"Don't mind me!" she cried, impulsively. Mollie was often this way—in a little whirlwind of temper one moment, and sweetly sorry for it the next, albeit her little spasms of rage were never serious, and seldom lasted long.
"Forgiven," murmured Grace. "But I am really anxious to know when we can start our Camping and Tramping Club. I think the idea is perfectly splendid! How did you come to think of it, Betty?"
"I got the idea from a book—it isn't original by any means. But then I always have been fond of walking—out in the country especially. Only it isn't so much fun going alone. So it occurred to me that you girls would like to join. We can take a nice long tramp the first opportunity we get."
"Just us four?" asked Grace.
"No, not necessarily. We can have as many members as we like."
"I think four is a nice number," spoke Amy. She was rather shy, and not given to making new friends.
"We four—no more!" declaimed Mollie. "Suppose we do limit it to four, Betty?"
"Well, we can talk of that later. And I do so want to talk of it. I thought we'd never get out of school," and the four who had just been released from the Deepdale High School continued their stroll down the main street of the town, talking over the new plan that had been proposed that morning by Betty Nelson—the "Little Captain," as she was often called by her chums, for she always assumed the leadership in their fun and frolics.
"Will we just walk—walk all the while?" asked Grace. "I'm afraid I shan't be able to keep up to you girls in that case," and she swung about on the sidewalk in a few steps of a mazy waltz with Amy.
"Of course we won't walk all the while," explained Betty. "I haven't all the details arranged yet, but we can set a certain number of miles to cover each day. At night we'll stop somewhere and rest."