“Poof!” protested Lily. “As if she must wait for that to bring her back. She is going to visit us at least once every year and give us a complete account of herself—won’t you, Josie?”
“I’d love to,” Josie answered quietly.
She little realized what the coming year would bring and how thrilling would be that first account. Some hint of it came to her a few days later when she reached Dorfield and called on Captain Lonsdale. The task put before her called for the best that was in her; an undertaking worthy of the efforts of her illustrious father.
Sobered by the importance of the coming quest, she seemed to have lost some of her spontaneity when her friends, Irene and Mary Louise, rapturously greeted her return to the Higgledy Piggledy Shop.
“My dear,” said Mary Louise a little later when the first warm gush of welcome was over, “you have changed. You seem so quiet and—and sort of sweetly pensive. I declare, Irene, I believe she is in love.”
“I am,” said Josie, comically wriggling her nose in her old manner, “with my work.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.