"Who? The Judge?"
"No. This Billie person. Or I'll trot him home to Mother and let her be nice to him."
"Here are some fishpoles, girls, hidden in the bushes," Doris called out. "Know what I think? There are boys around."
All at once upstream they heard somebody whistling. At first it sounded almost like a bird trilling high and clear, but birds do not sing "Marching Through Georgia," so the girls sat there on the bank, sheltered from view by the alders, and waited until a flat bottomed row-boat came into view. Standing at the stern, one bare foot on the back seat and one on the cross seat, with a long punting pole in his hands, was a boy of about fifteen. His head was bare and his overalls were rolled above his knees. Whistling recklessly, sure of himself and the solitude, he came down the river and guided the boat to shore near where the girls sat. He hauled it up half-way out of the water, dropped the pole into it, and started up the bank before he caught sight of them.
"That's Billie Ellis," Piney said quickly, and waved her hand to him in friendly greeting. "Hello, Billie."
"Hello," Billie returned. "Where'd you come from?"
"We came from Whence and are going Whither," Kit spoke up merrily. "Got some fish for breakfast?"
Billie hesitated, trying to appear nonchalant, but plainly very much rattled at these persons who had taken up squatter rights on his domain. He rolled down his overalls very slowly and deliberately to gain time, and this gave the girls a chance to see just what he looked like, this Billie person, as Kit had dubbed him. He was taller than Honey by a good deal, with short-cropped curly hair rather nondescript in color, and big brown eyes, eyes as startlingly frank and uncompromising in their gaze as those of a deer. He was tanned a nice healthy brown, and his smile was extremely satisfying if one were looking for friendliness. Altogether, the Greenacre girls approved of Billie at sight. To the others he was more or less familiar, even while none of them knew him well.
"Where you all going?" he asked.
"Just walking over the country," Abby told him. "Where are you going, Billie?"