Ollie soon overtook her schoolmate, and putting her arm around her waist they walked on together.
"I could not imagine what you were carrying your school-books for," said Ollie. "You can't have been kept after school, for you always know your lessons so well."
"No," said Lucy, "I wasn't kept after, but I stayed myself. I couldn't get a sum in fractions right, and Miss Palmer said if I would wait till every one had gone she would show me about it. Now I know it, and I am going down to the beach. Don't you want to go too?"
"Oh, yes," said Ollie; "but I must take this sugar to mamma first. Let's climb over these bars and cut across this field. It is a great deal shorter than by the road."
There were some geese in the field, which evidently did not like to have their privacy intruded upon, for they set up a terrible quacking as the children passed them. Ollie and Lucy, however, quacked back again, and the geese soon left them and continued to nibble away at the grass.
Ollie soon reached her home, and leaving her basket on the table she ran up-stairs to find her mother, for she wanted permission to go to the beach.
"Yes," said Mrs. Rogers, "you may go; but it looks a little showery, and I don't want you to get wet. Watch the clouds, and if you see a storm coming, hurry home, so as to get in before the rain."
Ollie promised to do as she was told and kissing her mother good-by she ran down-stairs. She found Lucy standing by the fence, looking over into Mr. Beech's yard. Mr. Beech lived next to Ollie's papa, and he had one little girl. Every one called her "Chubby," because she was so plump and round.
