Then she opened Arthur’s note, which began: 

“Dear Ruth: 

“This is not a sell, but a real secret.  Father has just told me that if everything goes well we three will take a trip abroad next year and meet you and your father.  We want you to travel with us if we do.  Isn’t that great?  You can tell your people, but we don’t want it told in Glenloch just yet.  I’m going to work like everything this fall so that when the time comes there won’t be anything on my part to keep us from going.

“Keep jolly, and remember that you’re a Glenloch girl and must come back to us before long.

Yours, Arthur.”

“Here’s a grand surprise, and you two can be in the secret,” she said as she handed the note to Uncle Jerry.  “Isn’t it fine to think that the Glenloch good times haven’t come to an end?” she continued.  “Do you remember the story of the ‘Princess and the Goblins,’ and how the little Princess always felt safe so long as she held one end of her fairy grandmother’s thread?  Well, I feel as if I am taking with me the ends of any number of threads; one from each of the girls, and a very important one from Aunt Mary, and a great many others, too.  I’m going to keep tight hold of them all, and some day they will pull me back to Glenloch, I’m sure.”

Ruth sat silent for some time looking out with eyes that hardly saw the heavenly blue of the sky, or the sparkle of the waves as they rose and fell in the sunshine.  Then, as though her spirit had already traversed the unending stretch of ocean, she said with a throb of exultation in her voice: 

“Now, six days of this, and then Germany and—­my father.”

Other Stories in this Series are Glenloch girls abroad Glenloch girls’ club Glenloch girls at camp west

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