“Really, aunty,” protested Dorothy, “I am perfectly content. What sort of girl would I be to want to run away and leave you all after being away so long at school? No, indeed, I’ll stay right here at the beautiful Cedars, and I’ll try to be a better girl—to get rid at once of my spell of the ‘glumps’ as we used to call them at Glenwood.”
“But girls are girls,” insisted her aunt, “and you have no control, my dear, over such sentiment as I imagine you are afflicted with at present. Just plan out a little trip somewhere and, I’ll vouch for it, the visit to some giggling Dolly Varden of a girl will do you no end of good. And then, too, you may invite her back here with you.”
Mrs. White divined too well the reason for Dorothy’s “blue spell.” She could see perfectly how much her niece missed the light-hearted Tavia, and in advising her to take a little trip Mrs. White was sure Dorothy would choose to go where her chum might be.
In this she was right, but concerning what Dorothy might do to reach Tavia Mrs. White had no idea. She merely suggested a “little trip somewhere,” believing Dorothy would find Tavia, either in Dalton, or visiting some girl friend, as Dorothy had told her Tavia intended doing. But circumstances conspired to give Dorothy the very opportunity she longed for—she would go somewhere—anywhere—to look for her “sister-friend”—the girl who had been to her more than friend and almost a sister.
Ned and Nat had planned a trip to Buffalo at the beginning of their vacation. They were to meet a number of their chums there, and do some exploring in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls. They were to make the journey in the Fire Bird, and when Mrs. White suggested a trip for Dorothy it was the run to Buffalo, in the automobile, that immediately came into the girl’s mind.
“If I only could go with the boys,” she pondered. “But what excuse would I have?”
All the next day she turned the subject over in her mind. Then something very remarkable happened. Persons who believe in thought controlling matter would not call the incident out of the ordinary perhaps, but, be that as it may, when Dorothy strolled down to the post-office, having a slender hope of a letter from Tavia, she did find a letter in the box—a letter from Rose-Mary Markin, stating that she, and her mother, were going to Buffalo and Niagara Falls for a few days, and, as Buffalo was only about a day’s trip from North Birchland, perhaps Dorothy could take a “run” to Buffalo, and spend a few days with them.
Dorothy’s head thumped when she read the letter. The very thing of all others she would have wished for, had she been as wise as the unknown fate that worked it out for her, without any action on her own part!
She felt light enough now to “fly” over the road back to the Cedars, to show the invitation to Mrs. White. The boys were to leave for Buffalo the next day, so there was little time to be lost, should Major Dale and Mrs. White think it best for Dorothy to make the trip. How the girl trembled while waiting for the decision. What if she should be disappointed? It was a long ride in the auto—but with her cousins—
Mrs. White read Rose-Mary’s little note a second time while Dorothy stood there waiting. The aunt noticed how delicately Rose-Mary indicated her own mother’s anxiety to meet Dorothy, and then with what a nicety the whole matter was referred to Major Dale and Dorothy’s aunt. This carefully written note, neither stilted nor indifferent in its tone, convinced Mrs. White at once that the writer was exactly the girl Dorothy had described her to be—her very best friend at Glenwood—excepting only Tavia.