"We are going to the Falls, the Falls, the Falls, We are going to the Falls in the morning,"
chanted the prospective travellers.
"You are!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Roger. "When? How? Are we all going?"
"Not you. Only the two best-behaved members of the family are invited,"
declared Ethel Brown.
"Mother, aren"t my manners the top notch of perfection?" Roger demanded.
"They"re very good at times," returned his mother calmly.
""At times" means all the time, of course," insisted Roger. "Did Mother ever compliment you like that, kids?"
"You"re going part way with us," they announced kindly.
"Good enough. How far? To Buffalo?"
Roger beamed.
"Not quite. To Mayville."
Roger groaned.
"To Mayville! Three miles. You"ll be saying next that I may have the privilege of walking there to see you off and waving my hand as the train departs."
"That"s just what we are saying, my child. Except that we"ll all travel the three miles in our trolley car or on our steamer instead of on our feet."
"Mother, Mother! Help! Help!" cried Roger, holding his hands to his distracted brow. "Are these young women mad or do my ears deceive me? Do I "lamp" Niagara Falls? Or does my part of the trip stop at Mayville?"
"If I get your meaning through your somewhat obscure language," replied Mrs. Morton who liked to take an occasional shot at Roger"s slang, "you"ll not see Niagara Falls, but you will escort your sister and cousin to the train at Mayville."
"But you don"t mean to tell me that those babes, those infants in arms are going the rest of the way by themselves? They"ll be lost in the vastnesses of Buffalo! They"ll shoot the chutes or fall the Falls or--"
"When your breath gives out we"ll tell you what has happened," remarked Ethel Brown loftily.
""Pray do,"" quoted Roger.
"We"ve had an invitation--that is, Ethel Blue has--"
"I judged as much," commented Roger faintly.
"--from Mrs. Jackson at Fort Edward."
"Ah! A great light begins to break upon me!"
"She asked Ethel Blue to go to Buffalo for the week-end and to bring me--"
"--and we"re to go to Niagara Falls on Sat.u.r.day," finished Ethel Blue triumphantly.
Roger frowned.
"All I"ve got to say is that I"m proud to be the three-mile escort of such travelled young ladies. I bow before you and place my humble services at your disposal," which he did with an elaborate flourish and his hand on his heart.
It seemed to the Ethels that there were a thousand matters to be attended to before they went on Friday. They had to decide what dresses they should wear and what they should take. Each one had her own suitcase and they had been fitting their bags with small travelling comforts for several months before the summer trip to Chautauqua. One or two trifling affairs still remained undone and these they set themselves to make before the eventful day of departure.
"When I see a bag opened I know at once whether its owner is a tidy person or not," Mrs. Morton said. "Everything ought to be neatly arranged and covered with a tuck-in square over all."
It was the tuck-in square that neither of the girls had finished before leaving Rosemont. Now they were determined that if Mrs. Jackson happened to be about when they opened their bags she should see that these daughters were worthy of their neat soldier fathers. They went to the dry goods shop and bought each a half yard of silkoline. Ethel Brown"s had yellow flowers on it and Ethel Blue"s had cornflowers. These they finished with an inch-wide hem, featherst.i.tched at the top, Ethel Brown"s with yellow silk and Ethel Blue"s with blue silk. When their bags were all packed they laid these pieces over everything and fastened the straps outside of them.
"The cloth prevents the straps from doing any injury to your freshly laundered clothes, you see," explained Mrs. Morton.
"And it keeps dust out, too," said Ethel Brown.
"And it certainly looks perfectly scrumptious," decided Ethel Blue with her head on one side admiringly.
The Ethels were up bright and early on the exciting morning.
"What"s the use," demanded Roger, "of your going around like dizzy antelopes at this time of day when you don"t have to take the boat until two o"clock?"
"You"d be doing it yourself if you were going," retorted Ethel Brown.
"Somehow it spreads out the fun."
"For you," growled Roger. "For us stay-at-homes it flaunts your good luck in our faces--no, I didn"t mean that," he added quickly as he saw a shadow grow in Ethel Blue"s sensitive eyes. "Honest, I"m mighty glad you kids have got the chance to go. Of course I am. I was only fooling."
"I do wish you and Helen were going too," answered Ethel Blue. "It would be lots nicer."
Roger saw that he had made a mistake by insisting on his misfortune, a mistake that often is made when we try to be funny, and he laid himself out to be especially nice to the girls. He took every care of them, carrying their bags, pa.s.sing them through the gate and helping them on to the boat with as much formality as he would have shown to his mother and grandmother.
Though not long, it was a pleasant sail from Chautauqua to Mayville. The boat touched at Point Chautauqua on the other side of the lake where a group of summer-boarder young people were saying "Good-bye" to a friend with many loud exclamations of grief. The boys wrung imaginary tears from their handkerchiefs and one of the girls pretended that she required a tub that was standing on the pier to contain the evidences of her woe.
The Ethels were hugely amused at this comedy and laughed heartily, while Roger, who was still in a serious mood, frowned and called it all "stupid."
At Mayville they had to walk the length of the pier, but at its head they found the station. Roger presented each of the girls with a magazine with which he had provided himself before leaving Chautauqua, and a box of candy and a package of sandwiches gave them the wherewithal for afternoon tea if they should become too hungry for endurance before they reached Buffalo.
"Afternoon tea without the tea," smiled Ethel Brown.
"I do wish Mrs. Jackson had asked you," repeated Ethel Blue as Roger helped her up the steps of the car.
"She would if she had known how nice I am," laughed Roger. "Good-bye, good-bye," and he waved a farewell as long as he could see their car.
Once under way the girls gave themselves up to the excitement of their first travelling by themselves. They examined the faces of all the pa.s.sengers and decided that no one was very handsome but that they all looked very kind and that they should not hesitate to call upon them for help if they needed it.
"The old man just behind us is something like Grandfather," said Ethel Brown. "If we don"t see Mrs. Jackson right off when we get out at Buffalo we"ll ask him what we ought to do."
"Aunt Marion said we"d better not speak to anybody except the men wearing the railway uniform," objected Ethel Blue. "If she isn"t in sight when we get off we"ll ask the conductor or a brakeman or a porter where the waiting room is and we"ll go right there and sit down till she comes."
But they need not have been at all concerned, for Mrs. Jackson was at the very steps of their car when they walked down them. A girl of their own age stood just behind her. Mrs. Jackson was tall, with light hair and her daughter was strikingly like her.