“Miss Murray said she’d attend to that. Don’t forget that I will have a bunch to hand in to the treasury too, from teaching. And I’m also getting in an extra hour taking Jack Ellis out in a wheel chair, after his lessons.”
“If we get as far as the ranch, we’ll be all right,” Ted exclaimed. “If we haven’t enough to come home on, all our lonely friends and relatives will be glad to get us back at any cost.”
“But we’ll have enough—” began Ruth.
“Don’t trouble about it, girls,” Mrs. Warner spoke up, as they all gathered at the door for a last good-bye. “We are in hearty sympathy with you, especially since you have developed this independence. Every ten or fifteen dollars that you raise is a good help westward, and also strengthens your self-respect, and self-reliance. It is one of the happiest surprises in life when we suddenly find out we can swim alone.”
“Or fly from the home nest,” added Sue.
“Well, we’re trying hard to flutter,” Polly called back merrily, as they went down the walk. “It will be a wonderful flight—maybe.”
“But it’s the season for May bees,” answered Mrs. Warner, smiling. “Keep up your courage, and the good fight.”
CHAPTER VIII
WESTWARD, HO!
The days passed too slowly, it seemed to the girls, eager as they were to get started westward. What had seemed only one of Polly’s balloons, as Ruth called them, had developed into a very tangible possibility. As Ted said, when one is afraid of anything, you must not run. You must turn about, and hit it hard. Ted was a splendid smasher of windmills.