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she stopped.
    “Oh, my goodness,” she gasped. “I forgot all about Mrs. De Keyser!”
    “I didn’t,” Honey said calmly. “Jim isn’t coming with us because of the big basketball game this weekend. He promised me that he and Mart and Brian will go over Sunday morning and help Mrs. De Keyser.”
    “Will they be able to cook for her?” Trixie asked, wondering if Mrs. De Keyser would have enough food to hold her over the long weekend.
    “Why not?” Honey answered. “Jim is actually a pretty good cook. There’s no reason why Brian and Mart can’t learn something useful, too.”
    “You’re absolutely right, Honey. I think this will be a broadening experience for them!”
    “Now here’s my plan,” began Honey, getting more serious. “We’ll stop at Mrs. De Keyser’s house after school tomorrow and do a few quick things. Then you go home and pack. Friday night, you’ll come here for dinner. Afterwards Tom will take us in the limousine to Westchester Airport. We’re taking off at about 11 o’clock, and we’ll be in Paris by morning.”
    “We’re flying at night?” Trixie marveled. “When will we sleep?”
    “We’ll sleep on the plane, silly,” Honey said with a laugh. “It takes six hours to fly across the Atlantic, but Europe is six hours ahead of the United States. We’ll arrive in Paris at 5 o’clock in the morning, New York time. But it will be 11 o’clock in the morning, Paris time.”
    “That’s too confusing for me, Honey,” Trixie said. “I only hope the seats in the plane are comfortable.”
    “Don’t worry,” Honey said. “They lean way back and turn into beds. We’ll sleep like babies.”
    Visions of the Eiffel Tower and famous painters in Left Bank cafes whirled through Trixie’s head that night. When she finally fell asleep, her dreams were filled with exotic-looking tourists and a hundred varieties of French pastries. She woke up feeling as if she’d already been to Paris and back—all in one night.
    The next day at school passed in a blur, as Trixie moved from class to class like a wooden statue. More than once, she was scolded by her teachers for not paying attention.
    After school, she and Honey did some quick housework for Mrs. De Keyser, but their minds weren’t on their jobs. Mrs. De Keyser noticed, and was infected by their excitement.
    “Oh, how wonderful it is to be young,” Mrs. De Keyser said. “I remember the first time I went to Paris, as if it were yesterday. You girls are going to have a splendid time.” Trixie whirled around the living room with the vacuum cleaner as if it were a dancing partner. Willy, overexcited by all the giggling and silliness, jumped up onto the coffee table and grabbed the feather duster. Snarling happily at it, he dashed around the corner and went racing up the stairs.
    “Willy!” Honey shouted. “I saw that, you sneaky little dog! Come back here!”
    She dashed upstairs after him, and retrieved the duster before he could do any damage.
    “I believe he thought it was a chicken,” Honey joked. “I think we should take him out for a run to make up for the loss of the feather duster!”
    Trixie and Honey put on their jackets and ran all over the backyard with Willy. Hoping to exhaust him, they took turns running him from one side of the hedge to the other. But they only succeeded in exhausting themselves. Laughing and gasping for breath, they sank down on the lawn to rest. Trixie stuck her foot through the loop in Willy’s leash to prevent him from running off.
    “Now tell me again,” she panted. “What are we going to do when we get to France?”
    “Well, for one thing,” Honey said, “we’ll still be on New York time and we might be really tired. But we probably will want to go sight-seeing anyway. So first we’ll go on that glass-covered boat on the Seine, and then we’ll go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and then we’ll eat in a nice sidewalk cafe, and then we’ll go to this wonderful museum called the