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"Wait, oh, Madie, wait!" called Grace, and, stopping in the briar path, Madaline glimpsed the imperturbable Grace, making her way through the thicket and dragging something heavy behind her! "Mercy me!" exclaimed Madaline. "What can she be tugging along!" "Wait, help me!" now called Grace in a bolder voice. "No, I will not! Grace Philow, are you crazy?" gasped Madaline.
"I've been wanting to thank you," began the boy. "My name is Bentley Arnold." "And this Louise Hart and I am Grace Philow," cut in Grace politely. The boy did not bow or scrape foolishly, but accepted the introduction as any boy should. In the West corner of the pavilion they found seats, and quickly exhausting the weather topic, drifted to more interesting subjects.
"Grace Philow lunatic!" answered the brother. "Nice thing to make a fellow miss a whole afternoon on marbles, just to hunt a tied-up tramp!" "Would you rather hunt tigers'?" asked Grace, running along like a wild squirrel, jumping over rocks and springing across the perpetual little streams and brooklets. "Sure I would, wouldn't you? What's an old tramp?" sneered Bennie.
What shall we say to all our loved mothers, who allowed us to cut house work for this wonderful afternoon?" asked Margaret. "Say that I, Grace Gollivar Philow, will go back first chance I get, and fetch watercress for the whole community. Only next time I go, I am going to fetch a gun " Margaret laughed, but Madaline shivered.
"Oh, I wanted to do something noble and I tried to, but it did not just work out," faltered Grace, "but I am going to try it again!" and her eyes blazed defiance at Madaline. "You just do, Grace Philow, and I'll " "Who cares!" interrupted the unconquerable Grace, while Cleo looked a whole volume of inquiries.
"WE have company," said Grace, noticing rather resentfully, that a strange figure occupied a corner of her porch. "And it's a man!" They were almost up to the steps. Evidently Mrs. Philow was very much interested with her guest, for she could be seen gesticulating earnestly.
"That's what the girls say," answered the sister, "but really, Benny, I am not at all. Just as sane as Libby Lintot, and you know every one says she is as crazy as a loon. But all the same if we follow this path we will come to my tree, and maybe we will find a lovely dead tramp all buried in the spring pine needles, tied up by Grace Philow Tenderfoot!"
"I've been in the woods with Kitty, rolling in the mud and sleeping in a tree hammock," announced the boy proudly. "And, please, Ricky, I'm going to take Kitty home with me. She hasn't any nice girl's things in the woods." Mrs. Philow and Leonore were standing waiting for an opportunity to extend hospitality. "This young man just came to take a peek at his old room, Grace," the mother explained.
Gerald Douglass," pointing to "Pan." "Last spring we took a hike to this wood and one of our members tried to do a humane service by making a capture!" "It is not always what we do, but it is always what we try to do," went on Captain Clark, "and Grace Philow tried to capture a tramp. In the attempt she made fast a staunch friend, for Mr. Douglass now stands as our ally, rather than our victim!"
The True Treds had members in the seventh and eighth grammar grades, and the girls' ages ranged from thirteen to fifteen years. Margaret Slowden was fifteen, Cleo Harris fourteen and Grace Philow and Madaline Mower were thirteen.
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