coming over to the big hillbehind the Three Towers Hall for the first real sledding of the year,and they had invited as many of the girls as they knew--and theirfriends--to meet them there.
Chet and Teddy and Ferd were coming over, of course, and as the dayapproached, anticipation grew accordingly until the girls could thinkand talk of nothing but the fun they were going to have.
"I wonder if Teddy will bring Paul Martinson with him," said Vi, aftertrying vainly for half an hour to fix her mind on an essay she must handin the next morning. "He's ever so much fun, don't you think?"
It was in Paul Martinson's motor boat, which he had named the _Shelling_in honor of Captain Shelling, who was master of the Military Academy,that the boys had visited the girls on Lighthouse Island the summerbefore.
Paul Martinson was a splendid-looking, fine boy whom all the girlsliked--Rose Belser, in particular--but who, himself, seemed to preferBillie. Like Teddy, Paul thought that Billie was the "very best sport"he knew, and declared that "a fellow can have more fun with her any daythan he can with another boy."
Of course Teddy did not like this a bit. Having known Billie practicallyall his life, he naturally felt that he should have first right to her.And so there was a good-natured rivalry between the boys that amusedBillie and Vi and Laura and rather piqued Rose Belser and Connie Danversand some of the other girls at the school, who thought that Billie hadmore than her share.
"For," as Connie declared once to a sympathetic group of girls, "it'sever so much more fun to be paddled around in a canoe by a boy than tohave to paddle yourself, and it's lots of fun to skate with them becausethey fairly haul you along. And here when we haven't nearly enough to goaround, Billie goes and takes two of the nicest ones. She's a darling,of course, but I think she might be content with one!"
And so when Vi had happened to mention innocently that Paul was ever somuch fun, Rose Belser, who was preparing for a botany quiz at the otherend of the room, looked up and made a face at her.
"How do we know whether he's any fun or not?" she said. "You had betterask Billie."
But Billie was too busy studying so that she might be free for the nextday's fun to hear, and Rose's shot was lost.
As though autumn had regretted giving way to winter so soon, it had beenunexpectedly warm that day and the girls had worried for fear a thawmight spoil their sledding. But a cold wind rose in the night and themorning dawned clear and cold enough to suit even them.
As soon as breakfast was over the coasters donned sweaters and caps andmufflers and ran down into the storeroom next the gymnasium to get theirsleds. Then up once more and out into the bright morning sunshine, theircheeks glowing with health and their eyes sparkling with anticipation ofthe fun ahead of them!
There were twenty-five of them in all, but as they filed out of the sidedoor of the school they looked like a small army.
"Isn't it funny," giggled Laura to Billie, "how many more of the girlsturn out when they know the boys are going to be there?"
"It's sad but true," admitted Billie, with an answering chuckle. "Afterthat first heavy snowfall when we said something about an all-girls'sledding party, they didn't seem awfully anxious about it. Said it wastoo early in the season and they hated dragging sleds up the hill."
"Now I suppose they will expect the boys to do the dragging," laughedVi.
When they had climbed almost to the top of the hill that made such afine toboggan they heard the sound of boys' voices.
"Goodness, they must have started before breakfast," said ConnieDanvers, who was puffing with the effort to get her plump little bodyand her heavy sled up the steep incline. "Say, give me a lift, will you,Billie? This hill is so slippery."
"You mean that you're getting too fat," said Laura wickedly, as shereached over and grabbed Connie's line. "I told you you were eating toomuch candy."
Billie reached the top of the hill first and with dancing eyes shelooked down at the long, steep, ice-covered incline. The slight thaw ofthe day before had been the one thing needed to perfect the sledding.For the surface of the snow had melted, then frozen over again, forminga solid coat of ice.
As she took this all in gleefully, the first of the boys emerged fromthe trees at the foot of the hill and an impish impulse seized her.
With a shout of warning she pulled up her sled, flung herself upon it,gave a little push, and was off! Down the hill she hurtled at a terrificrate of speed, the glaze of ice forming almost no resistance to herflight.
Taken by surprise, the boys had no more than time to get out of the waybefore she literally dropped among them.
She swung off to the right, where an abrupt rise of ice-covered groundchecked her speed, and, after almost reaching the top of this smallhill, the back runners of the sled were caught in the ice and she wastumbled head over heels, to land in an undignified heap at the boys'feet.
Then she sat up, rubbed her head and smiled at them gleefully.
"I went some that time, didn't I?" she said.
"Yes, and you might have broken your neck, too," said Teddy, in anawfully gruff voice, as he took both her hands and pulled her to herfeet. The other boys were looking on in admiration at Billie's feat."Don't you know you should never have taken that turn to the right? Thathill's too steep."
"I know it is--_now_," said Billie ruefully, feeling
, for the first timethe horrible suspicion that she had skinned her knee.
"You should have taken one of these paths," spoke up Chet, pushing hisway through the crowd of boys and regarding Billie sternly, as an olderbrother should. "I thought you knew that."
"Of course I know that," returned Billie, mimicking Chet's tone toperfection. "But will you please tell me how I could take either one ofthe paths when both of them were chock full of boys?"
The paths about which they spoke branched off from the foot of the hill.One had been an old wagon road which had become overgrown with bushesand stubble and the other was only a foot path. Nevertheless, either onewas wide enough to permit easily a sled to pass through and the groundwas level for a long enough distance to allow the sleds to come to aneasy standstill.
From the top of the hill the girls had been watching Billie's escapade,and now as she started with the boys up the long slope they looked atone another, smiling.
"Goodness, there she goes again!" sighed Connie plaintively. "She isn'tsatisfied with two of the boys any more. Now she has the whole crowd ofthem!"