“Well, the Girl Pioneers aim high,” declared Nathalie, “and I certainly think they must be worthwhile girls. I shall love to meet your Pioneer friends—they cheered me up—” she added, “for they made me think of the girls at school, especially Grace Tyson. Why, she is so much like my chum that it almost seemed as if I were talking to her the other day! Your friends all have such happy faces, and ‘it is such a relief to see good red cheeks as made by Mother Nature,’ as Mother says. Some of the girls one sees in the cities nowadays have such a made-up appearance, especially those on the avenue Saturday afternoons in New York.”
“Yes, they have regular clown faces with their splashes of red, and their powdered noses,” returned her neighbor laughingly. “I always feel as if I wanted to tell them they had forgotten to rub the flour off. It doesn’t seem possible that any well-bred girl could think she looks nice all dabbed up in that way. But there, I am tiring you,” she added hastily, “so I am going to say good-by. Oh, I came very near forgetting to ask if you would like to have the girls call on you—I mean the girls of our group?” she hesitated. “I think you would like them, although they may not be as fashionable as your city friends.”
“Oh, but they are the kind of girls I like,” protested Nathalie hurriedly, “for I do not care for girls who are nothing but fuss and feathers. Please do bring your friends, for I know I shall like them, and then, too, they may tell me more about the good times you have.”
“Indeed they will,” said Helen with decision; “they will be only too pleased. When shall we come, will Thursday be a good day for you?”
“Yes, indeed; I shall be here—still in this old chair I presume; I shall watch for them with great impatience, for you know,” she added a little sadly, “they remind me of my schoolmates in the city. Oh, I have missed them dreadfully! Now, be sure to come—all of you!”
She rose in her chair to wave a good-by to her new friend, who, as she reached the gate, had turned and waved her hand.
Nathalie sank back in her chair with tear-dimmed eyes, for somehow that friendly salute had brought it all back—the faces of her merry comrades, and the happy care-free hours they had spent together. She swallowed hard, for Helen had waved her hand just the way the girls used to do when they came in afternoons for a chatty little visit, and then hurried away with just such a parting salute.
CHAPTER III—GIRL PIONEERS
“Oh, I wish you would tell me something about your school life in New York,” begged Helen wistfully; “I had a friend who used to go to one of the high schools. I hear they are very fine.”
It was Thursday, the day the Girl Pioneers were to call on Nathalie, and Helen Dame had run over a few moments before their arrival to have a short chat with her new friend.