Tabitha's Vacation, page 39 by Ruth Alberta Brown
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ingly, "Say, Tabitha, we've apologized to Gory Anne--Gloriana, I mean. Will you--excuse--me for what we said about you, too?"
Toady's big, beseeching, brown eyes met hers unflinchingly--he certainly knew how to look angelic when occasion demanded it--and Tabitha relented.
"Yes, Toady, I'll excuse you," she said with meaning emphasis, which was not lost on the older brother, keeping well in the background.
"I--I'm ready to be excused, too," Billiard gulped at length, shuffling forward a few steps, but not raising his eyes from the floor.
"Very well," she answered coldly. "But don't you dare bother Gloriana again. I won't stand for it!"
"No, ma'am," Billiard responded meekly; and the two boys made good their escape, feeling very virtuous indeed.
CHAPTER V
IRENE'S SONG
"Miss Davis gets home to-day," sang Tabitha under her breath, as she drew on her slippers that bright, hot morning. "Do you know that, Gloriana Holliday?"
"Haven't I been counting every minute,--yes, every second for the past twenty-four hours?" laughed the second girl, letting down her luxuriant auburn mane and beginning to brush it vigorously. "But I had a horrible dream last night. I thought she sent us her wedding announcements, and we had to stay here all summer."
"False prophet! How dare you dream such a thing as that? Didn't we have a letter from her just two days ago saying she would reach here on to-day's train? And anyway, dreams always go by contraries, you know."
"It's mighty lucky they do in this case," Gloriana replied seriously. "But I woke in a cold sweat, the dream was so very real. I couldn't help wondering if something had delayed her so she wouldn't reach here as soon as we had expected."
"What a pessimist you are!" cried Tabitha, eyeing her companion in surprise. "You are usually just the opposite. What is the matter with you to-day, Glory?"
"Oh, I just somehow feel