CHAPTER I ANTICIPATIONS Three girls were strolling down the street, and, as on the occasion when the three fishermen once sailed out to sea, the sun was going down. The golden rays, slanting in from over the western hills that stood back of the little town of Deepdale, struck full in the faces of the maids as they turned a corner, and so bright was the glare that one of them—a tall, willowy lass, with a wealth of fluffy, light hair, turned aside with a cry of annoyance. "Oh, why can\'t the sun be nice!" she exclaimed, half-petulantly. "What do you want it to do, Grace?" asked a vivacious, dark-complexioned sprite next to the complaining one. "Go under a cloud just to suit you?" "No, my dear, I\'m not as fussy as that!" "Indeed not!" chimed in the third member of the trio, a quiet girl, with thoughtful eyes. "What Grace wants is some nice young fellow to come along with an umbrella, hoist it over her, and invite her in to have—a chocolate soda!" "Why, Amy Blackford! I\'ll never speak to you again!" gasped the accused one, blushing vividly, the more so as the rays of the setting sun fell upon her face. "All I said was——" "Look!" suddenly interrupted the vivacious member of the small party—a party that attracted no little attention, for at the sight of the three pretty girls, strolling arm in arm down the main thoroughfare of the town, more than one person turned for a second look. "Gracious! What is it?" demanded Grace. "Did you see—some one, Billy?" "No—something," came the answer from the dark girl with the boyish name, and at a glance you could understand why she was called so. There was such a wholesome, frank and comrade-like quality about her, though she was not at all masculine, that "Billy" just suited. "Look," she went on. "Isn\'t that a perfectly gorgeous display of chocolates!" and she indicated the window of a confectionery store just in front of them. "Oh, I must have some of those!" cried Grace Ford. "Come on in, girls! I\'ll treat. They\'re those new bitter-sweet chocolates. I didn\'t know Borker kept them. I\'m simply dying for some!" and with this rather exaggerated statement she fairly pulled her two chums after her into the store. "Look!" Grace went on, pausing a moment when inside the shop to glance at the chocolate display in the show-window. "Did you ever see anything so—so appetizing?" "It looks like a display at a picnic candy kitchen," murmured she who had been called Billy. "Why, Mollie Billette!" reproached Grace Ford. "I think it\'s perfectly splendid." "But not appetizing," declared Amy Blackford. "I don\'t see how you can think of eating any, when it\'s so near dinner time, Grace." "We don\'t have dinner until seven, and it\'s only five. Besides, I\'m not going to eat many—now." "No, she\'ll take a box home, and keep them in bed, under her pillow—I know her," put in Mollie, alias Billy. "I slept with her one night and I wondered whether she had lumps of coal, or some kitchen kindling wood between the sheets. But it wasn\'t—it was chocolates!...