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[Illustration: She found Douglas sitting in a forlorn heap in their tent.
(_Frontis_) (_The Carter Girls' Week-End Camp_)]
AUTHOR OF "The Molly Brown Series," "The Tucker Twins Series," etc.
A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York Printed in U. S. A.
CHAPTER PAGE I. A LETTER 5 II. THE RETURN 12 III. THE PROBLEM 30 IV. ROBERT CARTER'S ASTONISHING GIRLS 48 V. THE TUCKERS 66 VI. POST-PRANDIAL CONVERSATIONS 78 VII. THE STORM 97 VIII. THE DAMAGE DONE 115 IX. MR. MACHIAVELLI TUCKER 126 X. MR. HIRAM G. PARKER 142 XI. THE BIRD 165 XII. PLEASE REMIT 185 XIII. TEAKETTLE 194 XIV. THE FORAGERS 212 XV. BABES IN THE WOOD 232 XVI. TOM TIT 252 XVII. THE SPRING-KEEPER 269 XVIII. MORE FINDS 278 XIX. A DISCUSSION 286 XX. DR. WRIGHT TO THE RESCUE 298 XXI. LETTERS 311
From Douglas Carter to her mother, Mrs. Robert Carter
Words cannot express the joy and gratitude all of us feel that father is really getting well. I shall never forget the miserable time last spring when Dr. Wright came into the library where Helen and Nan and Lucy and I were sitting and told us of his very serious condition. I had felt he was in a very bad way but did not realize it was quite so dreadful. I am sure you did not, either. And when Dr. Wright said that you must take him on a long sea voyage and we understood that we were to be left behind, the bottom seemed to drop out of the universe.
And now, dear mother, I have a confession to make: You took for granted we were going to the springs when we wrote we were to spend the summer in the mountains, and we thought with all the worry you had about father, perhaps it was best to let you go on thinking it. Of course you did not dream of the necessity of our doing anything to make money as father had never told you much about his finances. Well, mother dear, there was about $80 in the bank in father's private account. Fortunately for the business, which Mr. Lane and Dick have carried on to the best of their ability, there was some more in another account, but we have managed without touching that. I hope I am not going to shock you now, but you shall have to know it--we have rented our lovely home, furnished, for six months with privilege of a year, and we have sold the car, dismissed the servants--all but Susan and Oscar, who are up here at Greendale with us. This is what might shock you: We are running a week-end boarding camp here in the mountains and the really shocking part of it is--we are making money!