ABOARD the train, all the Brownies wondered what had delayed Veve and Miss Gordon.

“I wish they’d hurry and come!” Connie said, squirming nervously in her seat.

“So do I,” added Sunny. “The train’s due to start any minute.”

“Veve never should have forgotten her pocketbook,” Jane offered her opinion. “And then she ran back without even asking Miss Gordon!”

“Veve never stops to think,” Connie said, trying to defend her friend.

She was even more worried than the other Brownies, for she knew Veve’s careless ways. If the little girl failed to find her purse, well, one couldn’t guess what she might do.

“The train’s ready to start!” Sunny said anxiously. “See, everyone is getting on!”

“Everyone except Veve and Miss Gordon,” corrected76 Jane. “Oh, I could wring her neck! Veve’s, I mean.”

Connie scrambled across the aisle to a window which had not been frosted over. She saw Miss Gordon standing alone on the platform. Veve was nowhere to be seen.

Almost at the same instant, the Brownie leader noticed Connie. She ran over to the car window.

“Is Veve aboard?” she called.

Connie shook her head.

Miss Gordon was nearly frantic with worry. The train had started to move.

“Miss, are you getting on, or staying?” called the brakeman.

Before the Brownie leader could decide, Connie began to make strange motions. All the Brownies crowded to the car windows, beckoning for Miss Gordon to board the train.

The teacher thought they were only afraid that she would be left behind and they would have to go on alone to Snow Valley. Then she was startled to see Veve’s face pressed against the car window.

Miss Gordon didn’t hesitate an instant. She swung aboard the train a moment before the compartment doors were closed.

77 Feeling weak and trembly, she walked back to the Brownies.

“Oh, Connie,” she murmured. “I thought you said Veve wasn’t aboard. It gave me such a fright!”

“But Veve wasn’t in the car when you asked me,” Connie explained soberly. “She came in as you were calling through the window.”

“That’s right,” agreed Veve. “I found my pocketbook. I was afraid the train might start up, so I got on the first car I came to and walked back. The train’s a long one—that’s why it took me so long to find this car.”

“Oh, Veve,” murmured Miss Gordon. “You might have missed the train.”

“I knew I was on it all the time.”

“But we didn’t know it, and neither did Miss Gordon,” said Jane severely. “Veve, you should be more careful.”

“I will next time,” Veve mumbled, looking ashamed. “Could I help it because I lost my pocketbook?”

“You might have checked to see if you had it before you left the lunchroom,” lectured Jane. “A Brownie always is responsible.”

“I’m not a Brownie, and I did try!” Veve replied, nearly in tears.

78 “Veve has learned her lesson and will be more careful in the future, I’m sure,” declared Miss Gordon. She slipped an arm about the girl’s shaking shoulders. “Now shall we forget about it?”

Veve sat down beside Connie and became very subdued. After a while, to make certain none of her money had been lost, she glanced in her purse.

Not a penny was missing. But her heart gave a skip and jump and tried to leap into her throat.

The luggage check! What had become of it?

Distinctly, Veve remembered having placed the bit of cardboard in her purse when Miss Gordon had given it to her at Rosedale station. She recalled too, having seen the check when she bought her lunch at Albion Junction.

Frantically, she dug down beneath the coins. The check was not there, or anywhere in the purse. Nor could she find it on the floor beneath the car seat.

“Looking for something?” asked Connie.

“My luggage check,” Veve whispered. “Oh, Connie, whatever shall I do? I think I dropped it in the station when I bought my lunch.”

“Oh, Veve!”

“Don’t tell Miss Gordon or the other Brownies,” Veve pleaded in a whisper.

“But they’ll have to know. How will you get your luggage without the check?”

79 “I—I’ll go without any clothes.”

“That’s silly. You’ll have to have your suitcase.”

“Maybe I’ll find the check, Connie. Please don’t tell the others—at least not yet. They think I’m so stupid for almost missing the train. Oh, Connie, please—”

“Say, what are you two whispering about?” demanded Jane from across the aisle. “Let us into the secret too.”

“We were just talking,” Connie replied. She decided not to tell the Brownies just then about Veve’s latest difficulty.

When the other girls weren’t looking, she helped Veve search for the luggage check. It was not in her coat pocket or anywhere on or under the seat.

“We’ll have to tell Miss Gordon,” Connie said. “Maybe she’ll know what to do.”

“I’ll tell her when we reach Deerford,” Veve decided unhappily. “Until then, let’s not say a word. I want her to forget first about almost missing the train.”

During the remainder of the trip, Veve did not make any trouble. She sat very quietly in her seat and wondered what she would do if she were unable to claim her luggage.

The Brownies watched the snow pelt on the train windows. Now and then they glimpsed a frozen lake80 in the distance. As the miles clicked away beneath the shining steel rails, the snows deepened.

“Another hour or two and we should reach Snow Valley,” Miss Gordon declared, looking at her watch. “Once we reach Deerford station, it wont take long to drive to the farm.”

“The coasting should be wonderful,” said Rosemary, pressing her face close to the car window. By now it was so dark she scarcely could see the white-coated trees and rooftops.

“I wish this old train would go faster,” Jane declared impatiently. “I can hardly wait to get to Deerford.”

Everyone except Veve shared her eagerness to reach the Gordon farm. The leader of the Brownies noticed the little girl’s downcast face and assumed that she still was troubled about nearly missing the train at Albion Junction.

“Cheer up, Veve,” she said. “Think of the delicious dinner Grandma Gordon will have waiting for us when we arrive!”

Veve tried to smile but succeeded only in making a grimace. She kept wondering what Miss Gordon and the Brownies would say when she told them about the lost luggage check.

Thinking about it made her rather tired and discouraged.81 She really had tried to act properly and never cause annoyance. Nothing seemed to go right.

“Except for Connie, the Brownies don’t like me very well,” she thought, feeling very sorry for herself. “Oh, dear, I almost wish I were back home.”

A tear trickled down Veve’s cheek. She was afraid to wipe it away for fear Connie or the other girls would see that she had been crying. So she closed both eyes tightly and counted the click of the rails.

The sound lulled Veve into drowsiness and slumber. Then she had a dream.

She thought she had arrived in a strange town. Grandfather Gordon could be seen motioning to her from the top of a spruce tree. Next he seemed to be floating along in front of her only a few feet from the ground. But no matter how fast she ran, she never could reach him.

The dream ended abruptly, as someone shook her arm.

“Wake up!” said Miss Gordon in her ear. “Another five minutes and we will be in Deerford Station.”

For an instant Veve couldn’t think where she was. Then it all came back to her, and she remembered the missing luggage check.

“Miss Gordon—” she began, but already the82 Brownie leader had turned aside to help Sunny lift a package down from the overhead luggage rack.

The brakeman came through the train, calling: “Deerford is the next station. Deerford! Deerford!”

He paused beside Veve’s seat and smiled at her. “Don’t forget to get off the train, little girl. And be sure to take your packages.”

Now to make certain that nothing would be left behind, Miss Gordon made a last-minute check herself. The girls had brought very little hand luggage. Nearly everything had been sent to the baggage car.

“How will we get our bags?” Eileen asked, dusting off a fleck of soot from her coat.

“They’ll be waiting for us at the station,” Miss Gordon said. “Just have your claim checks ready, girls.”

In a short while the air brakes began to make a whistling sound. The train slowed down a little at a time.

Then it came to a sudden stop and the brakeman called again: “All out for Deerford! All out!”

Connie led the way while Miss Gordon brought up the rear to make certain no one was left behind.

When the Brownies reached the vestibule, a chill83 blast of air struck their faces. Hastily, they buttoned their coats.

Outside the train, it was quite dark. Connie, who was the first to alight, looked up and down the platform.

“Where’s Grandfather Gordon?” she asked. “Isn’t he here?”

No one was in sight except the depot agent and a boy who was hauling luggage from the baggage car ahead.

Then Connie saw a man in a heavy overcoat and cap walking toward her. His face was covered with a warm muffler.

“Well, well!” he exclaimed, grasping her firmly by the waist and swinging her off the platform. “If it isn’t Sunny Davidson!”

“No, I’m Connie Williams,” the little girl laughed. “Sunny’s just getting off the train now.”

“I’m Jane Tuttle,” announced Jane, who had followed close behind Connie.

Grandfather Gordon gave her long golden braids a friendly tweak, and turned to say hello to Rosemary, Sunny and Eileen.

“And who is sober-face?” he asked, gazing at Veve as she stepped down from the train just ahead of Miss Gordon.

84 “I’m Veve McGuire,” she told him, not even trying to smile. She was thinking about the luggage check.

Grandfather Gordon gave Miss Gordon a hearty kiss and hug, and then herded the Brownies ahead of him down the platform.

“Can’t stand here getting cold,” he rumbled. “Come on over to the bobsled. I’ll tuck you all under the bearskin robe.”

“What about our luggage?” asked Eileen.

The question brought Veve up short, and made her feel a little sick in the pit of her stomach.

“Oh, yes, the luggage checks, girls,” said Miss Gordon. “Just give them to Grandfather. He’ll take care of everything.”

Everyone except Veve had her luggage check ready. All the girls were so excited about climbing into the big bobsled that they did not notice, and only Connie knew Veve did not have it.

“Five checks,” said Grandfather Gordon, starting toward the baggage room of the depot. “I’ll have the suitcases in a jiffy.”

Connie fell into step with him. “I’ll go along and help,” she offered.

Grandfather Gordon took such long steps that she had to trot to keep up with him. The air was tingling cold.

85 “Please, Mr. Gordon,” said Connie, and her breath came out in puffs of white vapor, “there should be six suitcases.”

“Six?”

“You have only five checks, because Veve lost hers. Oh, Veve’s had a dreadful time! She didn’t want the other Brownies to know.”

Connie poured out the entire story of how her friend had nearly missed the train at Albion Junction, and then had lost the luggage check.

Grandfather Gordon gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze. “Now don’t you worry your pretty little head,” he chuckled. “We’ll get that bag and no one will be the wiser.”

“You mean you can get it without having a check?”

“Harry Hopkins, the station agent, is an old friend of mine. Come along and point out the bag.”

All the luggage had been piled up on the station platform, Veve’s bag with the others.

Grandfather Gordon presented the five claim checks and explained about the one that was lost.

“I’m not supposed to turn over a bag without a check,” said the station agent. “But under the circumstances, take it along.”

Grandfather Gordon carried all of the luggage to the bobsled.

86 Veve caught sight of her bag with the others and nearly let out a war whoop. Grandfather Gordon didn’t say a word. He lifted Connie into the sled and then unhitched the horses.

Snuggling beneath the bearskin robe, Veve whispered in her friend’s ear:

“Connie, how did you do it?”

“Easy,” she whispered in return. “Grandfather Gordon just asked for the bag and the station agent gave it to him.”

Jane Tuttle stirred restlessly. “What are you two whispering about this time?” she demanded.

“Nothing,” laughed Veve. She felt quite cheerful again.

Grandfather Gordon leaped into the bobsled and clucked to the horses. Away they started at a fast clip down the snowy road.

“We’re off for Snow Valley!” shouted Eileen. “Hurrah!”

“Listen!” cried Veve.

Distinctly the girls could hear the merry jingle of sleighbells. A moment later, the sleigh itself appeared, drawn by a pure white horse.

When the tinkle of the bells had died away, the Brownies heard only the soft swish of the sled runners through the hard-packed snow.

On either side of the curving road rose huge87 drifts, which the girls glimpsed briefly whenever they passed a lighted house.

Connie noticed a high hill, frosted over like a beautiful white cake. Overhead, a few lonesome stars twinkled their eyes.

“A magic mountain!” she exclaimed. “Right out of a story book!”

“Hammer Hill,” said Grandfather Gordon, waving his mitten toward the mound of snow in the distance. “Snow Valley is hidden behind it.”

“Will we be there soon?” asked Sunny, ducking her head to elude the biting wind. “I’m hungry as a wolf.”

“As fast as old Maude and Ginger will take us,” promised Grandfather Gordon. “Have to make one stop though.” He tapped three large sacks of groceries stowed in the front of the sled. “I promised to drop these off at John Jeffert’s place.”

“We’re coming to it now,” added Miss Gordon. She pointed ahead to a forest of evergreen trees. The Brownies could not see the house.

“It’s hidden deep in the woods,” the teacher explained. “Mr. Jeffert is quite a character. He lives alone, and seldom goes into town.”

“How does he earn his living?” inquired Jane curiously.

“Why, he raises evergreens for the market,” Miss88 Gordon revealed. “He has hundreds of Christmas trees on his land.”

At the entrance to the lane which wound in through the evergreens, Mr. Gordon drew rein. A track had not yet been broken through the deep snows ahead.

“I’ll leave the sled and horses here,” he announced. “Be back as soon as I’ve delivered the groceries.”

Grandfather Gordon tied Maude and Ginger to a tree and unloaded the three sacks from the sled.

“Let me go with you and help carry them,” offered Connie quickly.

“I’ll carry a sack too,” offered Jane.

“The snow is deep,” Grandfather Gordon warned. “Think you can make it?”

Connie and Jane were certain they could. They buckled up their galoshes and leaped out of the sled, eager to help.

Grandfather Gordon handed each of the girls a light sack of groceries. He carried the heavy one himself and went ahead to break a trail.

Connie and Jane hadn’t realized before how difficult it was to walk in deep snow. Their galoshes cracked through the crusty surface and down they sank almost to their knees. Soon they were puffing89 and gasping and wondering how they could keep up.

“It isn’t much farther,” said Grandfather Gordon.

“We’ll climb through the rail fence here and take a short cut.”

The night had darkened so that the two Brownies scarcely could see a foot ahead of them. They were glad Grandfather Gordon seemed so sure of the way.

“Over you go!” he laughed, helping first Connie and then Jane across the top rail of the fence. “Now follow me.”

He set off, walking rather rapidly through the big drifts.

Hard pressed to keep up, the girls lowered their heads and plowed doggedly on.

Suddenly, in the darkness ahead, Grandfather Gordon stopped short. A shadowy figure had appeared from behind one of the snow-covered evergreens.

“Stop!” commanded a gruff voice. “Who is trespassing on my land?”