"There's something wrong with Billie," said Violet, beginning to look anxious. "Don't you think we'd better send for a doctor, Laura?"
"I think you are the one who needs a doctor," retorted Billie. "Who ever thought of spending a vacation out in the wilderness a million miles or so from nowhere in an old tumbled-down house that makes your flesh creep and the hair rise on your head just to look at it?"
"My, but that must feel funny," said Laura, the irrepressible. "That's one experience I never did have."
"What?" asked Billie.
"Have my hair rise on my head. Please excuse me, Billie," as Billie in her turn looked threatening. "What was it you were about to say?"
"Goose," commented Billie and then turned to Violet. "Did you really mean that about spending our vacation there?" she asked.
"Of course I did," said Violet. "And I don't see what's so very funny about it anyway. We could take a chaperone, and maybe the boys could come along too."
"Oh, that would be fun," cried Billie, then flushed as she met Laura's laughing eyes. "I meant," she added, angry because of the blush, "that the place wouldn't be quite so lonesome and horrid with the boys around."
"Oh, yes, we know," said Laura, with an aggravating twinkle that made
Billie long to shake her. "We know all about it, honey."
Why, thought Billie, as she ignored the remark, pretending not to hear it, would Laura always be such a goose as to make a joke of the very real friendship between her and Teddy Jordon? She liked Teddy immensely and she was not going to stop liking him even if Laura would persist in being foolish.