Then for an hour they were busy in calling up different girls, and finally the matter was settled. Six girls would be ready to join the expedition. Some had made engagements they could not break; some had tickets for the Wednesday matinées; two or three were going to be out of town.
“I’d rather go to the country than to any old matinée,” remarked Joanne. “There are always chances to go to matinées but a chance like this is rare.”
“I agree with you perfectly, my child,” said Miss Chesney. “Well, it is all settled and all there is to find out is when and where we meet. I suppose we start from Georgetown; that’s where the canal ends, or begins, whichever way you put it.”
It was joyous company which met on the bank of the old canal. Each girl was equipped for such an outing, Joanne, for the first time, wearing her outfit, and very proud of it. At the last minute Miss Dodge dashed up, having cut short her visit in order to be with her troop. There were many delays, Mr. Dawson being a deliberate sort of person, who every little while forgot something he intended to get at the store near by, and must go back for it, but at last they were off.
Every girl was in a state of giggling excitement as the boat began to slip through the quiet waters. It was all such a novelty, the flat canal boat, the patient mule walking the tow-path, his ramshackle, dusky driver, the first lock where the boat rose slowly up, up when the gates were shut and finally swung out upon a higher level, the shores growing wilder and wilder till soon it seemed as if they must be miles and miles beyond civilization, the rush of the rapids at Little Falls, and then the quiet flow of the blue Potomac.
“Such a leisurely way of going, but it is never monotonous,” remarked Miss Dodge when the girls had quieted down and were making few attempts at conversation.
“I could go this way forever,” said Miss Chesney as she lay back lazily watching the light and shade upon the water.
“Willows whiten, aspens quiver
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs forever