Then, throwing up his head resolutely, he lifted the latch, entering the room with firm tread.
"I'm a bit late, girls, but come on up in the village!" he invited.
"Here, Hattie, you take charge of this little roll," he added, thrusting his money into his wife's hand.
Not more than three minutes later the three Drakes issued from the house, Mollie enjoying a "ride" on her father's shoulder.
"Why, where are the boys ?" he demanded.

"I left them here." "Gone, like all good angels, when their work is done," smiled his wife.
"It's all right, anyway, girls," Tom Drake answered cheerily.
"We're pretty sure to find 'em up in the village, where we're going." In the first place that the Drakes entered they came upon Dick and his three friends.

The Gridley boys, after dodging a crowd that wanted to lionize young Prescott, had taken refuge, unseen, in the back of an otherwise deserted ice cream saloon.
"There they are!" cried Mollie, running the length of the shop, as fast as her chubby little legs could take her.

She ran straight to Dick who bent over to give her a gentle hug.
"I don't know what to say to you young men," cried Mrs.Drake, halting beside the boys, her voice breaking a little, her eyes moist.
"Then, if you'll permit me to offer a suggestion," Dick smiled back, as he rose, "it seems to me that conversation might spoil several good things.

Won't you all sit down and be our guests in a little ice cream feast that we have started ?" It was almost an hour before the little party broke up.