"Elizabeth! what a mean disposition," said Nan demurely, adding with a twinkle in her eyes, while she tried hard to keep her feet from fox-trotting away with her down the gangplank: "Though I would like to send a little note to Linda and tell her to be careful not to go out in the cold. It might make her nose red. Oh, Bess, look down there!" She leaned forward suddenly, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Isn't that Grace? And Walter——"
"And Rhoda! Yes, it is, and they are waving to us," cried Bess eagerly. "Of course Grace and Walter said they would be here to meet us, but I was afraid they never would find us in all this crowd."
Someway the girls got down to the dock, were hugged by Grace and Rhoda, greeted hilariously by Walter, and were hustled, out of breath, through the crowd that thronged about them.
"How in the world did you get here, Rhoda?" demanded Nan, when she could get a chance to ask the question.
"I thought I'd surprise you," declared the girl from Rose Ranch. "I fixed it all up with Grace and told her not to say a word."
"It's grand!" declared Nan, beaming.
"The best ever," added Bess. "Oh, what grand times we girls are going to have!"
"Sure we are going to have a grand time," said the girl from Rose Ranch. "I think I deserve it, after all the trouble I've been through."
"What do you suppose, she was in a railroad wreck," burst out Grace. "A real, live-to-goodness wreck, too."
"Oh, Rhoda, were you injured?" cried Nan quickly.