CHAPTER XVII
SURFWOOD
A couple of days after their forest experience the two girls made readyto go to the seashore.
Secretly, Dolly was glad. She had enjoyed much of her stay at CampCrosstrees, but she had about concluded that "roughing it" was notaltogether to her taste. She had liked the gay parties round the campfires, the swift motor-boat trips and the jolly picnic feasts, but shewas not enthusiastically fond of long tramps up and down mountains andthe deprivation of many home comforts and luxuries. She said no word ofthis to her kind hosts, but she welcomed the day that would take herback to her own people and their usual summer abode.
Also there had been really unpleasant experiences, from her lonely firstnight to that last awful night in the woods, and though these thingswere nobody's fault, they remained in Dolly's memory as decidedlyundesirable pictures of her mountain trip.
Dotty Rose, all unconscious of Dolly's secret feelings, realised onlythat they had had lots of gay times together and many occasions ofrollicking camp-life fun. Having spent many summers at Camp Crosstrees,the Rose family had become attached to the place, and always lookedforward with eager anticipation to each successive trip.
Unlike Dolly, Bert Fayre loved it all. To him, roughing it was fun, andhe cared nothing at all for the city comforts that were missing. Hetramped the woods and went fishing, swimming and boating with the sameenjoyment of these sports that Bob Rose felt, and he was more thandelighted when Mrs. Rose invited him to spend the rest of August at thecamp while the girls went for their two weeks at the seashore.
So on the day of departure Dotty and Dolly bade good-bye to theirbrothers and to Mrs. Rose and Genie, and in care of Mr. Rose started forNew York and thence down to Surfwood, a resort on the New Jersey coast,where the Fayre family were staying at a hotel.
"Oh, don't you just hate to leave it?" exclaimed Dotty as the motor-boattook them swiftly down the lake. "Good-bye, you dear old woods;good-bye, you lovely lake. I shan't see you again till next summer."
For, as the children must begin school early in September, bothfamilies would return to Berwick in about a fortnight.
Dolly did not entirely share Dotty's enthusiasm, but she realised thewonderful beauty of the scene as she looked back at the lake with itswooded shores and hills rising to the high mountains.
"It _is_ splendid!" she said, very honestly, as she gazed at thebeautiful landscape. "I'm afraid, Dot, that you won't have a good timedown at Surfwood. It's awfully different, you know."
"'Course I'll have a good time, if I'm visiting you. But, you see, wewere a whole month later than usual coming up here this summer, and nowto cut two weeks off the other end makes an awfully short season fordear old Crosstrees. Why do they call it Surfwood, Dolly; are there anywoods there?"
"Yes, indeed; not far back from the beach there are lots of woods. Butall flat, of course; no hills like these."
"Well, you couldn't expect mountains and seashore together. I know we'llhave lovely times there, anyway I'd rather be with you than to stay uphere."
The girls had become inseparable friends and their stay in camp togetherhad strengthened the bonds and made them even more fond of each otherthan they had been as neighbours. They were very different, but theywere learning to accept each other's differences, and in some ways theyfrequently influenced one another's tastes or opinions.
"Good-bye, old lake!" Dolly called out again, as the motor-boat nearedits dock. "We'll see you next summer,--you will come up here again nextsummer, won't you, Dolly?"
"We'll see when next summer comes," returned Dolly, laughing. "Perhapsyou won't like Surfwood a bit, and you won't want to go there nextsummer, and if you don't, of course I won't come up here. You lookawfully well in that new suit, Dotty."
"Hope I do, for it doesn't feel very good. Collar's too stiff." Dottywriggled with a feeling of discomfort that the first wearing of a newgarment often brings. The girls both wore suits of blue serge, madesimilarly, but not exactly alike; Dotty's being trimmed with black satinand collar and cuffs of fine white embroidery, while Dotty's wasenlivened by accessories of bright plaid silk and tiny gilt buttons.
The trip was a pleasant one, and they reached New York next morning intime for luncheon. This Mr. Rose gave them at an attractive restaurantand the girls greatly enjoyed the novel scenes of the Metropolis.
"I just love to eat in a restaurant, don't you?" said Dolly, as shelingered over her elaborate and complicated dessert.
"Yes, indeed; I love to look around and wonder who the people are. Onlythey're all grownups. You don't see hardly any children or girls ourage."
"No," said Mr. Rose, "a public restaurant is no place for kiddies,except on such an occasion as this, when I have to feed you somewhere.But since you're here, you may as well enjoy yourselves. Do you wantsome more little cakes?"
After due reflection, the girls concluded that they did, and thefascinating tray of French confections was again offered for theirselection.
At the station where they were to take the train for Surfwood, Mr. Fayremet them.
"Well," he exclaimed. "So I am to take the responsibility of these twobeautiful young ladies."
"Yes," rejoined Mr. Rose; "but I'm glad to tell you that they are notreally difficult to manage. They have behaved most properly all day andhonestly I hate to give them up. I know Camp Crosstrees will seemdeserted and desolate without these two little rays of sunshine."
After affectionate leavetakings, Mr. Rose departed and the two girlswent on with Mr. Fayre.
He was not of such a jolly nature as Mr. Rose, nor so inclined to talkwith the children.
He placed them in adjoining chairs in the parlour car, and aftersupplying them with picture papers and candies, he seemed to considerhis responsibilities at an end, and taking his own seat, immediatelyburied himself in his newspaper.
"Not much like the Adirondacks, is it?" said Dolly, as they whirledalong through the flat landscapes of New Jersey.
"No, of course not; you wouldn't expect it. How soon do we see theocean?"
"Very soon, now. We'll get to Surfwood about six, but we'll see theocean long before then, there are so many beach stations."
As they neared Surfwood, Mr. Fayre threw aside his papers and looked outfor the girls again. He was a most courteous man and politely assistedthem with their various belongings, treating them more as grown ladiesthan as children.
"There they are!" he cried, as the train stopped at the picturesquelittle station and they spied a big motor car in which Mrs. Fayre andTrudy were sitting.
Trudy was looking lovely in her light summer costume and she warmlywelcomed the travellers as they got into the motor.
"How brown you both are," said Mrs. Fayre, kissing the girls; "a nicehealthy tan, and very becoming! Did you hate to leave your camp, Dotty?and I suppose you, too, Dolly, became a devotee of mountain life."
"We did have lovely times, Mother, and I expect Dot was sorry to give itup, but I persuaded her."
"You'll have lovely times here, too," promised Trudy, smiling at them;"I'll see to that."
The car stopped at the entrance to a very large hotel. The broadverandas were filled with people, gaily dressed, and gathered inlaughing, chatting groups. Between them and the ocean was a broadboardwalk also filled with people.
"Come along, girls," said Mrs. Fayre, and Dotty and Dolly followed heracross the veranda and into a large entrance hall. It was verybeautiful, with glistening white and gold decorations, a thickmoss-green velvet carpet and tall palms round the walls. Then followed abewildering succession of gorgeous rooms, and finally they went up in anelevator.
"Here we are," and Mrs. Fayre led the two girls into a large andhandsomely furnished suite.
"This is our general sitting room," she went on, "and this is yourbedroom, right next to Trudy's."
They entered a large room, with two brass beds and attractiveappointments of all sorts. The chairs and lounges were covered with gaychintz and there was a long deep window se
at from which, across abalcony filled with flowers, they could see the ocean.
"How perfectly lovely!" cried Dotty; "not much like our little rooms atcamp, Doll. Oh, I'm sure I shall be very happy here. It's awfully kindof you, Mrs. Fayre, to invite me."
"I'm very glad to have you, dear, and I only hope you'll enjoy it asmuch as Dolly did her stay with you. We can't give you the wild, freelife of a mountain camp, but we're going to do all we can to interestand amuse you. But I'm not sure that you will like the plan for thisevening. As your things aren't unpacked, I thought you two wouldn't dinedownstairs with us to-night, but would have a nice little dinner sent uphere and served in the sitting-room."
"Oh, goody!" cried Dolly; "that's a lot more fun. I don't feel likedressing up for dinner to-night and I think that's a lovely plan. Don'tyou, Dot?"
As a matter of fact, Dotty would have preferred to go downstairs, forshe was impatient to see more of the big hotel and the gay people. Butshe politely acquiesced, and Mrs. Fayre bustled away, saying she wouldsee them again after dinner.
"Now we'll have a lovely time, Dotsy, all to ourselves," Dolly said, asshe flew around the room arranging things to suit herself.
A trim maid appeared to assist in any way needed, and the girls wereglad to change their travelling clothes, and, after a refreshing bath,to don their pretty kimonos and boudoir caps, that Trudy had left inreadiness for them.
"Trudy's a trump!" cried Dolly. "See these heavenly things she has laidout for us! A pink silk room-gown for you and a blue one for me, withcaps to match. We share Trudy's bathroom, you see, so you can have thisglass shelf for your things and I'll take this one for mine. I guessthat's the dinner coming now, and then our trunks will come, and we canput our things away."
A very attractive little dinner was served in the sitting-room and thetwo girls sat down to it with a feeling as if they were "Playing house."
"We're to dine with the grownups after to-night," said Dolly; "new thingfor me, 'cause always before I've had my supper in the children'sdining-room. But Mother says, now I'm fifteen, I can always dine withthem, unless they have special company and then we'll have ours up herelike this. Isn't this salad good?"
"Perfectly lovely. But, somehow, I feel so queer. It's such a suddenchange from the camp table and Maria's flap-jacks."
Dolly laughed. "Yes, it is different. But I like that, Dot, the suddenchange I mean. Crosstrees was just right in every way for mountain andcamp doings. Now this seashore stunt is altogether different, but I likethis, too. And I think it's nice for us to have both kinds, one rightafter the other."
"So do I," said Dotty, as she contentedly ate her frozen pudding.