Two Little Women on a Holiday

Two Little Women on a Holiday

Project Gutenberg's Two Little Women on a Holiday, by Carolyn Wells #6 in our series by Carolyn Wells
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Two Little Women on a Holiday
Author: Carolyn Wells
Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5893] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 18, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO LITTLE WOMEN ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

TWO LITTLE WOMEN ON A HOLIDAY
BY
CAROLYN WELLS Author Of The Patty Books, The Marjorie Books, Two Little Women Series, Etc.
FRONTISPIECE BY E. C. CASWELL
Made in the United States of America 1917

TO MY VERY DEAR CHILD FRIEND
FRANCES ALTHEA SPRAGUE

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
A WONDERFUL PLAN
II A FAVOURABLE DECISION
III THE ARRIVAL
IV A MERRY QUARTETTE
V GOING ABOUT
VI A MATINEE IDOL
VII GREAT PREPARATIONS
VIII THE CALLER
IX FINE FEATHERS
X A SKATING PARTY
XI THE COLLECTIONS
XII THE LOST JEWEL
XIII SUSPICIONS
XIV AT THE TEA ROOM
XV DOLLY'S RIDE
XVI WAS IT ALICIA?
XVII A CLEVER IDEA
XVIII FOUR CELEBRATIONS
XIX ALICIA'S SECRET
XX UNCLE JEFF'S FOUR FRIENDS
CHAPTER I
A WONDERFUL PLAN
"Hello, Dolly," said Dotty Rose, over the telephone.
"Hello, Dot," responded Dolly Fayre. "What you want?"
"Oh! I can't tell you this way. Come on over, just as quick as you can."
"But I haven't finished my Algebra, and it's nearly dinner time, anyway."
"No it isn't,--and no matter if it is. Come on, I tell you! You'd come fast enough if you knew what it's about!"
"Tell me, then."
"I say I can't,--over the telephone. Oh, Dolly, come on, and stop fussing!"
The telephone receiver at Dotty's end of the wire was hung up with a click, and Dolly began to waggle her receiver hook in hope of getting Dotty back. But there was no response, so Dolly rose and went for her coat. Flinging it round her, and not stopping to get a hat, she ran next door to Dotty Rose's house.
It was mid January, and the six o'clock darkness was lighted only by the street lights. Flying across the two lawns that divided the houses, Dolly found Dotty awaiting her at the side door.
"Hurry up in, Doll," she cried, eagerly, "the greatest thing you ever heard! Oh, the very greatest! If you only CAN! Oh, if you ONLY can!"
"Can what? Do tell me what you're talking about." Dolly tossed her coat on the hall rack, and followed Dotty into the Roses' living-room. There she found Dotty's parents and also Bernice Forbes and her father. What could such a gathering mean? Dolly began to think of school happenings; had she cut up any mischievous pranks or inadvertently done anything wrong? What else could bring Mr. Forbes to the Roses' on what was very evidently an important errand? For all present were eagerly interested,--that much was clear. Mr. and Mrs. Rose were smiling, yet shaking their heads in uncertainty; Bernice was flushed and excited; and Mr. Forbes himself was apparently trying to persuade them to something he was proposing.
This much Dolly gathered before she heard a word of the discussion. Then Mrs. Rose said, "Here's Dolly Fayre. You tell her about it, Mr. Forbes."
"Oh, let me tell her," cried Bernice.
"No," said Mr. Rose, "let her hear it first from your father. You girls can chatter afterward."
So Mr. Forbes spoke. "My dear child," he said to Dolly, "my Bernice is invited to spend a week with her uncle, in New York City. She is privileged to ask you two girls to accompany her if you care to."
Dolly listened, without quite grasping the idea. She was slow of thought, though far from stupid. And this was such a sudden and startling suggestion that she couldn't quite take it in.
"Go to New York, for a week. Oh, I couldn't. I have to go to school."
Mrs. Rose smiled. "That's just the trouble, Dolly. Dot has to go to school, too,--at least, she ought to. Bernice, likewise. But this invitation is so delightful and so unusual, that I'm thinking you three girls ought to take advantage of it. The question is, what will your