Virginia's Adventure Club

by Grace May North

Directly after the evening meal, Virginia left the other girls in the big comfortable school library where a log was burning on the wide hearth, and where they were planning to do reference reading. She told them that she would return as soon as possible and tell them just what Mrs. Martin thought of the plan that she had to suggest.

The kindly woman looked up expectantly when, in reply to her invitation to enter, the door of her office opened.

“Oh, good evening, Virginia,” she said, motioning to a chair near. “Be seated, dear. Isn’t it curious that right this very moment I was thinking of you, wondering if you or your friends had thought of someone whom we could invite to occupy the Tower Room. I do not like to delay longer, as the term will soon be well started.” Then she paused and observed—“Virginia, I am convinced by your eager expression that you are just waiting for an opportunity to tell me something that has greatly interested you. What is it?”

“You are right, Mrs, Martin,” the girl declared as she seated herself on the straight backed chair near the principal’s desk. Then she hesitated. “I hardly know where to begin,” she smilingly confessed.

“Suppose you begin at the beginning,” was the amused comment of the older woman.

“Well, then, you know Mrs. Martin, that this morning you gave us all permission to hike wherever we wished until noon. Our group of five were taken by a very nice boy, of perhaps 14, on his toboggan to coast down the long hill that leads to the village. When we reached the bottom, we asked him if there was anything interesting to be seen beyond the town. He told us about a house which he called haunted that had one time been occupied by a Captain Burgess and his family.”

Mrs. Martin’s expression brightened. “A wonderful old house that was in its day and the Captain was a most interesting character. My husband enjoyed nothing better when he was here resting from a hard session in Washington than to spend a few hours over there listening to Captain Burgess’ tales of his experiences on the sea. But he was a very eccentric old man, and grew more so as the years passed. He was determined that his two lovely daughters should never marry. His own marriage, I believe, had been a very unhappy one and when he was left alone with the two girls, he seemed to have but one thought and that was to prevent their meeting young men who might wish to propose to them. They were kept like two fair prisoners within that high hedge and when necessity compelled me to change my home into a school these two young ladies were among my first pupils, but they were always brought in a closed carriage and were to remain within the seminary grounds until they were called for. How they ever happened to meet the young men whom they married is indeed a mystery.

“One was named Eleanora and the other Dorinda. Eleanora became the wife of a young man, who proved worthless and who left her. Dorinda married a missionary and went to live in distant lands. Their father at the time was on a long sea voyage and when he returned and found that his girls had evaded the vigilance of a dragon-like housekeeper, whom he had left in charge, he became very hard and declared that not one penny of his fortune should be given to those ingrates for their good-for-nothing husbands to spend. Both of the girls wrote begging their father to forgive them. He died soon after that and he left a note saying, ‘I’ve buried my money. Whoever finds it can have it.’

“Luckily this note was not made public or the grounds of the old Burgess place would have been dug up long ago. It was sent to Eleanora, who had become a settlement worker in Boston. Now and then the two sisters heard from each other. They knew that Eleanora had a baby girl and Dorinda a boy. These children must be about 16 and 18 now, I should think. But here I am reminiscing when I am quite sure that you have something that you are eager to tell me. Has it aught to do with the old Burgess place?”

Virginia replied that it had, and then she told all that had befallen the group of girls who had started out that morning in search of an adventure. Although she took a full share of the blame for having left the bus, Mrs. Martin seemed to heed not at all. Her face plainly told the anxious watcher that the misdemeanor was not of sufficient importance to be rebuked, while, on the contrary, the news that her one time pupil, the lovely daughter of old Captain Burgess was again at Vine Haven pleased her exceedingly.