“Must you go if you do not wish to!” Margery was asking.

“I gueth not; not if I don’t want to, and I don’t,” declared Grace with emphasis.

“She thinks she can have more fun with us four girls this summer.  Still, she should go if her folks wish her to do so,” nodded Hazel thoughtfully.  “Don’t you say so, Buster?”

“No, I don’t,” declared Margery with some warmth.  “In her place I should do just what I liked best.  Then again, it wouldn’t be fair for Tommy to go away like that and leave us all alone here to mope through the summer.  That’s right, Tommy.  Tell them you won’t go unless—­unless you can take us along too.”

“Margery!” rebuked Hazel severely.  “That wasn’t a nice thing to say.  That shows a selfish spirit.  If Harriet were here I know she would tell you the same thing.  I am sure you didn’t mean it that way.”

“Harriet wouldn’t,” protested Buster.  “She doesn’t put on a solemn face and read people lectures.  No, Hazel Holland, she doesn’t do anything of the sort.  There’s some one coming,” exclaimed the girl, suddenly changing the subject.

“I see her.  It is Miss Elting,” answered Hazel, her eyes growing bright.  “She is coming up to see us, I do believe.”

“Yeth, it’th Mith Elting,” decided Grace, screwing up her little face and looking inquiringly at the newcomer who was leisurely making her way along the road in their direction. 441 wonder what she wantth.”

“Miss Elting is coming up to join us, of course,” replied Hazel.  “And you see if she doesn’t have something fine to suggest.  Harriet is going to miss something, I know.”

Miss Elting was one of the younger teachers in the Meadow-Brook High School, a leader in the girls’ sports and very popular with them.  But of all the pupils in the school her favorites were perhaps the four girls to three of whom the reader already has been introduced.  Miss Elting called them “The Little Big Four.”  The young teacher exerted a great influence over the four Meadow-Brook Girls; she had been especially helpful to Harriet and a closer relation than that of teacher and pupil existed between the two.  Both were passionately fond of Nature.  They loved the fields, the woods and the waters and many a care-free happy hour they had spent together in the open.  Hazel, Margery and Grace frequently accompanied them, though in such instances Harriet and Miss Elting usually found it necessary to cut short their outing because Margery “got all flustered up” from the heat and Tommy’s feet usually hurt her.

They had recognized Miss Elting approaching some distance down the road that lay at the foot of the hill upon which the three girls had gone to spend a few leisure hours.

“Hoo-oo!” called Hazel, springing up and waving her handkerchief to attract Miss Elting’s attention.  The teacher saw them they thought; she appeared to be waving her hand at them, though the distance was so great that they could not be certain of this.