"It would be a crime to wear out those perfectly good shoes," said Laura, looking at Violet's trim suede footgear. "Especially with prices going up."
Billie groaned.
"I think I'll have to try Violet's trick," she said. "If anybody mentions the high cost of living to me while we're away on this vacation, I'll get out and walk home. I don't care if it's a hundred miles."
"Going up?" laughed Laura, but they promised just the same. For underneath Billie's lightness they knew that she was still puzzling her wits for some way to pay for that broken statue.
"Here comes a man with magazines," said Laura. "We'd better get a couple to pass the time away. An all-day trip is pretty tiresome. At least I've heard mother say so."
They bought the magazines, but they might just as well not have done so, for when they reached Roland late that afternoon they had hardly peeped inside the covers.
The scenery was so beautiful and wild, the whole trip was so wonderfully novel that the time flew, and before they realized it they had reached the station next to Roland.
"Goodness, I didn't think we were anywhere near there, yet!" cried Violet, as she began to gather up her things. "I never knew a day to go so quickly in my life. Billie, are these your candies? You'd better not leave them on the seat."
"Who said I was going to?" cried Billie, rescuing her sweets just as Laura was in the act of sitting on them. "Here, there's just room for them in the corner of my grip. Mrs. Gilligan, have you got the trunk checks?"
"I hope so," said the woman, opening her hand bag.