Polly's Business Venture.

by Lillian Elizabeth Roy.

CHAPTER I

POLLY RETURNS TO AMERICA

Five girls were promenading the deck of one of our great Atlantic liners, on the last day of the trip. The report had gone out that they might expect to reach quarantine before five o'clock, but it would be too late to dock that night, therefore the captain had planned an evening's entertainment for all on board.

"Miss Brewster! Miss Polly Brewster! Polly Brewster!" came a call from one of the young boys of the crew who was acting as messenger for the wireless operator.

"Polly, he is calling you! I wonder what it is?" cried Eleanor Maynard, Polly's dearest friend.

"Here, boy! I am Polly Brewster," called Polly, waving her hand to call his attention to herself.

"Miss Polly Brewster?" asked the uniformed attendant politely, lifting his cap.

"Yes."

He handed her an envelope such as the wireless messages are delivered in, and bowed to take his leave of the group of girls. Polly gazed at the outside of the envelope but did not open it. Her friends laughed and Nancy Fabian, the oldest girl of the five, said teasingly:

"Isn't it delicious to worry one's self over who could have sent us a welcome, when we _might_ know for certain, if we would but act prosaically and open the seal."

The girls laughed, and Eleanor remarked, knowingly: "Oh, _Polly_ knows who it is from! She just wants to enjoy a few extra thrills before she reads the message."

"Nolla, I do _not_ know, and you know it! You always make 'a mountain from a mole-hill.' I declare, you are actually growing to be childish in your old age!" retorted Polly, sarcastically.

Her latter remark drew forth a peal of laughter from the girls, Eleanor included. But Polly failed to join in the laugh. She cast a withering glance at Eleanor, and walked aside to open the envelope. The four interested girls watched her eagerly as she read the short message.

Polly would have given half of her mine on Grizzly Slide, to have controlled her expression. But the very knowledge that the four friends were critically eyeing her, made her flush uncomfortably as she folded up the paper again, and slipped it in her pocket.

"Ha! What did I tell you! It is from HIM!" declared Eleanor, laughingly.

Dorothy Alexander was duly impressed, for she had firmly believed, hitherto, that Polly was a man-hater. The manner in which she had scorned Jimmy Osgood on that tour of England would have led anyone to believe that such was the case. Now the tell-tale blush and Eleanor's innuendo, caused Dorothy to reconsider her earlier judgment.

Polly curled her full red lip at Eleanor's remark, and was about to speak of something of general interest, when Dorothy unexpectedly asked a (to her) pertinent question.

"Polly, has anyone ever proposed to you?"

Eleanor laughed softly to herself, and Polly sent poor Dodo a pitying glance. "Is that little head of yours entirely void of memory, Dodo?"

said she.

Then, without waiting for a reply, Polly continued: "Did not Jimmy propose to me, as well as to every one of you girls?"

"Oh, but I didn't mean that sort of an affair," explained Dorothy. "I mean--were you ever in love with anyone who thought he loved _you_?"

"Oh, isn't this a delightful conversation? I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world!" laughed Eleanor.

"Nolla," rebuked Polly, seriously, "your head has been so turned since all those poor fortune-hunters in Europe flattered you, that I fear you will never succeed in business with me. I shall have to find someone else who will prove trustworthy and work."

Polly's threat did not appear to disturb Eleanor very much, for she laughed merrily and retorted: "Dodo, if I answer your question for Polly, what will you do for me, some day?"

"Nolla, you mind your own affairs!" exclaimed Polly, flushing again.

"Dodo is such a tactless child that she never stops to consider whether her questions are too personal, or not. But _you_--well, you know better, and I forbid you to discuss me any further."

"Come, come, girls! This little joke is really going too far, if Polly feels hurt about it. Let us drop the subject and talk about the dance the Captain is going to give us tonight," suggested Nancy.

"I'm going to wear the new gown mother got in Paris," announced Dorothy.

"Ma says we can save duty on it if I wear it before it reaches sh.o.r.e."

The other girls laughed, and Eleanor added: "That's a good plan, Dodo. I guess I will follow your example. I've got so many dutiable things in my trunks, that I really ought to economise on something."

"Well, I won't wear one of my new dresses tonight for just that reason.

If I want them badly enough, to bring them all the way from Paris where we get them so much cheaper than on this side, then I'm willing to pay Uncle Sam his revenue on them," said Polly, loftily.

"Ho! I don't believe it is duty you are saving, as much as indulging in perverseness by not donning one of your most fetching gowns," declared Eleanor.

"Maybe it is," said Polly, smiling tantalizingly at her chum. "Perhaps I want to keep the freshness of them for someone in New York, eh?"

"Certainly! _He_ will be there to meet you, sure thing!" laughed Eleanor.

At that, Dorothy drew Eleanor aside and, when Polly was not looking, whispered eagerly: "Do tell me who he is?"

But Eleanor laughingly shook her head and whispered back: "I dare not!

That is Polly's secret!"

But she did not add for Dorothy's edification, that try as she would, she (Eleanor) had never been able to make Polly confess whether she preferred one swain to another. As Eleanor considered this a weakness in her own powers of persuasion, she never allowed anyone to question her that far.

Had anyone of the four girls dreamed of who the sender of the wireless was, what a buzzing there would have been! Eleanor Maynard would have been so pleased at the possibility of a romance, that she would have acted even more tantalizing, in Polly's opinion, than she had been of late months.

Perhaps you are not as well acquainted with Polly and her friends, however, as I am, and it would be unkind to continue their experiences for your entertainment, until after you are duly informed of how Polly happened to leave her home in Oak Creek and also what had pa.s.sed during the Summer in Europe.

Polly Brewster was born and reared on a Rocky Mountain ranch, in Colorado, and had until her fourteenth year, never been farther from her home than Oak Creek, which was the railroad station and post office of the many ranchers of that section.

Eleanor Maynard, the younger daughter of Mr. Maynard who was a prosperous banker of Chicago, accompanied her sister Barbara and Anne Stewart, the teacher, when they spent a summer on the ranch. Their thrilling adventures during the first half of that summer are told in the book called "Polly of Pebbly Pit," the first volume of this series.

After the discovery of the gold mine on Grizzly Slide, and the subsequent troubles with the claim-jumpers, Polly and her friends sent for John Brewster who was engaged to Anne Stewart, and Tom Latimer, John's best friend, to leave their engineering work on some mines, for the time being, and hasten to Pebbly Pit to advise about the gold mine, and to take action to protect the girls. These experiences are told in the second volume of this series.

Success being a.s.sured in the mining plans of the gold vein on Grizzly Slide, and the valuable lava cliffs located on Pebbly Pit ranch also finding a market as brilliant gems for use in jewelry, Polly and Eleanor decided to accompany Anne Stewart to New York, where she was going to teach in an exclusive school for young ladies.

In the third book, Polly and Eleanor's adventures in New York are told.

Their school experiences; the amateur theatricals at which Polly saved a girl from the fire, and thus found some splendid friends; and the new acquaintance, Ruth Ashby, who was the only child of the Ashbys. They also met Mr. Fabian in a most unusual manner, and through him, they became interested in Interior Decorating, to study it as a profession. When the school-year ended, all these friends invited the two girls to join their party that was planned to tour Europe and visit noted places where antiques are exhibited.

The following fourth book describes the amusing incidents of the three girls on board the steamer, after they meet the Alexanders. Mrs.

Alexander, the gorgeously-plumed ranch-woman; Dorothy, always known as "Dodo," the restive girl of Polly's own age; and little Ebeneezer Alexander, too meek and self-effacing to deny his spouse anything, but always providing the funds for her caprices. This present caprice, of rushing to Europe to find a "t.i.tle" for Dodo to marry, was the latest and hardest of all for him to agree to.

Because of Mrs. Alexander's whim, the ludicrous experiences that came upon the innocent heads of Polly and her friends, in the tour of England in two motor cars, decided them to escape from that lady, and run away to Paris. Before they could sigh in relief at their freedom, however, the Alexanders loomed again on their horizon.