Part 13 (2/2)
”Oh, we would just love to have you,” replied Jack, with mock seriousness, ”but the fact is, we are all invited out. We lunch on the _Chelton_ to-day,” and he strutted around with such wide sweeping curves, and twists, that he knocked from the narrow board table every last bit of b.u.t.ter the ”Couldn'ts” had in their camp. Gingerly he scooped up the top lump, that lay on the store dish, but the sc.r.a.ps had to be sc.r.a.ped up with the egg turner, and the spot on the floor (they had a board floor in the camp) had to be washed up with the dish water, when Walter finally relinquished that important commodity.
”More careful next time,” commanded Dray. ”I'm off to call the meeting. Where's that dinner bell?”
The ”bell,” a very old and very large tray, was found outside under the bench, and with a good strong stick Dray beat it furiously, until it might easily be heard by every camper on the grounds. At the first signal boys came scampering from all directions. Some carried towels--too much excited to drop them in their camps; others dashed through the woods with sweaters on their arms, and reluctant neckties in their fists, for it was early and the campers had scarcely time to make ”careful” toilets.
”Grub?” they asked in chorus. ”Let us see it? Lead us to it!”
”Grub nothing!” replied Walter. ”You just get outside on that bench, the overflow can take the reserved seats on the nice green moss. This meeting has been called for the purpose of organizing the Housewives'
League of Crystal Bay.”
”Aoo-oo-ou--oh!” came a groaning reply from those who felt able to groan. ”And I left sugar in my coffee cup,” wailed he with the dish towel.
”And there were perfectly good crumbs at my place,” sighed Teddy, a boy with so many colors in his face that they called him ”Rainbow.”
”Come to order!” called Jack, banging on the tent table, which was to serve as the chairman's desk. ”Every camp must qualify.”
”We do! We do!” shouted the majority, the rest being engaged in a rough and tumble for places near the ”door.”
”The purpose of this meeting,” went on Jack, ducking a lump of moss tossed in lieu of a bouquet, ”is to formulate plans, whereby the humans of Prowlers' Paradise may continue to defy the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and live in a perfectly human way.”
”Hurrah for the humans!” shouted Rainbow, and the cheers that followed did more than merely consume time.
”Let me explain,” interrupted Dray, pus.h.i.+ng Jack from his place, and taking the stand pompously. ”We have been the victims of prowlers. We have lost our soup; we also lost our cans of milk--in fact, the cruel ones took everything but our appet.i.tes, and now we propose to put a stop to such depredations. We will form a league to borrow and to lend, also to pay back, but he who taketh his brother's soup and returneth not a can of beans shall be expelled from the Prowlers'
Paradise!”
”We did lose five small cans of milk,” reiterated Walter to Dave, the head or chief of a big camp called ”We-like-it,” ”and if we find the rowdy who took that he shall be court-martialed.”
A commotion then started that broke up the meeting. The boys, in rolling and tumbling about, rolled Dainty, so-called because he never could get enough to eat, and because his quest showed in unweighable pounds of fat, deliberately down the small hill at the side of Camp Couldn't. Two of the Cattle did the rolling, and as Dainty made one full turn a can of milk squirmed out of his pocket.
”Robber! Thief! Traitor!” screamed the rollers, and then poor Dainty was lugged back to the camp.
Making the charge against him, and making an example of him would be too sad a tale for words; sufficient to say that the meeting adjourned at the request of a peace commission.
When the last visitor had been ”shooed” away and the Couldn'ts had carefully prepared for the lunch to be taken on the _Chelton_ (although Ed claimed that Walter had appropriated his most becoming tie, and that the shade of tan rather marred Wallie's own ”tannery”
effect), the boys finally put the camp flap down good and tight, and were off to the bay.
CHAPTER X
TOO MUCH JOY
Far out in the pretty bay the _Chelton_ was anch.o.r.ed. It was arranged that the luncheon should be given too far from land to get anything in supplies that might have been forgotten. In fact, it was to be a test meal, such as might be a necessity in case of ”s.h.i.+pwreck” or accident.
It was such a day as sometimes makes early Summer copy Spring, when the mists of morning mingle with the sun's rays, and send up shafts of haze to pillar the sky from land or water.
There had been great preparations for this salt water lunch. The girls, enthusiastic over the possibilities, had vied with one another in arranging the affair.
<script>