ren't you splendid!" cried Pauline, but Dolly said, in her practical
way, "It wouldn't have been splendid at all, it would have been very
foolish for you two boys to think of fighting that crowd of great ugly
men! It was a case, where the only thing to do, was to submit to their
demand and come away. My father says we did just right."
"Of course, it was the only thing to do," said Tod, "but to me it seemed
awful galling."
"Well, we'll never go there again," said Dotty; "and it ought to be a
lesson to us not to play jokes on people."
"A lesson that _you'll_ never learn," said Dolly, laughing; "you'll have
to have worse experiences than that, Dotty Rose, before you stop playing
jokes on people."
"Is that so?" cried Carroll Clifton; "then you're a girl after my own
heart. I love to play jokes. Let's put our heads together and work up a
good one on somebody."
"Well, this joke isn't on us, anyway," said Dotty, laughing. "We have
our ten dollars back again, Dolly, and I say we spend them before we get
a chance to lose them again."
"But we're going to spend those for something special. You know they are
our cake prizes."
"Oho!" cried Carroll, "did you girls take a prize at a cake walk?"
"Not a cake walk, but we took a prize for making cake," Dotty exclaimed;
"and I say, Dolly, let's buy something in that shop where we bought the
doll. They have beautiful things there of all sorts."
"Come on," said Pauline, "let's all go, and we'll help you pick out
things."
So the two Cliftons and the two Browns and the two D's all started for
the shop. It was that sort of summer resort bazaar that holds all kinds
of fancy knick-knacks for frivolous purchasers.
"Going to get things alike or different?" asked Tod Brown, as they went
in.
"Different, of course," said Tad, "Dot and Dolly never like things
alike."
"Don't you really?" said Pauline; "how funny! I thought you were such
great friends you always had everything just alike."
"No," said Dolly, "we have everything just different. You see our tastes
are just about opposite, I expect that's why we're such friends."
Dotty and Carroll were already studying the things at the jewellery
counter, while Dolly was slowly but surely making toward the book
department.
"Get a picture," suggested Tad, "here are some good water colours of the
sea."
"And here's a coloured photograph of that very fishing place where you
were at," said Pauline.
All sorts of ridiculo
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