Before the Brownie leader could decide, Connie began to make strange motions. All the Brownies crowded to the car windows, beckoning for Miss Gordon to board the train.

The teacher thought they were only afraid that she would be left behind and they would have to go on alone to Snow Valley. Then she was startled to see Veve’s face pressed against the car window.

Miss Gordon didn’t hesitate an instant. She swung aboard the train a moment before the compartment doors were closed.

77 Feeling weak and trembly, she walked back to the Brownies.

77

“Oh, Connie,” she murmured. “I thought you said Veve wasn’t aboard. It gave me such a fright!”

“But Veve wasn’t in the car when you asked me,” Connie explained soberly. “She came in as you were calling through the window.”

“That’s right,” agreed Veve. “I found my pocketbook. I was afraid the train might start up, so I got on the first car I came to and walked back. The train’s a long one—that’s why it took me so long to find this car.”

“Oh, Veve,” murmured Miss Gordon. “You might have missed the train.”

“I knew I was on it all the time.”

“But we didn’t know it, and neither did Miss Gordon,” said Jane severely. “Veve, you should be more careful.”

“I will next time,” Veve mumbled, looking ashamed. “Could I help it because I lost my pocketbook?”

“You might have checked to see if you had it before you left the lunchroom,” lectured Jane. “A Brownie always is responsible.”

“I’m not a Brownie, and I did try!” Veve replied, nearly in tears.

78 “Veve has learned her lesson and will be more careful in the future, I’m sure,” declared Miss Gordon. She slipped an arm about the girl’s shaking shoulders. “Now shall we forget about it?”

78

Veve sat down beside Connie and became very subdued. After a while, to make certain none of her money had been lost, she glanced in her purse.

Not a penny was missing. But her heart gave a skip and jump and tried to leap into her throat.

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