"Dorothy! Dorothy!" called Tavia. "Come here just a minute. I want to speak to you."
"Won't you come in?" asked Dorothy, making her way to the side porch.
"No, I can't, really. But I couldn't wait to tell you. I know what the Green Violet meant by her mean remarks. And it's too killing1. I am just dead laughing over it."
"I'm glad it's funny," said Dorothy.
"The funniest ever," continued Tavia. "You know when we got out of the wagon2 Miss Green was standing3 a little way off from Alice. That dude, Tom Burbank, was with her (they say she always manages to get a beau), and she was watching us alight—you know how she can watch: like a cat. Well, Tom asked Nat what was the matter, and if he had been speeding. Everybody seemed to know we had gone off in the auto4, for which blessing5 I am duly grateful. I don't often get a ride—"
"Tavia, will you tell me the story?" asked Dorothy with some impatience6.
"Coming to it! Coming to it, my dear, but I never knew you to be so keen on a common, everyday story before," answered Tavia, with provoking delay.
"The remarks?"
"Oh, yes, as I was saying, Tom asked Nat were we speeding. And Nat said no. Then, looking down at his farmer clothes, he added: 'Not speeding, just melons.' And the dude believed him,—the goose! Then Viola took it all in and she too thinks we were arrested for stealing muskmelons."
The idea seemed so absurd to Tavia that she went off into a new set of laughs, knotted together with groans—she had laughed so long that the process became actually painful.
"Who told you?" asked Dorothy, as soon as Tavia had quieted herself sufficiently7 to hear anything.
"May Egner. She stood by and heard the whole thing. But you must not mention it to Alice," cautioned Tavia, "for she didn't hear it, and I just want the Green Violet to think it is true, every word. It's a positive charity to give that girl something definitely mean to think about. I can see her mental picture of you and Nat and myself standing in a police court pleading 'Guilty' to being caught in a melon patch. Wish we had thought of it: there were plenty along that road, and I have not tasted a fresh muskmelon since I stole the last one from the old Garrabrant place. Ummm! but that was good!"
"Well, I am glad it is no worse," remarked Dorothy. "I had a suspicion she was trying to insinuate8 something like that. And the idea of her not believing that Nat was my cousin!"
"Oh, yes, and that was more of it," went on Tavia. "Tom asked Nat if I was his cousin and he said yes. Wasn't Nat funny to tease so? But who could blame him? I wish I had a chance to get my say in, I would have given Greenie a story! Not only melons, but a whole farm for mine!"
"Lucky you were otherwise engaged then. I noticed you had your hands full answering the questions of that crowd of small boys," remarked Dorothy, smiling at the remembrance of Tavia's struggle with the curious ones.
"But, Doro, are you really going away?" and Tavia's voice assumed a very different tone—it was mournful indeed.
"Yes, I think it is quite decided9. I would not mind it so much if you were coming."
"Me? Poor me! No boarding school for my share. They do not run in our family," and she sighed.
"But perhaps your fairy godmother might help you," went on Dorothy. "She has granted your wishes before."
"Yes, and I promised her that time I would never trouble her again. There is a limit, you know, even to fairy godmothers."
At that moment Mrs. White appeared on the porch.
"What was that I heard about godmothers?" she asked. "You know, D............