"Aye!"

"_Aye_!" appended Loraine, and said it hard. "It's a vote," she
added calmly. Then, staring at each other, they sat for a little with
rather frightened faces. For this thing that they had done was rather a
stupendous thing. T.O. recovered first--courage was as the breath of her
little lean nostrils.

"Girls, this is great!" she laughed. "_We've gone and done it!_
There's nothing left but to pack our trunks!"

"Except a few last trifles, such as deciding where to go and what to pay
for it with," put in Laura Ann with soft irony. "We could decide those
things on the train, I suppose--"

"Let's decide 'em on the spot," rejoined T.O. imperturbably. "Somebody
propose something."

Here Billy was visited with one of her inspirations and promptly shared
it with her usual generosity. "We must hunt up a place to--er--'bunk'
in--just bunk and board ourselves. Of course we can't afford to
_be_ boarded--"

"Of course," in chorus.

"Well, then, one of us must go out into the waste places--oh, anywhere
where the grass has room to grow and there are trees and birds and
_barns_--I stipulate barns." Billy made a splendid, comprehensive
gesture that took in all the points of the compass impartially. "One