Carroll Watson Rankin

CONTENTS

A twin baby carriage containing weary infants, propelled by a perspiring young person, was coming in the gate

CARROLL W. RANKIN

The Adopting of Rosa Marie The Castaways of Pete’s Patch The Cinder Pond The Girls of Gardenville Dandelion Cottage Girls of Highland Hall

GIRLS OF HIGHLAND HALL

Further Adventures of the Dandelion Cottagers

BY CARROLL WATSON RANKIN

Author of “Dandelion Cottage,” “The Girls of Gardenville,” “The Cinder Pond,” Etc.

New York Henry Holt and Company 1921

Copyright, 1921 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

First printing, August, 1921 Second printing, May, 1922 Third printing, September, 1925

TO MRS. CELIA K. NORTHROP

To whom I am indebted for much friendly encouragement.

THE PERSONS OF THE STORY

Various Teachers, Girls and Fathers—Especially Fathers.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A twin baby carriage containing weary infants, propelled by a perspiring young person, was coming in the gate “My beads!” shrieked Hazel, pouncing on the necklace It looked very much as if all the mysteries were solved “For goodness’ sake keep still,” growled Mabel

GIRLS OF HIGHLAND HALL

CHAPTER I—ON THE WAY

The time was almost noon of a warm September day. The place was State Street, Chicago. The persons were six, and four of them were seeing Chicago for the first time. They walked two by two in a little procession. There were other persons in State Street too, probably somewhere between a thousand and a million; but we don’t need to worry a great deal about those others, though of course if they hadn’t been there there would have been more room for our friends.

This small procession was headed by a well-dressed, moderately stout, smooth-shaven gentleman with touches of white in his black hair and a kindly, benevolent expression in his dark eyes and about his fine mouth. A handsome man and a good man, as any one could see.

His companion was a little girl of perhaps thirteen years of age. She, too, had big dark eyes with long lashes; and a nicely shaped mouth. Her complexion was just exactly right and her short hair curled crisply about the unusually pleasing countenance. Her name was Bettie and it seemed to be a very good fit.

The second couple followed close at the heels of the first, presenting a curious contrast. One of them, whose name was Jean, was instantly attractive because of the serene loveliness of her expression. One knew at a glance that she was a person to be trusted. The girl beside her, all of two years younger, was very much smaller; a little sprite of a girl, with bright, gray eyes and quantities of fluffy golden hair. She, also, was a pretty child. Her small features were shapely and she looked, as indeed she was, an unusually bright child. She was quick and graceful in her movements and nothing in the shop windows escaped the eager, birdlike glance of little Marjory Vale.

The third couple was erratic in its movements. Sometimes it damaged the heels of Jean and Marjory by crowding too close. Sometimes it lagged so far behind—the windows were most attractive—that it had to run to catch up. One of this couple, Mabel Bennett, was not built for running. Mabel was the youngest and the broadest of the sextette; but her undeniable plumpness did not detract from her looks. One couldn’t help liking her honest blue eyes, the wholesome red and white of her fine complexion, her sturdy, childlike figure, her dependable legs and the rich bronze of her abundant hair. It was braided this morning in a thick, uneven braid; from which numerous tendrils that curled in large, loose, rather becoming rings escaped untidily. One guessed that inexperienced Mabel had been her own decidedly unskilful hairdresser that morning. Mabel’s partner in the procession was a girl of about fifteen, so unusual in appearance that strangers turned to look at her. Dark as a gipsy, with glowing crimson cheeks, bright black eyes with curling lashes, soft black hair that grew naturally in pleasing curls neatly tied back with a broad black ribbon; a shapely, graceful figure possessing to an unusual degree an atmosphere of style. The girls were all well dressed, mostly in blue serge, but this fifth young person, Henrietta Bedford, wore her clothes with a different air. One realized that the serge in her smartly cut frock was a degree finer than that in Mabel’s rumpled middy or in Marjory’s very brief skirt. Also Henrietta’s scarlet silken tie was broader, more brilliant and of a heavier texture than those of the other girls. One could easily see that there were wealth and generations of cultivation back of Henrietta—and adventures ahead of her.

One of the adventures was about to begin, but the kindly man who led the procession was far from suspecting it. It was Mabel who started this one.

“If I see another window just bursting with candy I’ll die,” said Mabel. “I never saw such windows. I wish I hadn’t left my money in my suitcase.”

“Mr. Black has mine,” said Henrietta. “All but a dime that happened to be loose in my pocket. But I tell you what. We’ll dart into the next candy place and spend that—we can easily catch up. Here, come on in here.”

The clerk, not realizing that the two girls were in a hurry, finished leisurely with another customer before attending to Henrietta who was impatiently tapping the counter with her dime.

“What’s all the rush,” drawled the young man, carefully weighing the pink and white buttercups that Henrietta had chosen. “Catching a train?”

“Yes,” snapped Henrietta. “Don’t bother to tie it up. Come on, Mabel, we must run, now, to catch up. That horrid clerk was dreadfully slow.”

They ran. They caught up with and passed a large number of persons but not with Jean, nor Marjory of the yellow hair, nor Bettie with the bobbing curls nor Mr. Black, who had innocently imagined himself perfectly capable of introducing Chicago to five small maidens from the wilds of Northern Michigan.

He had now lost two of them. He had missed them almost immediately and had turned back to look for them, expecting to find them with their noses against some fascinating window. And now they were well ahead of him, screened from his view by hundreds of busy shoppers and running with might and main.

CHAPTER II—PREPARATIONS

And now, of course, you will want to know why a round half dozen of Lakeville’s most precious inhabitants should be discovered parading the streets of Chicago and incidentally losing themselves and each other by the wayside.

It was this way. The Lakeville schoolhouse had burned down, nobody could decide where to build a new one and the places used as temporary substitutes were unsatisfactory to many of the parents. Moreover, Mabel’s father, the village doctor, had long wanted to go to Germany in order to study certain branches of surgery—this was before the war, of course. His wife wanted to go with him but she didn’t wish to take Mabel.

Miss Jane Higgins, otherwise Aunty Jane, had been intrusted with money to be devoted to the education of her orphaned niece, little Marjory Vale. Aunty Jane possessed a conscience that would not rest until that money was spent for that particular purpose. Then there were accomplishments that Mrs. Mapes desired for her daughter Jean and that Mrs. Slater wanted for her granddaughter Henrietta that were not, at that time, procurable in Lakeville. The solution to all these problems was boarding school, since the girls were much too young for college.

Of course Bettie Tucker, their inseparable companion, wished to go too. But her father, a clergyman with a large family and a small salary, could see no way to afford what seemed to him an unnecessary outlay; until Mr. Black, an elderly widower with a young heart and a warm affection for all children and especially for Bettie, offered generously to pay all expenses connected with Bettie’s education.

Of course the selecting of a proper school had proved a matter of much importance and thought. The mothers and Aunty Jane had sent for and received vast numbers of catalogues, each more fascinating than the last. Aunty Jane was in favor of something near Boston. Mrs. Bennett preferred Philadelphia, while Mrs. Mapes showed a partiality for Ohio.

“I think,” said Mrs. Tucker, “that we’d better be guided by Mrs. Slater. She has traveled a great deal and I’m sure she must have a great many friends whose daughters have been to boarding school. Let’s talk to Mrs. Slater about it.”

“I agree with you,” said all the other parents and Aunty Jane.

Mrs. Slater had, indeed, a great many friends who had had boarding school daughters. Also, she too had a tall stack of catalogues. Also she had, in her own mind, already selected a school for Henrietta.

“In the first place,” said she, when her guests were seated in her handsome house, “we don’t want our little girls too far away from us, so I am in favor of something near Chicago. In the second place I am greatly inclined toward the school founded by my old friend Doctor Rhodes in Hiltonburg. A very fine old gentleman, my dears, with high ideals and beautiful manners. Highland Hall is perhaps rather an old fashioned school; but the catalogue states that there is a new gymnasium and new, up-to-date dormitories. The most charming young woman of my acquaintance attended that school—Ruth Belding, her name was. Dr. Rhodes, I assure you, is a wonderful man, splendidly educated, highly cultured and charming in every way. His teachers are chosen with the greatest care and only really nice girls are admitted to his school. There are more expensive schools and some cheaper ones—I had been thinking of consulting you about this very matter.”

“It sounds all right to me,” said Mrs. Bennett.

“I had thought of that Painesville place,” said Mrs. Mapes, “but Hiltonburg is certainly nearer home—though any place is far enough from Northern Michigan.”

“Of course there’s no place like Boston,” said Aunty Jane, who had been born in the East, “but Marjory could get home from this Hiltonburg place for her Christmas vacation.”

“I haven’t any particular choice,” said Mrs. Tucker. “Anything that meets with Mr. Black’s approval will be all right for Bettie.”

“Then,” said Mrs. Slater, “we’d better write at once to Doctor Rhodes. He may not have room.”

Doctor Rhodes replied very promptly. There was room and he would be very glad indeed to enroll five new pupils from Lakeville. The mothers and Aunty Jane were glad to have the matter settled. It did not occur to any of them, least of all to Mrs. Slater, that charming Ruth Belding was no longer a very young woman and that considerable time had elapsed since she had been graduated from Hiltonburg.

The five girls had spent a wonderful summer camping in the woods with Mr. Black and his good old sister, Mrs. Crane. On their return, all the dressmakers in the village had been kept busy for a bewildering fortnight outfitting the lively youngsters with suitable garments for school. From a mountain of catalogues, the busy parents selected and studied long lists of articles needed by prospective pupils at various schools. Then they bought trunks and filled them. Jean, Mabel, Marjory and Henrietta began to prattle of clothes.

“My silk stockings have come,” said Henrietta. “Two pairs for very best and Grandmother has sent to New York for my hat.”

“I have my first silk petticoat,” said Jean. “Mother ordered it from Chicago.”

“I have two new middy blouses from Detroit,” confided Mabel. “The Chicago ones were not big enough.”

“Aunty Jane sent to Boston for my coat,” said Marjory. “It’s all lined with satin.”

Bettie said never a word.

“Say, Bettie,” demanded Mabel, “how’s your trunk coming?”

“It isn’t,” returned Bettie, soberly. “The baby has been sick and Mother hasn’t been able to do a thing. I’ve darned two pairs of stockings and taken the hem out of an old petticoat—and that’s all. I’m—I’m getting worried.”

Suddenly Bettie’s lip quivered and Jean noticed it. Now, Jean was thoughtful beyond her years and she knew that the Tuckers had very little money to spend for clothes. When she reached home, still wondering where Bettie’s wardrobe was to come from, she found her mother entertaining Mr. Black’s stout middle-aged sister, Mrs. Crane.

“Well, Jeanie girl,” said Mrs. Crane, “I’ve been admiring your new silk petticoat. I suppose you are all just about ready for school.”

“Bettie isn’t,” returned Jean, soberly. “I’ve been thinking about it all the way home. Mrs. Tucker never was very smart about Bettie’s clothes, you know, and of course they haven’t any money. The things that come out of missionary boxes never do seem to be just right. I don’t see where Bettie’s outfit is coming from.”

“Bless my soul!” cried Mrs. Crane, “I’m just an old idiot. And so is Peter. Here is this blessed old goose of a brother of mine sending Bettie off to school for a year and neither of us thinking that she’d need clothes. What ought she to have, Mrs. Mapes? You make out the list and I’ll get the things. Why! I’d just love to do it.”

Left to herself, it is to be feared that Mrs. Crane would have done fearful things. Her mind ran to gay plaids with red predominating; and at first she talked much of materials for pinafores—a species of garment in vogue in her own remote youth; but with much sound advice from Mrs. Mapes it was not long before Bettie’s wardrobe compared very well with Jean’s.

Mrs. Crane, however, indulged in a few wild purchases that satisfied her love for color and greatly amused Henrietta. There was a gay plaid dress with brass buttons, a pair of bright blue stockings, some red mittens, a wonderful knitted scarf of many hues, a purple workbag and at least four strings of gaudy beads. Fortunately, there were plenty of garments without these and Bettie declared that Mrs. Crane’s queer purchases made the dark depths of her big trunk quite bright and cheerful.

“As for my trunk,” laughed happy Bettie, “it’s big enough to live in and it’s all mine forever and ever.”

CHAPTER III—LOST

But it is high time we were returning to Chicago to look after the lost Lakeville children.

“I think they might have waited for us,” panted Mabel, no longer able to run. “They might have known we’d get lost.”

“It wasn’t their fault,” said Henrietta. “I should have asked them to wait. But that’s just like me. I’m always doing things on the spur of the moment and then wishing I hadn’t.”

“If we only knew where they were going to eat—”

“But we don’t. Mr. Black said that as long as our train was late getting in and we had missed our connection with the Hiltonburg train that we’d just check our baggage to the other station and walk about until time for lunch. After that we’d go some place to look at something—I’ve forgotten just what—and leave for Hiltonburg at three o’clock.”

“I wish I had my lunch right now,” wailed Mabel, dragging her hat into place and stuffing loose locks under it. “I’m hungry and I’m thirsty and my new shoes hurt my feet. It’s awfully noisy here and I don’t like being lost. I don’t like it—”

“Mabel,” warned Henrietta, “if you cry, I’ll run away and leave you here and then you’ll be a lot more lost than you are now. I’m just as much lost as you are, even if I have been in Chicago before. We’ll go along until we see a restaurant with ladies eating in it and we’ll go in and eat—”

“But we haven’t any money,” objected Mabel, dismally.

“If I remember rightly,” said Henrietta, after a moment’s deep thought, “they don’t ask for your money until after you’ve eaten. I think I know of a way to fix it. Wait a minute until I tidy you up a little. There are three dabs of soot on your face and your hair is all over the place. Of course we want to look as if we had money.”

“You always do,” said Mabel, “but I don’t.”

“Still,” consoled Henrietta, “you always look as if you’d had meals—as many as four or five a day.”

“But,” questioned Mabel, “are you sure it’s all right?”

“Of course. I told you I knew a way to fix it. Here’s a place right here—not very big but the folks look all right. Stand up straight and don’t look so scared. There, that’s better.”

They were inside. The waiter held up two fingers and escorted them to a table. They sat down and Henrietta leisurely removed her gloves. Mabel’s had been removed—and lost—for some hours.

“We might as well have a good meal,” remarked Henrietta, studying the menu. “Of course, if Mr. Black were paying for it I’d leave the choice to him; but as long as he isn’t we’ll choose what we like. Let’s begin with cream of celery soup. Then how would you like chicken à la king and shrimp salad, creamed cauliflower, French fried potatoes—and ice cream for dessert?”

“That’s all right for me,” agreed Mabel, visibly cheering up, “only I like the looks of the green corn that man is eating over there; and the waiter just went by with a big tray of fluffy things—”

“French pastry. We can have some of that, too.”

They enjoyed their meal. Being lost wasn’t half bad when the salad was so delicious, the chicken so tender, the rolls so delightfully crisp, the corn so sweet, the service so excellent. Besides her ice cream, Mabel ate two varieties of French pastry and was sorry that Henrietta didn’t urge her to try more when there were so many kinds. But Henrietta was putting on her gloves.

Henrietta picked up the slip, carried it to the cashier’s desk and remarked, calmly: “Charge it, please, to Mrs. Howard Slater.”

“But, my dear girl,” objected the cashier, “we don’t charge meals. This is a cash place.”

“Oh, is it?” said Henrietta, flushing slightly. “I’m sorry for that. You see, we haven’t any cash. But if you will send the bill to my grandmother, of course she will pay it.”

“It’s a pretty big bill,” remarked the young woman with suspicion. “I think I’d better call the manager. Mr. Hobbs—Oh, Mr. Hobbs! Step here a moment please.”

Mr. Hobbs “stepped here.” The young woman explained.

“Mrs. Slater of this city?” he asked.

“No,” returned Henrietta; “of Lakeville, Michigan.”

“How do I know she’ll pay this?”

“Oh, she will,” exclaimed both girls at once. “She always does.”

“Well, you look as if she did,” said the man, who had taken in all the details of Henrietta’s well made costume. “If you’ll give me her address and write a little note to go with the bill, I’ll let you go this time. This—this isn’t a regular performance, is it?”

“Oh, no,” assured Henrietta. “We just happened to get separated from our friends and they had all the money; but I knew it would be all right.”

“I hope it is,” said the manager, a little later, as he addressed an envelope to Mrs. Slater. “Those children certainly ate a square meal.”

In the meantime, perplexed Mr. Black gathered what remained of his flock as close to him as possible, looked anxiously up and down the street and wondered what to do.

“If we stay right here,” said Jean, “they may catch up.”

“If we go back for a couple of blocks,” said Marjory, “we may find them.”

“Perhaps,” suggested Bettie, “they passed us when we stopped to look at those clocks.”

“It’s time we were having our lunch,” said Mr. Black. “Suppose we walk back and forth the length of this block—we must find those girls.”

“Couldn’t we ask that policeman if he had seen two girls, one fat and one very dark?” asked Marjory.

They could and they did, but the policeman hadn’t. He looked indeed as if he had never condescended to see anything below the level of his own lofty chin.