ic fluttered a tiny little object with webbed wings and
the body of a mouse.

"A bat!" cried Laura, sinking down weakly and shaking with hysterical
laughter. "Oh, girls, if I have to stay here another week I'll just die
of heart failure--I know I will!"

CHAPTER XVIII

A FISH STORY

The days passed without further scares until the time finally came when
the boys were to arrive.

During those days the girls roamed around the farm attached to Cherry
Corners. They found it for the most part a rocky place, with here and
there dense patches of woods. There was a brook and in this they saw some
small fish darting about.

"Maybe the boys will want to go fishing when they come," suggested
Billie.

The cherry trees also interested the chums--there were so many of them.
The late cherries were ripe, and they spent a day in picking them,
donning overalls for that purpose. Mrs. Gilligan took the fruit and made
several delicious pies and also a number of tarts.

The place was certainly a lonesome one. Only once did they see two
men tramp by. The men eyed the girls curiously, but tramped on
without speaking.

"Certainly not very sociable," was Violet's comment.

At last came the time when the boys were to arrive.

The girls were in a fever of excitement and anticipation, for they knew
that they would have just about twice as much fun with the boys as
without them.

"We can go on picnics," said Laura, putting on her hat over one eye as
she had a habit of doing when unusually excited, "and long tramps in the
woods, and--oh, all sorts of things."

"I wonder if that old wagon will ever come," said Violet, looking
anxiously down the road. "If it doesn't hurry we'll be too late to meet
the train."

The boy who daily brought them provisions from the village had been
commissioned to send the antiquated carriage after the girls so that they
could get down to the village in time to meet the early train. But the
girls, with no confidence in the country lad's memory, had been sure he
would forget all about it.

"If he doesn't come pretty soon, the boys will get off the train
with no one to meet them," Violet went on worrying. "They won't know
where to go."

"Goodness, they'll know where to go just as well as we did," said Billie,
regarding herself sideways in the mirror to be sure she had not forgotten
anything. "They aren't infants, you know."

"Here it comes! Here it comes!" sang out Laura from her place at the