y had
to do, and they sewed and packed and planned until it seemed they must
stop because of sheer exhaustion.

However, their parents sent them to bed early--and not without
difficulty was this feat accomplished--on the night before the great
day, and the morning found them refreshed and wildly eager for this new
adventure.

As, in her own little room, Billie regarded her flushed reflection in
the mirror it seemed impossible to make herself realize that she was
really going to Three Towers Hall at last--Three Towers which had been
the height of her ambition from the time she had entered the grammar
school.

She was beginning to feel quite grown up--which was perhaps the reason
she regarded her new and very pretty brown hat with a critical eye and
smoothed down her new and very pretty brown dress with hands that
trembled with excitement.

"Well, I think I'm all ready now," she said at last, and gave a little,
half-frightened glance around the familiar room. She wondered how it
would seem to sleep in a strange place with no mother or father near by.

Then she shook herself impatiently and picked up her bag--for was she
not grown-up now?

However, she did not feel very grown-up when a moment later she met her
mother in the hall and saw traces of tears on her face. For Mother had
no new scenes to go to and the departure of her two noisy children would
leave the house strangely quiet and subdued.

Billie flung herself upon her mother and hugged her tight.

"Mumsey, you've been crying!" she said to her accusingly. "And you know
you mustn't."

Then to her great surprise she felt a peculiar lump in her own throat,
and two tears forced themselves to her eyes.

She had never dreamt of crying, and for the first time she realized that
leaving one's mother--even for Three Towers--was not easy, after all!

But it was Mrs. Bradley who came to the rescue and prevented a break
down by asking:

"Isn't that Laura coming down the street? And the boy with her must be
Teddy."

With a quick movement, Billie brushed her hand across her eyes, kissed
her mother hard, and straightened the new brown hat.

"You're coming to the station, M--mother?" she asked, and Mrs. Bradley
nodded.

After that Chet came in, wrestled with the same troublesome lump in his
throat, told his mother, "Not to worry, Mumsey, he'd write every day,
and she mustn't forget to write for he was going to miss her awfully,"
and then Mr. Bradley joined them