“Girls, I’ve talked to your parents, but I can’t reveal the secret just yet. However, I have an important question to ask. Think well before you answer.”

“What is the question, Miss Gordon?” Sunny was squirming with impatience.

“Merely this. How many would be willing to give up part of their school vacation for a Brownie outing?”

“A hike?” demanded Jane.

Miss Gordon smiled and shook her head.

“A trip?” asked Connie, who was a much better guesser.

“Now don’t ask me to reveal the secret too soon,” laughed the leader of the Brownies. “Christmas holidays are precious days. Even if your parents were39 willing, would you really want to go away from Rosedale?”

39

“You mean for several days?” Jane asked, her breath quite taken away. “Over Christmas?”

“It might mean being gone on Christmas Day,” Miss Gordon admitted soberly. “So far, the plan is not definite.”

“Then if we were gone, we wouldn’t get any Christmas presents,” said Sunny, losing her happy smile.

“That part would be taken care of, I assure you,” Miss Gordon declared. “Naturally, I can’t expect you to say whether you would be willing to leave Rosedale, when I haven’t told you where the troop would go.”

The Brownies looked somewhat relieved and waited anxiously for their leader to continue.

Miss Gordon, however, realized that she had said almost too much.

“I can’t tell you any more about the plan until we meet again,” she said. “Until then, I’ll merely ask you all to think very seriously of the question I have raised. If the answer should be ‘yes’—well, who knows?”40

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CHAPTER 4 Miss Gordon’s Surprise

CONNIE’S birthday came on Thursday. The little girl rolled out of bed and went down to breakfast feeling rather blue.

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