The Camp Fire Girls Solve a Mystery; Or, The Christmas Adventure at Carver House

asked Gladys suddenly, meeting her under the br

looking startled. "Is th

st knew you. What have you done to yourself in the last year? You're the same old Katherine, of course, but you're different, somehow. I noticed it when you first came to Brownell last fall, but I

d her shoulders thrown back, which made her look several inches taller. Her hair no longer hung about her face in stringy wisps; the loose ends were curled becomingly around her temples and ears and held in place with invisible hairpins. She wore a trim worsted dress of an odd shade of blue, which

ct?" asked Katherine, s

e actually stunning! Whoever told you to get that partic

owing twinkle in her eyes which gave her dead away, and Gladys, seeing it, knew that Katherine h

you do it?"

hings you told me to do, and it worked. There is no longer any danger of my coming apart in public! What a trial I used to be to you

o, 'While there's life, there's hope.' We knew you would be a paragon of neatness some day as soo

bove. Looking up they saw Justice Dalrymple leaning over the banisters at the h

, arm in arm, and Justice came down the stairs wringing

en, for

a-a-ke

bones at

pass me-

verity. "If you disgrace me I'll never get you invited any

warbled Justice, to the

I'm a

'm a

can'

scera

I'm a J

'm a

n't

scera

w out the last syllable of his absurd song into a long bleating wail that s

idle t

truck by a sudden recollection. "I said that to you once before," he said, "don't you remember? The first t

mefaced laugh at the remembrance, "huckleberry pudding. And

ice defended himself, "and th

ine, "and yet it's only a little o

t knew her. Katherine noticed the admiration dawning in his eyes and divined his thoughts. After Gladys's spontaneous outburst of approval she knew beyond any doubt that her appearance no longer offended the artistic eye. The knowledge gave her a ne

about?" she asked finally,

gravely, "about the difference in pluma

o another like a flea. I don't see how you can keep your mind on your work long enough to invent

ough, by not having the right kind of help, and

responsibility on his shoulders. Justice had that way of changing all in an instant from a boy to a man. At times he would go frolicking about the house ti

med so old and wise and experienced then that she felt hopelessly ignorant a

m, leading him away from the subject of his work.

my life. Each one's more fun than the next. Hinpoha's a beauty, and Gladys is a dainty fairy, and Sahwah looks

wh

s squabbled among themselves. I never thought th

him with emphasis. "You boys think you're the only ones tha

admitted Justice. "You

in her rolling chair. They settled in a circle before the fireplace, and the talk soon drifted around to Uncle Jasper and his bli

aunt, and that I was named after her. I've been pretending, too, that she taught me to sing, 'Hark, hark, the lark!' Now, when I sing it I always think of her. Wasn't it beautiful, what Uncle Jasper said about her? 'S

med suddenly to have traveled far away from the group

alled? Was your mother's name Sylvia?" It was the first time any

dreaminess and she look

well be named 'Empty' as 'Aggie.' Then once we lived in the same house with a lady who sang, and she used to sing, 'Who is Sylvia?' It was the most tuneful name I'd ever heard, and I wondered and wondered who Sylvia was. But I guess the lady never found out, because

da, joining in the general laug

didn't know what your first real name was before you

ontinued, "Aunt Aggie isn't my real au

the Winnebago

unt'?" asked Sahwah. "Why d

Sylvia. "She always taught me to ca

re tumbled out. Katherine picked it up and laid it back on her lap. It was a small colored poster sketch o

therine curiously. "You brought it along with you when

was half humorous and half wistf

xclaimed Katheri

mother had red hair and was most uncommonly good looking, so I found a picture of a beautiful lady with red hair

ently, "What else do y

t Aggie, in answer to her eager questioning about her mother. Uncons

er, homely but real honest lookin'. They weren't either of them twenty years old. Farmers, I could tell from their talk, and as well as I could make out, the name on their bag was Mitchell. Well, well, along between Waterloo and Poland there suddenly come a terrible bump, and then a smash and a crash, and the next thing I was layin' under the seat a

man and the man were, because they were all b

her people were found, but they were never heard from, so

her," finished Sylvia with a sigh. "But I can

e man I saw on the stairs of your hou

at her in wond

the banisters about half way up the stairs. When I cam

n ever came to the house to see us. I

up on the porch," said Katherine. "That h

Aggie was always careful about

ave opened it,"

suppose he could have been doing ther

n he just ran for his life." Katherine laughed as she remembered her own dismay at seeing the man and thinking that he was the owner of the house, when he was only a stray visitor himself and worse frightened than

give him something for it. While Nyoda went upstairs to the medicine chest Sahwah craftily as

le start. "Whyfor you

t thought maybe there was one and that you might know abo

t dis house, and dat is it ain't cluttered up wif no secrut passidges.' Secrut passidges am powerful unlucky, Mis' Sahwah. Onct I knew a man dat lived in a house dat had a secrut passidge an' one

way!" remarked Justice. "If I didn't know about that passage from Uncle Jasper's diary I'd be inclined to believe every word he said. But I bet the old sinner knows all about it, just a

e of bone. They're doing wonders now that way. He said Dr. Gilbert, the famous specialist, could perform an operation that would cure her. He hadn't had a chance to talk it over with Sylvia's aunt because he had been called away suddenly and when he returned to town the Deane's were gone. He had no idea what had become of them. He only made a hasty examination, but he is positive she can be cured. I know the Deane's can't afford to pay for such an operation, but Dr. Crosby

ot a project under way was a nine days' wonder to Sherry, who usually spent more time in deli

of joy. It had never occurred to them

now it?" as

ise. Her birthday is the twenty-ninth. I'll have Dr. Gilbert come that day

agos, and trooped off to bed, h