"No. But I will to-night," she said, with a little sinking feeling. "I hate to tell him, awfully, but I suppose I'll have to."
"Well, don't worry anyway," said Chet, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "You know Dad says worry is a waste of time, because everything will all be the same a hundred years from now."
But Billie's shake of the head was very doubtful.
"I don't see how that helps me any—now," she said.
CHAPTER IV
THE LAST HOPE
That afternoon Billie took herself and a book out on the porch and tried hard, but unsuccessfully, to forget her troubles. The more she tried to fix her attention on the printed page before her, the more the broken statue rose before her eyes until at last she closed the book with a slam and bounced impatiently in her seat.
"That horrid old 'Girl Reading a Book' has spoiled my whole summer for me," she said, her lips pouting rebelliously. "I wish I hadn't gone back to the old school anyway. I might have known it would bring me bad luck. Oh, here comes Laura," and her face brightened as she saw the familiar figure of her chum swinging up the street. "I wonder what she wants. Whatever it is, she seems to be in a terrible hurry about it."
"Hello, what's the rush?" she sang out, as Laura Jordon ran up the steps of the porch.
"It's—it's that—that Nanny goat Amanda Peabody!" cried Laura, panting a little, for she had indeed been in a hurry. "What do you think the old sneak has been up to now?"