Mollie blushed. “Do you remember,” she asked, “a paragraph in the first geography you studied at school? It read: ‘The brown bear, the black bear, and the great white also inhabit the northern regions of North America.’ Well, when I was small child I always thought ‘the great white also’ was some strange kind of animal. For a long time I wondered and wondered what it could be. Finally I asked mother and Bab to explain the sentence to me. Of course they thought it a lovely joke; but, just the same, I never could get over my first impression. It flashed into my head this afternoon, when I saw that strange white thing struggling in the air—at last here comes ‘The Great White Also!’ Wasn’t it too absurd? I have been laughing to myself ever since.”
“Children, what on earth is the matter?” inquired Miss Sallie, appearing at the bedroom door in her dressing gown. “You will waken the dead with your racket. Ruth, come to bed, at once, and tell me what you are laughing about.”
CHAPTER VII
MOLLIE FOLLOWS THE TRAIL
“Mollie have you seen my red sweater?” called Grace a few days later. “I can’t find it anywhere; yet I am sure I left it out here on this bench last night. Naki and Ceally haven’t seen it. Horrid thing! It has taken wings and flown away just when I wanted it. Do come with us. Ruth, Bab and I are going over into the forest to try to learn to shoot. Naki is to teach us.”
“Does Miss Sallie know?” asked Mollie, who was not in a good humor. Bab had been lecturing her for her sudden dislike of Reginald Latham. It seemed to Mistress Barbara unreasonable that Mollie had taken such an unaccountable prejudice against a young man whom they had barely met.
“You talk, Mollie, as if he were a villain in a play,” Bab protested.
Mollie knew she had been obstinate. All she had answered was: “Well, he would probably be a villain, if he had the opportunity. I hope I shan’t see him again. I don’t see, Bab, why you should be so interested in him. He’s lots older than you are.”