The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tabitha's Vacation, by Ruth Alberta Brown, Illustrated by Wuanita Smith

Title: Tabitha's Vacation

Author: Ruth Alberta Brown

Release Date: January 11, 2007 [eBook #20332]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABITHA'S VACATION***

"I hope," panted Tabitha, trotting along at the rear of the procession, "that you don't have your fun in such a hurry."

TABITHA'S VACATION

VOLUME III
IN THE IVY HALL SERIES

BY

RUTH ALBERTA BROWN

AUTHOR OF "TABITHA AT IVY HALL," "TABITHA'S GLORY,"
"AT THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE," ETC.

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO, —— AKRON, OHIO —— NEW YORK
MADE IN U. S. A.

COPYRIGHT, MCMXIII
By THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

"I hope," panted Tabitha, trotting along at the rear of the procession, "that you don't have your fun in such a hurry." . . . Frontispiece

TABITHA'S VACATION

CHAPTER I

THE MCKITTRICKS' MISFORTUNE

"'Ho, ho, vacation days are here,
We welcome them with right good cheer;
In wisdom's halls we love to be,
But yet 'tis pleasant to be free,'"

warbled Tabitha Catt, pausing on the doorstep of her little desert home as she vigorously shook a dingy dusting cloth, and hungrily sniffed the fresh, sweet morning air, for, although the first week of June was already gone, the fierce heat of the summer had not yet descended upon Silver Bow, nestling in its cup-like hollow among the Nevada mountains.

"'Ho, ho, the hours will quickly fly,
And soon vacation time be by;
Ah, then we'll all in glad refrain,
Sing welcome to our school again.'"

piped up a sweet voice in muffled accents from the depths of the closet where the singer was rummaging to find hooks for her wardrobe, which lay scattered rather promiscuously about Tabitha's tiny bedroom.

"Why, Gloriana Holliday, where did you learn that?" demanded the girl on the threshold, abruptly ceasing her song. "It's as old as the hills. Mrs. Carson used to sing it when she went to school."

"So did my mother. I've got her old music book with the words in it," responded her companion, emerging from the dark closet, flushed but triumphant. "There! I've hung up the last dud I could find room for. The rest must go back in the trunk, I guess. My, but it does seem nice to have a few weeks of vacation, doesn't it?"

"One wouldn't think so to hear you carolling about school's beginning again," laughed Tabitha, shaking her finger reprovingly at the red-haired girl now busily collecting the remainder of her scattered