Part 8 (2/2)

Margery sat down helplessly. Harriet was smiling. She understood something of the plans of the guardian now; yet, like her companions, she was disappointed that the promised meal was not at hand. Miss Elting recovered her composure quickly.

”We shall have to cook our own dinner, dears,” she said. ”Harriet, you sit down in the sun and rest; we will take care of the meal-getting.”

”You treat me as though I were an invalid. I am able to do my share of the work, and to eat my share of the food, as you will see when we get something cooked.”

Jane already had run back toward the road to bring some dry sticks that she had discovered when coming in. Miss Elting began opening the packs.

”Oh, this is too bad!” she cried. ”We must have left that coffee pot with the other things out by the road.”

”I'll get it.” Tommy bounded away. Hazel a.s.sisted the guardian in getting the cooking utensils ready, Margery walked about, getting in the way, but not accomplis.h.i.+ng much of anything else. There were cold roast beef, b.u.t.ter and plenty of canned goods. The bread that they had brought with them had been dissolved in the water of the ice pond, as had the sugar and considerable other food stuff.

Jane came in with an armful of wood and quickly started a fire. Tommy arrived some moments later with the coffee pot and other utensils.

While all this was going on Harriet was spreading out their belongings so these might dry out in the sunlight. But the water for the coffee, secured some distance back, was brackish and poor. They made it do, however, and as quickly as possible had boiled their coffee and warmed over the beef and canned beans as well. As for drinking water, there was none at hand fit for this purpose. Dishes were somewhat limited, many of theirs having been lost when the automobile went into the pond. But they were glad enough to do with what they had, and when Jane sounded the meal call, ”Come and get it!” there was not an instant's hesitation on the part of any member of that little party of adventurous spirits.

”Now take your time, girls,” warned Miss Elting. ”We will not gulp our food down, even if we have a walk before us this afternoon. And we may have to sleep out-of-doors, but it will not have been the first time for the Meadow-Brook Girls.”

”Ith thith the thurprithe that you were going to give us?” asked Tommy innocently.

”It is a surprise to me, dear. This isn't the place I thought it was at all. The joke is that I don't know where the right place is.”

”Perhaps, if you would tell us where you wish to go, we might be of some a.s.sistance to you,” suggested Jane McCarthy.

”You can't get the secret from me, Jane,” answered the guardian smilingly. ”I am going to keep that little secret to myself at all costs. Don't tease me, for I shall not tell you.”

”It hath cotht a good deal already,” piped Tommy. ”Let me thee. It hath cotht one automobile, theveral thkirtth, and a girl drowned.

Thome cotht that, eh? Pleathe path the beanth.”

”Tommy has a keen appet.i.te for beans this afternoon. Will you please open another can, Jane?” asked the guardian.

”Certainly. Will you have them cold this time, Tommy?”

”I will not, thank you. My father thayth there ith more real nourithhment in beanth than there ith in beeftheak. I gueth he knowth.

He wath brought up on a bean farm.”

”Then I'll take the beefsteak and never mind the nourishment,”

declared Jane, who was not particularly fond of beans.

”I'd rather have both,” said Margery hungrily.

”Of courth you would,” teased Tommy. ”That ith why you--”

”Oh, say something new,” groaned Buster.

Miss Elting permitted them to jest to their hearts' content. The more they talked the better was she pleased, because it kept them from eating too rapidly. Their meal finished and the dishes cleaned in salt water and sand, the guardian gave thought to their next move. But she was in no haste. The girls were allowed plenty of time to rest and digest their hearty meal, which they did by sitting in the sand with the sun beating down on them. After the lapse of an hour she told the girls to get ready.

”I will say to you frankly that I do not know where I am, though I am positive we are on the right road. Our destination can not be so very far from here, and I believe we have ample time to reach it before dark. However, each of you will put a can of beans in her pocket. We will take the coffee, our cups and the coffee pot. Thus equipped, we shall not go hungry in case we are caught out over night. Then, again, there must be houses somewhere along this road. The first one we see I shall stop and make inquiries.”

<script>