“Oh, that would be fun,” cried Billie, then flushed as she met Laura’s laughing eyes.  “I meant,” she added, angry because of the blush, “that the place wouldn’t be quite so lonesome and horrid with the boys around.”

“Oh, yes, we know,” said Laura, with an aggravating twinkle that made Billie long to shake her.  “We know all about it, honey.”

Why, thought Billie, as she ignored the remark, pretending not to hear it, would Laura always be such a goose as to make a joke of the very real friendship between her and Teddy Jordon?  She liked Teddy immensely and she was not going to stop liking him even if Laura would persist in being foolish.

“Then you will admit it is a good idea?” Violet asked eagerly.

“I liked it all, but Billie only likes the last part—­about the boys,” said Laura, and again Billie had a wild desire to shake her.

“It will be lots of fun,” she said, beginning to see the possibilities in a vacation spent at Cherry Corners.  “Mother says the rooms are large and there are plenty of them so we could have as big a party as we wanted.  But I don’t know how comfortable you would be,” she warned them.

“Who cares about being comfortable on a lark like that?” cried Laura airily.  “The more uncomfortable we are the more fun we’ll have.  I say, Billie, don’t you think we’d better take Gyp along?” Gyp was a thoroughbred bull terrier of which Laura was the proud owner.  “He might come in handy if any ghosts showed up.”

The girls laughed at her.

“As if Gyp would be any good against ghosts!” scoffed Violet.  “Why, they would walk right through him.”

“Well,” said Laura, with a little chuckle, “he could at least bark and let us know when they were coming!”

CHAPTER XI

BILLIE WINS OUT

“But whom shall we get for a chaperone?” asked Laura Jordon, after they had thoroughly discussed these new and startling plans for a vacation.  “We don’t want to get any one who is too old and grouchy, and yet the folks probably wouldn’t let us go unless we did.”

Billie and Violet laughed, for they realized the truth of what she said.

“We do seem to be ‘up against it,’ as Ted says.”  Laura was always using her brother for an excuse for her own slang.  “I can’t think of a single person jolly enough to please us and dull enough to please the folks.”

“How about one of our mothers?” Violet suggested.

“I know my mother wouldn’t do it,” said Billie.  “The last time I asked her to chaperone us girls she said she would as soon chaperone a trio of eels.”

“And when I asked mother,” Laura added, “she said she would have nervous prostration in a week.”

“My, we must have a terrible reputation,” sighed Violet.  “I never knew we were as bad as all that.”

“Oh, I have an idea!” cried Laura suddenly, clapping her hands.