Glenloch Girls Part 34

"This clock is to tick away the hours until you come back to us.

Please hurry so that it won't get too tired.--PHIL."

Then a boyish-looking writing announced, "'Time and tide wait for no man,' but Glenloch and the Candle Club will wait for the nicest girl that ever came out of the West.--JACK."

"Dear me! Am I blus.h.i.+ng, Aunt Jerry?" asked Ruth quite overpowered by this last tribute. "This next is Frank's; I know his funny, scrawly writing."

"'Backward, turn backward, oh, Time in thy flight.' Give us our Ruth again just for to-night."

"Isn't that neat and sentimental? Now I shall go in and play and sing 'My Bonnie lies over the Ocean.' Aren't you glad you're out of ear-shot?--Frank."

Card number four was enlivened by a funny drawing of a boy with his fists in his eyes standing in a pool of tears, and under it the inscription: "Bert; his feelings to a T."

The last card said in writing so small that Ruth could hardly read it:

"Dear Ruth:

"Hope you'll like the clock. We know you are fond of a good time(-keeper). I am growing thin because I miss you so. Not a morsel of food has pa.s.sed my lips to-day; it has all gone in. My kindest regards to Emperor William.

"Love to Uncle Jerry and Mrs. Jerry.

"Yours,"

"Joe."

Ruth sat back in her chair quite overwhelmed by her latest gift.

"Isn't that a dear clock, and aren't they perfectly dandy boys?"

she asked as she fished around in the bag which was growing empty.

"Here's something from Dolly," she added as she drew out a tiny package with a note attached.

"DEAR RUTH" (the note said):

"I've decided not to be jealous any more, and just to prove it I'm sending you my heart.

"Do write soon to

"Yours lovingly, DOROTHY."

Ruth hastened to open the package and found in a little box a tiny, gold heart. "How lovely! Dolly heard me say I wanted one of these little hearts," she said in a satisfied tone. "And isn't it sweet of her to forgive me for letting Uncle Jerry marry you?" she added with a laugh.

"Now there are just two more packages; a small and a large. Which shall I take?"

"Take the large one; you've just opened a small one," advised Uncle Jerry.

Ruth pulled out a large, square package, and opened it to find a handsome alb.u.m filled with snapshots of Glenloch scenes and Glenloch friends.

"That's from Arthur, I know, though it doesn't say so, and that's what he's been so busy and secret over all these last weeks."

Ruth turned the leaves knowing that here, at least, she should find an unfailing source of pleasure. There were single pictures and groups of all the girls and boys she knew best, some of them so funny she could hardly see for laughing. There was Joe as the nice old lady; all the Candle Club boys in the costumes they wore at the last party; Ruth herself starting off on Peter Pan for a ride with Uncle Henry; Fuzzy in his most bewitching att.i.tudes; and others so suggestive of the good times that had been that Ruth finally closed the book with almost a sigh.

"Well, now for the last package," she said diving into the bag.

"Oh, here's a note from Arthur that I didn't find before." She tucked the envelope down in her lap, and opened first the little box to which was attached a note from Mrs. Hamilton. In the box was a brooch, a holly wreath in delicate greenish gold with tiny rubies for berries. The note said:

"DEAREST OF BORROWED DAUGHTERS:

"This is from Uncle Henry and me to remind you of the Christmas when you did so much for us. I am beginning to miss you even as I write this, and I don't like to think of our home without you.

Come to us again soon. With much love,

"AUNT MARY."

Ruth's eyes were suspiciously misty as she held the note and the little box out to Mrs. Jerry. "You'll have to read that for yourself,"

she said with a choke in her voice.

Then she opened Arthur's note, which began:

"DEAR RUTH:

"This is not a sell, but a real secret. Father has just told me that if everything goes well we three will take a trip abroad next year and meet you and your father. We want you to travel with us if we do. Isn't that great? You can tell your people, but we don't want it told in Glenloch just yet. I'm going to work like everything this fall so that when the time comes there won't be anything on my part to keep us from going.

"Keep jolly, and remember that you're a Glenloch girl and must come back to us before long.

Yours, ARTHUR."

"Here's a grand surprise, and you two can be in the secret," she said as she handed the note to Uncle Jerry. "Isn't it fine to think that the Glenloch good times haven't come to an end?" she continued.

"Do you remember the story of the 'Princess and the Goblins,' and how the little Princess always felt safe so long as she held one end of her fairy grandmother's thread? Well, I feel as if I am taking with me the ends of any number of threads; one from each of the girls, and a very important one from Aunt Mary, and a great many others, too. I'm going to keep tight hold of them all, and some day they will pull me back to Glenloch, I'm sure."

Ruth sat silent for some time looking out with eyes that hardly saw the heavenly blue of the sky, or the sparkle of the waves as they rose and fell in the suns.h.i.+ne. Then, as though her spirit had already traversed the unending stretch of ocean, she said with a throb of exultation in her voice:

"Now, six days of this, and then Germany and--my father."

Other Stories in this Series are GLENLOCH GIRLS ABROAD GLENLOCH GIRLS' CLUB GLENLOCH GIRLS AT CAMP WEST