“I’m sure I look just as I do when I wear my gymnasium suit, but, oh, dear, I wish he hadn’t chosen this tree.”
As the cowboy swung up the next limb, Billie leaned around and looked straight down into his face. She was about to say:
“You needn’t come any further. I can see the country perfectly,” when words failed her and she burst out laughing.
Barney McGee smiled gravely back.
“Excuse me, I am afraid I’ve intruded,” he said, observing the silk bloomers with an expression of guarded amusement.
“I suppose he thought I was a Suffragette,” Billie laughingly told her friends afterwards.
“Billie, my dear child, what are you doing?” cried Miss Campbell, who now for the first time saw the strange bird roosting in the tree above them, and the good lady groaned aloud as her eye took in her young relative’s costume.
“Wilhelmina,” she exclaimed in a shocked voice, “what will Mr. McGee think of you—in—in those things?”
“Don’t scold her, ma’am,” called down the cowboy, “it’s an illigent climbing costume.”
“I have some glasses, Mr. McGee,” said Billie calmly. “I haven’t been able to manage them yet and keep my balance. Perhaps you can do better than I can.”