“Nobody knows,” Jessie answered, cheerily; “but as long as we have to get ready, we might as well begin now. Come on; let’s see who’ll be dressed first girls——” which precipitated a general stampede for the door.
As Lucile hurried along toward the station it really seemed as though her feet had wings. The thought of meeting her guardian again, of talking to her in the old familiar way of the old familiar things—all this made her say to herself over and over again, “Oh, I don’t believe anybody was ever so happy before.” She could see in her mind’s eye that old bright, cheery smile of her guardian flash out as she said, as she had said so many times before, “Well, how are my girls to-day?” 34
To-ot! The shrill wail of the locomotive whistle broke rudely through her revery and brought her to a sudden realization that if she didn’t bestir herself, Mrs. Wescott would be at the station with no one to meet her.
“Oh,” cried Lucile to herself, “and I thought I was hurrying just as fast as I could. Well, I’m in for a race with the train, it seems. I wonder what the girls would say,” she chuckled as she ran. “This is almost as good as a canoe race.”
Either the train had been farther off than she thought when Lucile heard the whistle or she had run faster than she had ever run in her life; the result was the same—Lucile won!
Just as she breathlessly reached the station, the great locomotive came thundering around the last curve.