feet still," Bess confided to her chum, as they
filed slowly down the gangplank. "Isn't this the most wonderful day you
ever saw in your life, Nan? Just think, this kind of weather in
_February_! It does me good," she added, her eyes sparkling, "to think
of all the other girls at home going around with furs on and thick coats
and complaining of the cold. Oh, how I wish I could see them now."

"Elizabeth! what a mean disposition," said Nan demurely, adding with a
twinkle in her eyes, while she tried hard to keep her feet from
fox-trotting away with her down the gangplank: "Though I would like to
send a little note to Linda and tell her to be careful not to go out in
the cold. It might make her nose red. Oh, Bess, look down there!" She
leaned forward suddenly, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Isn't that
Grace? And Walter----"

"And Rhoda! Yes, it is, and they are waving to us," cried Bess eagerly.
"Of course Grace and Walter said they would be here to meet us, but I
was afraid they never would find us in all this crowd."

Someway the girls got down to the dock, were hugged by Grace and Rhoda,
greeted hilariously by Walter, and were hustled, out of breath, through
the crowd that thronged about them.

"How in the world did you get here, Rhoda?" demanded Nan, when she could
get a chance to ask the question.

"I thought I'd surprise you," declared the girl from Rose Ranch. "I
fixed it all up with Grace and told her not to say a word."

"It's grand!" declared Nan, beaming.

"The best ever," added Bess. "Oh, what grand times we girls are going to
have!"

"Sure we are going to have a grand time," said the girl from Rose
Ranch. "I think I deserve it, after all the trouble I've been through."

"What do you suppose, she was in a railroad wreck," burst out Grace. "A
real, live-to-goodness wreck, too."

"Oh, Rhoda, were you injured?" cried Nan quickly.

"Just a few scratches--on my left elbow and my shins. But it was a close
call, I can tell you."

"Where was it?" asked Bess.

"Out in Connecticut. I went there to visit a distant relative of my dad.
It was a little side line and our train ran into a freight. We knocked
open a car full of chickens and what do you think? Those chickens
scattered far and wide. I'll bet many a family is having chicken dinner
on the sly this week!"

"Then nobody was hurt?"

"Oh, yes, several were more or less bruised and one man had an arm
broken. But everybody was thankful, for they sa