Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace Page A

We’ll call it the Secret Lane.”
    “We’ll say S.L.,” said Tacy, “so no one will know what we mean.”
    “If anyone asks us where we’ve been today, we’ll say we’ve been to the S.L.,” said Tib, dancing about in delight.
    “And sometimes we’ll say, ‘Let’s go up to the S.L.,’” said Tacy.
    “We’ll drive Julia and Katie nearly crazy,” Betsy said.
    And they all began to laugh, and they scrambled up on the wall. Tib started to walk around it.
    “Don’t do that, Tib,” said Betsy. “These stones are pretty wiggly.”
    “And this cellar’s deep,” said Tacy, looking down into the weed-grown soggy place.
    But Tib didn’t listen to them, and she didn’t fall either. She ran on light toes to the back of the cellar wall. When she got there she turned around and came back, so swiftly, so eagerly, that Betsy and Tacy knew she had news.
    “Ssh! Ssh!” she said as they drew near.
    “What is it?” whispered Betsy and Tacy.
    “Just wait ’til you see,” Tib replied.
    “Do we have to walk on the wall?” asked Betsy.
    “No,” said Tib. “We can go this way.” And she took hold of their hands.
    She led them softly around to the back of the house. Reddening sumac bushes crowded close, almost concealing the wall. Tib motioned Betsy and Tacy to pause. They hid themselves in the bushes.
    At the back of the house a wing jutted out. A plum tree shaded a little square of ground. Andthere beneath the plum tree, which was covered with small red balls, sat Julia and Katie.
    A fringed blue and white cloth was spread out on the grass. And each girl had a hard-boiled egg in front of her, and a sandwich, and a chunk of cake. Stuck up beside them was a stick and on the stick was a big square card, the same size and shape as that package they always carried to their meetings. It was lettered in large red letters:
BIG HILL MYSTERY CLUB

    “Big Hill Mystery! That’s B.H.M.” Betsy whispered. Tacy and Tib nodded excitedly.
    Julia and Katie peeled and salted their eggs. They were having a very serious conversation. They were talking about what they would be when they grew up. Julia thought she would be an opera singer, and Katie thought she would be a nurse.
    “Either a nurse or a …” began Katie. But just then Betsy moved, and a branch crackled.
    “Ssh!” said Julia. “What’s that I hear?”
    She and Katie looked around.
    Behind the sumac bushes Betsy and Tacy and Tib hardly dared to breathe. They scrunched down and waited until Julia and Katie had turned back to their lunch. Then they put their fingers to their lips and pointed to the front of the house. Saying “Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!” and lifting their feet very high, they crept away.
    Back in the Secret Lane they hugged one another for joy.
    “We know their secret,” Betsy said.
    “We know where their Club meets,” Tacy added.
    “We know what B.H.M. means,” cried Tib.
    They jumped and danced … but softly.
    “Where shall we eat our lunch?” asked Tacy.
    “Right here,” said Betsy. “And when they come out from their Club they will see us, and they’llknow that we know where their Club meets.”
    So they sat down and spread out a red and white fringed cloth; and a hard-boiled egg apiece, and a sandwich apiece, and a chunk of cake apiece.
    “What’s that noise I hear?” asked Tacy as they peeled and salted their eggs.
    “Nothing,” said Betsy. “They wouldn’t be through with their lunch. Let’s print the name of our Club on a card and stick it up whenever we meet.”
    “The Christian Kindness Club! It would look fine,” Tacy said.
    “I’ll print it,” said Tib.
    While they ate their lunch they had a very serious conversation.
    “What shall we do when we grow up?” asked Betsy.
    “I’m going to get married and have babies,” said Tacy without even thinking.
    “I’m going to be a dancer,” said Tib, “or else an architect. I haven’t made up my mind.”
    “I’m going to be an author,” said Betsy. “And I’m