"Run nothing," exclaimed Nora. "Don't you know Reddy Brooks when you see him? Just wait until I get near enough to tell him that you mistook him for a lunatic. Hurrah! David and Hippy are with him."
"Well, well, well!" exclaimed Hippy as the girls approached. "Here is Mrs. Harlowe's little girl and some of her juvenile friends. I'm very glad to see so many Oakdale children out to-day."
"How dare you take possession of the very spot we had our eye on?" asked Grace, as she shook hands with David.
"I came over to try my bird before I have it sent home for the winter," replied David. "I was just locking up."
"And the exhibition is all over," cried Grace in a disappointed tone. "I'm so sorry. You see, I still have a hankering for aëroplanes."
"There wasn't any exhibition, after all," said David. "It wouldn't fly worth a cent to-day. I shall have to give it a complete overhauling when I get it back to my workshop. What are you girls doing out this way?"
"Oh, we just came out to walk, because it was too nice to stay indoors," said Anne. "And now we are particularly glad we came."
"Not half as glad as I am," replied David, looking at her with a smile.
"Speaking of walking," remarked Hippy, "I have decided to go in for a little on my own account. Object, to become a light weight. Is there any one who will encourage me in this laudable resolution, and beguile me while I go 'galumphing' over the ground?"
"Oh, I know something that would be perfectly fine!" exclaimed Nora, hopping about in excitement.