[Ill.u.s.tration: AT THE END OF THE WALL BETTY AND VALERIE WAITED.--_Page 150._]

"Come!" she cried. "We'll go on now to the little hut, and if Vera and Elf come poking along a half-hour later, they can just sit on this wall, and see if they enjoy waiting as well as we did."

It was but a short distance, and they ran part of the way to make up for lost time, but when they reached the gate they found, as Valerie glanced at her tiny watch, that it was later than they thought, and was already about time for them to turn toward Glenmore, if they did not wish to be late.

Hours were strictly kept at the school, and all pupils must return from recreation in time to give themselves personal care, and be in the lower hall at five-thirty for a friendly chat before going to the dining-room at six.

Mrs. Marvin insisted that every pupil look her best at all times.

It was now four o'clock. It would take a half-hour to reach Glenmore.

That meant that not more than a half-hour could be spent at the hut.

There was no answer to their repeated knocking, but as they turned to go they saw old Cornelia coming toward them along the road, a big basket on her arm.

"Well, well, two fine little callers I find waiting for me," she said.

"And what can I do for you?"

"We wanted you to tell us all about some of the old buildings and the interesting stories about the people who lived in them," said Betty, "but it's so late now that I don't believe there's time. We have to be back at Glenmore at five."

"Then sit right down here on my garden-seat and I'll tell you the shortest tale I know, and some other day if you come when you have more time I'll tell you more."

"Oh, that will be fine!" they cried, as with one voice.

"How would you like to hear about the wishing-well?"

"That sounds _great_!" declared Betty and then: "Could you begin it with 'Once upon a time?'"

"Surely," was the quick response, "and now I think of it, I'm sure you must have pa.s.sed the old wishing-well on your way here. The old well was supposed to have magic power, and long ago when the old Paxton House was standing, people came, for miles around, to be near the old well in the garden, and wish for their heart's desire, feeling sure that their wish would be granted.

"Of course the idea was absurd, but the townspeople of those days were superst.i.tious, so that if those things that they wished for beside the well never came to them, they thought that they must have forgotten to ask for them in the right way, and later they would try again.

"If they obtained the thing that they had wished for, they laid their good fortune entirely to the fact that the old well must have approved of them."

"And where is it!" Valerie asked. "You said that we must have pa.s.sed it."

"The old well has a flat wooden cover over it now, with an iron bar to keep it in place, lest some one be careless and fall in, though now the wild blackberry vines have nearly hidden it from sight. Even now when only young leaves are on the brambles, the th.o.r.n.y stems make a network over the cover. The old Paxton House was gone before my time," Mrs.

Derby said, "but a part of its fine wall remains. It was upon that wall that the wishers sat.

"Did you happen to notice a fine piece of wall that seemed to belong to no one at all, and ended in a broad field?"

"The idea!" cried Betty. "Why we _sat_ on that piece of wall, and could have 'wished' just as well as not, if only we'd known it."

"And it's almost half-past four now," said Valerie. "S'pose we run along toward Glenmore, and stop just long enough to sit on the wall and wish.

We can be on time at five, if we do that. Then we could come over some day when we've more time, and hear all about the well, and other stories, too."

It was a good idea, because it was already so late that they could remain but a few moments longer, so with an urgent invitation to come again, and a promise to do so, they ran back to the old wall, looking back to wave their hands to the little woman who waved in return.

CHAPTER IX

THE WISHING-WELL

"Isn't it funny to think that we stopped at the very place to wish, and never knew it?" said Valerie, as they ran along the foot path that would take them back, the shortest way to the wall, and the wishing-well.

"Not so 'funny' as that we'd take so much time and trouble to wish when we get there," said Betty.

"Why is it odd?" Valerie asked, stopping squarely in front of Betty, and looking at her with round eyes.

"Oh, because we're acting exactly as if we believed in the old well,"

Betty said, looking a bit annoyed, yet keeping straight on toward the wall.

"Well, of course we're not so silly as to _really_ and _truly_ believe it could grant our wishes, but it's no harm to try," responded Valerie.

Betty laughed.

"Oh, we don't believe it all, Yet we _must_ believe a little We _b'lieve_ the water boils When the steam comes from the _kittle_.

"It's dark inside the drum, Yet we hear the drumming well, But that we wished beside the wall We'll never, never tell."

"Where did you hear those verses?" Valerie asked.

"That's a funny song my brother sings. I made the second verse to fit to-day."

"Why, Betty Chase! Who'd think you could make poetry?" cried Valerie, looking Betty over, as if it were the first time she had ever seen her.

Betty laughed gayly.

"I guess Mrs. Marvin would tell you it wasn't poetry. Don't you remember she told us the other day that many people could write verses, but that verses were not always _poetry_?"

"Well, all the same, I like the funny verses," Valerie said, "and here we are at the wall again."

"And here's luck to us, and our wishing!" cried Betty.

She sprang up on the wall beside Valerie, and for a moment the two sat thinking.

It was Valerie who first spoke.

"I've been trying to think what to wish for," she said, "and now all at once I know. Mother told me to work hard this year, so as to stand high in my cla.s.s, and Aunt Phyllis said if I could finish in June with ninety per cent. average she'd give me a beautiful ring. Yes, that's what I'll wish for by the old well, and after I've wished it, I'll work harder than ever so that my wish will come true. Well, why do you laugh?" she asked, looking not only amazed, but rather vexed at Betty, who could not stop laughing even when she saw that Valerie was far from thinking it a joke.

"Well, what have I said that is so awfully funny?" she asked sharply.

"Don't be provoked, Valerie," Betty said, but her shoulders shook although she tried to check her laughter.

"I was only thinking," she continued, "how generous you were to help the old well out so nicely. Just as soon as you've wished, you'll start right out to work hard enough to just _make_ the wish come true, well or no well, and I do believe, if your aunt gives you the ring, you'll forget how hard you worked, and you'll be saying: 'I do more than half believe in the wishing-well!'"