“Hoo-hoo!” said Elise.
CHAPTER IX
FERN FALLS
Christmas would be on Wednesday, and it was arranged that Patty and Mona should go up to Fern Falls on Monday. Roger and Philip Van Reypen were to go up on Tuesday for the Christmas Eve celebration; and the rest of the house-party were already at the Kenerleys’.
The girls started off early in the afternoon, and a train ride of three hours brought them to the pretty little New England village of Fern Falls.
Jim Kenerley met them with a motor.
“We hoped for snow,” he said, as he cordially greeted the befurred young women who stepped off the train at the little station. “So much more Christmassy, you know. But, at any rate, we have cold, clear weather, and that’s something. Hop in, now. Adèle didn’t come to meet you,—sent all kinds of excuses, which I’ve forgotten, but she can tell you herself, when we reach the house. Here, I’ll sit between you, and keep you from shaking around and perhaps spilling out.”
Cheery Jim Kenerley bustled them into the tonneau, looked after their luggage, and then, taking his own place, drew up the fur robes snugly, and the chauffeur started off. It was a four-mile spin to the house, for the village itself was distant from the station, and the Kenerleys’ house a mile or so beyond.