Читать книгу Adele Doring at Boarding School - Grace May North - Страница 11

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Never before had there been a gayer scene at the railway station in that usually quiet town of Sunnyside, for the relatives and friends of the six travelers were all there to bid them good-bye.

“Wall, I swan!” ejaculated the old station-master as he appeared from the baggage-room. “Has the hull population of this here village decided to migrate to Buffalo?”

“Oh, no, Uncle Danny,” Adele replied, shouting in his ear, for the old man, whom every one called Uncle Danny, was very deaf. “Just six of us are going away to boarding-school.”

“Wall, now, you don’t tell! Sorry to hear you’re a-leavin’ us, Della. Even cloudy weather seems a little brighter when you’re around.”

That was just what Granny Dorset had said when Adele had rushed over to the little cottage in Cherry Lane that morning to bid her good-bye. “Don’t study too hard,” Jack Doring called. “We boys would hate to have you get ahead of us.”

“If you have any parties up at your school, send us an invitation,” Bob Angel added.

“Oh, Bob!” Rosamond Wright gaily replied. “You know that you wouldn’t come all the way to a suburb of Buffalo just to attend a boarding-school party.”

“Slippery snails!” Jack suddenly exclaimed. “Dick Jensen, did you forget the order you received last night?”

Dick, a good-looking boy of fifteen, snapped his fingers and whirling on his heels, he ran to his car and returned with a big covered box, out of which he took seven smaller boxes daintily tied with blue and gold ribbons. Presenting one to each of the girls, Dick exclaimed dramatically: “From the unsurpassable Jensen candy shop, gift of the Jolly Pirates to the seven sweetest girls in all the world.”

“Oh, thank you, boys!” Adele cried with glowing eyes. “We will think of you every time that we eat one of these delicious candies.”

“You won’t think of us for long then,” Bob teased, “not if you all eat candy as fast as Rosie does.”

“Here comes the train that is to carry our fair ones away!” Jack shouted. Then, what a scurrying there was. The boys seized satchels and suit-cases and the girls threw their arms around their mothers and fathers for a last embrace, in the excitement of the moment not realizing how much they were going to miss them later. Then the boys escorted them into the train, found their seats, piled their luggage in the racks overhead, and Bob teasingly told them to be sure to get off when they reached their destination. The train started, and the boys made a wild rush for the door and swung to the platform just in time to keep from being borne away.

Adele looked out of the window at her mother, who stood with her arm about Gertrude’s waist. The tears rushed to her eyes. It was hard to leave these two who were so dear to her, but it would not be long before the Christmas holidays, and then they would all be together again.

Blinking back the tears, she turned with her bright smile toward the merry girls who were chatting and laughing all together.

“I do hope we are going to have some interesting adventures at Linden Hall,” Rosamond was saying.

They were to have many adventures and the first one began the very next day.