Two Little Women

by Carolyn Wells

  CHAPTER XIII

  THAT LUNCHEON

  To Dolly's surprise she discovered that Bob and Bert were in earnestregarding their preference for expeditions that did not include girls.Nearly every day the two boys went off fishing or motor boating with alot of their cronies, but the girls were seldom asked.

  "They're always like that," said Dotty, carelessly. "They like to ramblethrough the woods or cruise around the lake by themselves. They wear oldflannel shirts and disreputable hats, and they eat their lunch any oldway, without any frills or fuss. I don't like that sort of picnickingmyself, I like pretty table fixings even if they're only paper napkinsand pasteboard dishes. But the boys like tin pails and old frying pansand they catch their fish and cook 'em and eat 'em like a horde ofsavages."

  "All right," agreed Dolly, "we can have fun enough without them; but Ithink they might take us along sometimes. Let's get up a rival picnicsome day, and see if they won't come to it."

  "They won't," said Dotty, "but we can try it, if you like. And anywaywe can have our own fun."

  So one day when all the boys of the neighbouring camps were going on afishing trip, the girls arranged a picnic of their own.

  The two Holmes girls, Maisie Norris, Dolly and Dotty, and three or fourothers, were in the crowd and they were to go in two motor boats toBramble Brook, the very spot where the boys were trout fishing that day.

  Long Sam navigated one boat and the Norris's man engineered the other.

  Dolly had evolved a plan for a great joke on the boys, which, sheflattered herself, would even up with Bert for the joke he had played onher.

  In pursuance of their plan, the girls were taking with them a mostmarvellous luncheon.

  There were boxes of devilled eggs, each gold and white confection in acase of fringed white paper. Sandwiches in tiny rolls and fancy shapes.Dishes of salad that were pictures in themselves, and platters of coldmeats cut in appetising slices and garnished with aspic jelly inquivering translucence. Platters of cold chicken, delicately browned andgarnished with parsley and lemon slices. Dainty baskets of littlefrosted cakes and tartlets filled with tempting jam covered withfrosting.

  Oh, Dolly had planned well for her little joke, and if successful, itwould be rare sport.

  The boys had been gone for hours when the girls started, and in theirfresh linen dresses and bright hair-ribbons they were a jolly lookingcrowd who filled the two motor boats as they left the Crosstrees pier.

  Mrs. Rose waved a good-bye, knowing the young people were safe, incharge of Long Sam and old Ephraim, the tried and trusted factotum ofthe Norris family.

  "In you go!" cried Long Sam as he deftly handed the girls into theboats, and the laughing crowd settled themselves to enjoy the trip.

  It was a beautiful mid-summer day, and the heat sufficiently tempered bythe cool breezes that swept across the lake. The girls chattered andsang and called to each other as the two boats kept close together ontheir way.

  When they reached Bramble Brook they did not go to the regular landingplace, but Long Sam cleverly found a concealed nook where they couldland without danger of being seen by the boys who were already there.

  The trout stream was a long one, but all of its meanderings were wellknown to Sam and Ephraim, who were old residents of the locality.

  The girls waited while the two men went to reconnoitre.

  After a time the scouts returned.

  "They're away up the brook," said Long Sam, "but all their grub andthings is stacked in the clearing, and I reckon they'll be coming alongback in about an hour to feed. They started pretty early and I reckonthey can't hold out much longer 'thout their grub. What next, ladies?"

  "You, Sam, help us unpack our hampers," said Dolly, who was directingaffairs, "and you, Ephraim, go and gather up all their foodstuff andeither hide it around there or bring it back here."

  "Yes'm," and old Ephraim trudged away, intent only on obeying orders tothe letter.

  He returned with a big basket on either arm.

  "Thought I'd better fetch it along," he said; "them chaps would hunt itout wherever I hid it. I left 'em all their cooking things, pots andpans, but poor fellers, they won't have nothin' to cook!"

  "Here's their coffee," cried Edith Holmes, who was peering into thebaskets. "And here's bacon and eggs, oh, what horrid looking stuff! Andloaves of dry bread! Guy and Elmer just hate plain bread. _May be_ theywon't care for our sandwiches!"

  "Let's make coffee!" said Dotty; "there's nothing so good at a campfeast as coffee. Don't you love it, Edith?"

  "Mother doesn't let me have it, but make it all the same, the boys adoreit."

  "We can have one cup," said Dotty; "Mother allows that. But I'm going tomake it, the boys will be crazy about it. You scoot back and get thecoffee pot, Ephraim, and the big long spoon, they'll probably have one."

  Back went Ephraim on his errand, and when he returned his eyes weregreeted by the sight of the daintily spread luncheon.

  Heavy brown papers had been spread on the ground, and these were coveredwith a tablecloth of white crepe paper with a design of green ferns fora border. Real ferns were laid here and there under the dishes of goodthings, and piles of white pasteboard plates and paper napkins were inreadiness.

  "What about coffee cups?" exclaimed Maisie. "I know they only havehorrid old tin things."

  "Oh, we've lots of paper drinking cups," said Dotty, "those prettypleated ones, they'll be lovely for coffee. Say, Sam, I want this coffeeto be just right, and I wish you'd make it. I know how, but I'm sureyours will be better."

  Long Sam was greatly flattered at this compliment, and he proceeded tobuild a fire and make the coffee with a practised hand that betokenedlong experience in these arts.

  "Isn't the table lovely!" exclaimed Josie Holmes, as she brought a fewwild flowers she had found, and placed them gracefully among the fernsthat decorated the feast.

  "And thank goodness I haven't seen a spider nor an ant!" cried NellieNorth, who had been, with another girl, told off to keep the table freeof any such marauders. One venturesome grasshopper had made a springtoward the food, but had been caught and had his energies turned in afar different direction.

  "S'pose we have to wait an awful long time," said Edith, as she lookedlongingly at the tempting dishes.

  "Never mind if we do!" said Dotty; "there's nothing that can take anyhurt. There's nothing to get cold except the coffee, and Sam will attendto that. The glass fruit jars full of lemonade are in the brook, so thatwill be lovely and cool when we want it. Oh, everything is all right;and we've only just got to wait. So you girls may as well make up yourmind to it."

  Although the wait seemed long, after a time, Long Sam, scouting about,heard the boys' voices in the distance. He warned the girls and theywere all quiet as mice, awaiting developments.

  The crowd of boys came nearer, laughing and shouting, as they reachedtheir own headquarters.

  Sam beckoned to the girls to come and peep through the bushes at theamazed group, who had suddenly discovered that their food was missing.

  "Somebody has swiped it!" cried Elmer Holmes, angrily. "All our grub isgone! I say, fellows, what shall we do?"

  "Do! Go after them and get it back!" cried Jack Norris, and then achorus of shouts went up; "the coffee pot's gone!" "All the bacon andeggs are gone!" "And the bread, too!"

  "They sure made a clean sweep," said Bert Fayre. "Who do you s'pose didit?"

  "Some other crowd of fishing chaps," said Bob Rose, confidently, "but itdoesn't often happen,--a thing like that. No decent fellows would doit."

  The girls, only a few rods distant, were peeping through the bushes andshaking with silent laughter at the discomfited boys. Such looks ofchagrin and dismay as they showed! and such belligerent determinationto hunt the marauders and duly punish them.

  "Just you wait till I get hold of the thieves!" cried Elmer Holmes,"I'll give them what for!"

  "You won't catch them," said Bert; "they're probably miles away by thistime, and they've proba
bly eaten up all our snacks. Wow, but I'mhungry!"

  "So say we all of us!" chorused the boys, as they flung themselvesaround in disconsolate attitudes.

  "Not a snip-jack of anything," Jack went on, peering vainly into a fewempty baskets that Sam had left behind him. "The nerve of them, to stealour coffee and then take our coffee pot to make it in! Honest, fellows,I never knew such a thing to happen before. I've been up here a lot ofsummers and I never struck a crowd that would do such a thing as this."

  "That's so," agreed Bob Rose, "why, often a lot of strange chaps willshare their grub with you, but I never knew 'em to hook it! Must be anawful mean crowd."

  "Well, all the same," said Bert, "what are we going to do for lunch? Irousted out at sunup, and to be sure, I had my breakfast, but it'sforgotten in the dim past."

  "We can cook our fish," said one of the boys "but we'll miss the coffeeand potatoes and bread and such various staffs of life. We haven't sucha lot of fish anyhow."

  "No; we depended on bacon and eggs for our mainstay. I move we go home."

  "S'pose we'll have to," and Bob looked rueful, "We can't put in a wholeafternoon on empty stomachs. What do you say, shall we cook the fish, orlight right out for home?"

  "Here's a cracker they dropped," cried Bert, who spied a soda biscuit onthe ground and brushing it off, began to eat it.

  "Aw, give a starving comrade a bite," and Guy held out his hand eagerly.

  "By jiminy, here's another!" and Jack found another cracker fartheralong.

  Now this was part of the plan, and it was at Dolly's directions thatLong Sam had carefully planted a few crackers at intervals to lure theunsuspecting boys to the surprise that awaited them.

  Dolly and Dotty, with their arms around each other, were peeping throughthe trees, and they shook with glee as they saw the boys eagerly huntingfor the stray crackers.

  "Funny how they came to drop 'em along," said Guy and Elmer responded,"Must have been eating them on their way. But say, they've left a trail;let's follow it."

  The group of boys--there were eight of them--moved slowly along towardwhere the girls were hidden. The trail of crackers had been adroitlyarranged to bring them finally within sight of the appetising luncheonso daintily set forth.

  As the boys came nearer to the little clearing, and as the sight of thefeast must in a moment burst upon their eyes, the girls scampered tohide behind trees to watch the astonished faces.

  Nor were they disappointed. In a moment more the boys came in sight ofthe luncheon and stopped suddenly.

  "By gum!"

  "Well, what do you know about that!"

  "Jiminy crickets!"

  "Ah there, my size!"

  And various other boyish exclamations gave voice to surprise and delighton the part of the onlookers. But they paused several steps away fromthe feast.

  "That's a girls' layout," said Bert Fayre, nodding his head sagaciously;"no fellows ever set up that dinky business! But it looks good to me!"

  "Good!" exclaimed Jack; "I'd face a term in State's prison to nab thatloot! Wonder who owns it!"

  "Certainly not the people who stole our grub; so we can't claim this inreturn. Oh, I smell coffee! 'M-mm!"

  Unwilling to intrude further on what was so evidently a girls' picnic,and yet equally unable to tear themselves away from the enticing scene,the boys stood, a comically eager crowd, looking vainly about for signsof the picnic party.

  "Seems 'sif I must grab one sandwich," said Bob, rolling his eyescomically toward the piled-up dishes.

  "Well, you won't," said Bert, who had no fear that Bob would be guiltyof such a thing, but he wasn't quite so sure of some of the other boys,and so they stood like a lot of hungry tramps, a little bewildered atthe situation and greatly tantalised by the sight of the feast and theodour of steaming coffee.

  "Nothing doing," said Bob, at last. "We can't touch other people'sproperty, and we might as well go on home. But if the ladies belongingto this church sociable would show themselves, I'd sit up and beg for abone of that fried chicken over there."

  "Maybe we all wouldn't!" commented several, and then, at a signal fromDolly, the girls sprang from their hiding-places and stood laughing atthe crowd of hungry boys.

  "Oh, you Dotty Rose!" cried Jack Norris, as he caught Dotty's dancingblack eyes, "I might have known you were at the head of this!"

  "No more than Dolly Fayre," cried Dotty, "and all the rest of us. Areyou hungry, boys?"

  "Are we hungry? We should smile! We've been hungry all the while!" camein chorus from the famished tramps.

  "_Would_ you care to come to lunch with us?" said Dolly, her blue eyesdancing as she put the question.

  "Would we care to!" and Jack grinned at her. "We're hungry enough to eatyou girls; but, alas! kind ladies, we're obliged to regret yourinvitation as we're not in proper society garb."

  Suddenly the boys became aware of their flannel shirts and old hats andgeneral fishermanlike appearance.

  "We'll forgive that for once," cried Dotty; "we'll pretend we're arescue party and you're a lot of starving soldiers, so we won't mindyour tattered uniforms."

  "Rescue party!" cried Bob; "I like that! Aren't you the sly ones whoraided our commissariat department? Own up, now!"

  "What makes you think so?" And Edith Holmes looked the picture ofinjured innocence.

  "Oh, yes! 'What makes us think so!' What makes us think that's ourcoffee boiling in our coffee pot! Fair ladies, we invite you to lunchwith us, on our coffee and our bacon and eggs. And if you'll wait a fewminutes, we'll cook our trout for you."

  "Well, I'll tell you what," and golden-haired Dolly settled thequestion; "we'll eat our luncheon now, as it's all ready, and then, ifyou like, you can cook your fish afterward."

  "That suits me," said Bob, "and I'm free to confess that I can't waitanother minute to attack this Ladies'-Own-Cooking-School Lay Out! Takeseats, everybody-- I mean you girls sit down, and us chaps will wait onyou."

  "All right," laughed Dolly; "we resign in your favour. I can tell yougirls get hungry, too."

  So the girls sat around, and the boys quickly passed plates and napkinsand then the dishes of delicious food.

  Then they served themselves, and sitting down by the girls, rapidlydemolished the contents of their well-filled plates.

  "I'm not going to rub it in," said Dolly, dimpling with smiles, "but forboys who don't want girls along on their picnics you seem to enjoy oursociety fairly well."

  "It isn't our society they're enjoying," said Nellie North; "it's ourstuffed eggs and cold chicken."

  "It's both, adorable damsels," declared Bob. "Just let us appease ourhunger, and goodness knows you've enough stuff here for a regiment, andthen we'll show you how we appreciate the blessing of your society.We'll entertain you any way you choose."

  "That we will," agreed Guy. "We'll give you a circus performance, aconcert, lecture, or song and dance, as you decree."

  But it took a long time to satisfy the boys' appetites. It seemed as ifthey could never get enough of the various delicacies, and though theypretended to make fun of what they called the fiddly-faddly frills, theythoroughly relished the good things.

  "These eggs ought to be shaved," said Bob, as he picked the littlefringes of white tissue paper from a devilled egg.

  "No critical remarks, please," said Dolly, offering him a rolled upsandwich tied with a narrow white ribbon.

  "Oh, my goodness! do I eat ribbon and all? I can do magical stunts foryou afterward, like the chap who pulls yards of ribbon out of his mouth,on the stage."

  "Anybody who makes fun of our things can't have any," declared Josie.

  "Oh, I'm not making fun," and Bob took half a dozen of the tinysandwiches. "Why, I always have my meals tied up in ribbons. I havesashes on my griddle-cakes and neckties on my eggs, always."

  "I like these orange-peel baskets filled with fruit salad," said Bert,as he helped himself to another; "I think food in baskets is the onlyreal proper way."

  But at last, even the
hungry fishermen declared they couldn't eatanother bite, and the young people left the feast and sat on the rocksand tree stumps near by, while Long Sam and Ephraim cleared away andpacked up the things to take home.

  The boys were as good as their word, and entertained the girls bysinging college songs and giving gay imitations and stunts, andeverybody declared, as the picnic finally broke up, that it had been thevery best one of the season.