The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 9

mind if I asked mother to go with us."
"Mind!" echoed Betty, while the others looked at her in surprise. "Why
of course we'd love to have her! You know that. But I never imagined
she would care to go, she is so interested in Red Cross work and her
clubs--"
"That's just it," said Grace, sitting up quickly. "She's entirely worn out
with work and worry about Will, and I thought a little vacation with us
girls would help her out wonderfully. I'm not sure she will go--I haven't
asked her yet."
"Well, let's," cried Betty impulsively, jumping to her feet. "She simply
can't refuse if we all ask her at once."
"Now you're saying something!" cried Mollie fervently, albeit slangily,
as she flung her arm about the Little Captain and dragged her down the
steps. "Action is what we need--action, and plenty of it."
The girls fairly ran the short distance from Mollie's home to Grace's,
and the people they met on the way, greeted them heartily, musing as
he or she turned to go on: "There's probably something interesting in
the air--the Outdoor Girls always look like that when they have some
new adventure in tow." For Deepdale was very proud and fond of its
Outdoor Girls.
Mrs. Ford was just coming down the stairs dressed to go out when the
quartette burst in upon her. She did look very tired and worn, as Grace
had said, but the smile that lighted her face at sight of the girls made
her appear ten years younger.
"Mother," said Grace, taking one of her mother's carefully gloved
hands in her own and leading her gently but firmly into the library, "we
have something very important to say to you."
"Will it take long?" queried Mrs. Ford, smiling at the other girls over
her shoulder. "Because, if it will, I'm very much afraid I can't wait. I'm

a little late now."
"That," said Grace decidedly, as her mother sank into a chair and the
other girls grouped themselves about her, "is exactly what we have
come to talk about. We think you need a little vacation."
"Vacation!" cried the lady, half rising from her chair. "Why, my dear!
how can I take a vacation when my hands are so full of work now that I
am--"
"You don't have to take it," Grace interrupted argumentatively, "we'll
just give it to you."
Mrs. Ford laughed helplessly and regarded the eager young faces with
amusement.
"Out with it, girls," she commanded. "I know you are plotting some
terrible thing. What do you intend to do, kidnap me?"
"No, we're keeping that for a last resort," returned Betty, and Mrs. Ford
laughed outright at the confession.
"We want," explained Grace, speaking fast for fear of being interrupted,
"to have you go with us to Bluff Point. We need a chaperone, you
know."
"I've no doubt of it," retorted her mother, laughing, adding, with
another anxious glance at the clock: "But I'm afraid you will have to get
someone else, Honey. If I were free, I should like nothing better, but
you see how rushed I am--"
"But you're terribly tired, Mother, you know you are," said Grace with
unusual gentleness, adding diplomatically: "What good will you be to
the Red Cross or to anyone else, I'd like to know, if you let yourself get
sick?"
"But I'm not sick," protested her mother, then added with a sudden
longing as the wild solitude of Bluff Point rose before her eyes

suggesting utter peace and quiet, a chance to rest tired nerves and
gather strength for the last great drive:
"You're right, I am tired, terribly tired," and the lines of weariness
returning to her face. "I'd love it, girls, but there's my work!"
It took the girls about five minutes of the hardest work they had ever
done in their lives. But they did what they had set out to do. At the end
of that time Mrs. Ford consented to start with them whenever they were
ready.
"Day after to-morrow?" asked Mollie, her eyes shining.
"I don't know why not," said Mrs. Ford, then sprang to her feet with a
cry of dismay. "Girls, I completely forgot to telephone the Red Cross.
What will they think of me?"
CHAPTER V
A PROBLEM SOLVED
"I wish," said Mollie, sitting back to view approvingly the shining
black hood of her car, "that we had another machine. I'm afraid by the
time we've packed our bags and things into the tonneau we'll find it
rather crowded. And for such a long trip we ought to have plenty of
room."
"That's what I was thinking," agreed Amy, rubbing a bit of nickel to a
gleaming polish, for the girls had gathered at Mollie's to help her put
the car