"I don't know. But somehow I feel as if something will happen," and
Dorothy had sufficient reason afterward to remember the premonition.
CHAPTER XVIII
DOROTHY IN DANGER
Picnic day came at last, and with it there drew up to the gate of
Dalton School two four-horse wagons, the regular "straw-ride" variety.
Mr. Ford had provided the conveyances, and when all the girls had been seated on the big side benches with parasols, lunch boxes and "happy smiling faces," the ride itself constituted a thoroughly enjoyable outing.
Sarah was there, between Dorothy and Tavia, and upon her arrival at the school (the wagon had stopped for her as it came up) she received a hearty welcome—an ovation, Tavia called it.
Her face was pale, and her manner nervous, but she whispered aside to Dorothy that she was so happy, and that she could never have been happy with the girls after the trouble if Dorothy had not "straightened every thing out for her."
Miss Ellis, too, seemed very much pleased at the prospect of a happy day—"after all," she thought, "her girls were well worth working for." It was a beautiful day in June and the ride to the woods was perfumed with that rare and wonderful incense—vapory sweetness of flowers warmed by the soft sunshine of early summer.
Blossoms brushed the faces of our friends as the picnic wagons rumbled on and many a wreath of "laurel" was pressed to the brow of fair graduates as the maple leaves in the hands of willing weavers, were made into crowns for the "grads."
A secret was plainly lurking in the eyes of Alice MacAllister. Dorothy had remarked that girls, alone, would probably be lost in the great, dark picnic place, for the pine trees grew so close there, the grounds were often called "Twilight Grove"; but Alice only smiled broadly and replied: