Page:Betty Gordon at Boarding School.djvu/13

Rh "Oh, don't!" cried Betty eagerly. "What is it, Bob? Be careful or you'll break it."

Bob Henderson reined in his mount and slipped to the ground. The white horse contentedly went to munching dry blades of dusty grass.

"Bob, I do believe you've been silly," said Betty, trying to speak severely and failing completely because her dimple would deepen distractingly. "You know I told you not to do it."

"How do you know what I've done?" demanded Bob, placing a square package in the girl's hands. "Don't scold till you know what you're scolding about."

Betty, busy with the cord and paper, paused.

"Oh, Bob!" she beamed, her vivid face glowing with a new thought. "What do you think? I had a letter yesterday from Bobby Littell, and she's going to boarding school. And, Bob, so am I! Uncle Dick says so. And, Bob"

"Yes?" smiled Bob, thinking how the girl's face changed as she talked. "Go on, Betty."

"Well, Louise is going, too, and they think Libbie will come down from Vermont. Dear old Libbie—I wonder if she is as incurably romantic as ever!"

Betty's fingers had worked mechanically while she spoke, and now she had her parcel undone.

"Why, Bob Henderson!" she gasped, as she