“Oh, isn’t that just too lovely!” exclaimed Nathalie. But before she could say more the door opened and Mrs. Van Vorst and Nita entered, Nita all shyness again as she bowed stiffly to Dick, whom she had always been anxious to meet. And then the unexpected happened, for as Nathalie turned to thank her kind benefactor she burst into tears and cried as if her heart would break, to the dismay of every one present. Oh, what a fool she did make of herself, she afterwards confessed with shamed eyes to Helen.
But Mrs. Van Vorst had been a girl herself once, and so she understood just how her young friend felt. She comforted Nathalie so sweetly that the girl fell in love with her over again, her tears dried, and she was soon her happy self.
In a short space the good-bys were said to Dick, and the four ladies hurried to the taxi that was to whirl them to Westport. Of course there was so much to tell and talk over during the journey that it was not until Nathalie was undressing for bed that she heard that as soon as Dick was able he and her mother were to spend two weeks at Eagle Lake with Mrs. Van Vorst. Nathalie received this news with unfeigned joy, for now her mother would have a change, and then she and Dick could see what a lovely place the Lake was.
There had been so many unexpected bits of brightness to make Nathalie happy that day that when she finally got into bed, although she was terribly tired, her brain was in such a whirl she was sure she would never go to sleep. But at last, with a drowsy sigh, she snuggled down on her pillow with the happy thought that she was so glad she had found that nest—of blue birds—and had become—a Girl Pioneer!
THE END
American Heroes and Heroines
By Pauline Carrington Bouvé
Illustrated 12mo Cloth $1.25 net
This book, which will tend directly toward the making of patriotism in young Americans, contains some twenty brief, clever and attractive sketches of famous men and women in American history, among them Father Marquette, Anne Hutchinson, Israel Putnam, Molly Pitcher, Paul Jones, Dolly Madison, Daniel Boone, etc. Mrs. Bouvé is well known as a writer both of fiction and history, and her work in this case is admirable.