Major Dale stood watching, but hardly listening.
"What's the answer, Uncle?" asked Ned, seeing that the major had something to say.
"I have just been wondering," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "what would have happened if Dorothy had not gone up that tree. And you boys——"
"That's all," interrupted Nat, who had returned to the group. "You are excused."
"I have been wondering," put in Mrs. Harriwell, who, with Mrs. Markin, was enjoying the afternoon on the porch within hearing distance, "what would have happened if Dorothy had not been mistaken for Molly. It was a lucky mistake."
But Dorothy insisted she had done nothing extraordinary. Yet she could not help but wonder what would happen next. And what did happen will be told in another book, to be called, "Dorothy Dale's School Rivals," in which we shall learn the particulars of some stirring doings at Glenwood Academy.
"All the same," declared Tavia, a little sheepishly, "I don't believe it pays to try to keep Dorothy out when there's a question of——"
"Common sense," finished Cologne. "There's the cowbell. And it's Tavia's turn to cook supper!"
Tavia sprang up and darted down the path. Nat followed.
"She hasn't learned to work yet," commented Cologne. She never knew a thing about how Tavia darned the station master's socks.