Bertha’s try-out was perfectly satisfactory. There is an art in being able to sing or speak into a sending horn, but the girl was intelligent and quick to learn. Mr. Blair telephoned up from the receiving room that Bertha’s song was satisfactory.
Then Jessie and Amy and Nell tried their trio again, and that went better the second time even than it had the first. When the girls saw Mrs. Norwood down in the offices, after the rehearsal was over, her pleasant face was illuminated with a smile.
“I am sure of one thing, anyway,” she said, kissing them all, not forgetting Bertha Blair. “The entertainment is going to be perfect. Those other women may hurt our fund with their party at Carter’s Grove. Indeed, I am very sure they will. But the broadcasted entertainment will be as good as has ever been sent out from Stratfordtown.”
“I’d just like to know what they mean to do down there at Carter’s place on Wednesday,” Amy said, on the way back to Roselawn in the car. “What do you say if we go down to-morrow and look on, Jess?”
“If Momsy doesn’t need me for anything,” her chum agreed. “But we have nothing but the little canoe.”
“We’ve got the Water Thrush, haven’t we? Darry and Burd are going over to Crompton to the ball game. They said we could go along. But I hate to be always tagging. I know they don’t really want us.”
“Wise child,” laughed Jessie. “But I don’t know about going with you in the Thrush.”
“Don’t be absurd!” cried Amy. “I can run that boat just as good as Darry.”
“And he ran it into a log the other night,” chuckled Jessie. “Anyway, I shall have to ask Daddy Norwood.”
But Mr. Norwood had looked over the revamped launch himself after the boys had got through with it, and had tried out the engine. He was convinced that it was in better condition than before. He believed, too, in the girls being independent of the boys in their out-of-door activities.