Part 7 (2/2)
”Only that was a dry bath and this a wet one,” Nan remarked, as Freddie's curls were shook out in the sun.
”Did you get a drink?” asked August, whose invitation to drink had caused the mishap.
”Yep!” answered Freddie bravely, ”and I was a real fireman too, that time, 'cause they always get soaked; don't they, Bert?”
Being a.s.sured they did, the party once more started off for the woods.
It was getting to be all woods now, only a driveway breaking through the pines, maples, and chestnut trees that abounded in that section.
”Just turn in there, John!” Harry directed, as a particularly thick group of trees appeared. Here were chosen the picnic grounds and all the things taken from the wagon, and before John was out of sight on the return home the children had established their camp and were flying about the woods like little fairies.
”Let's build a furnace,” Jack Hopkins suggested.
”Let's,” said all the boys, who immediately set out carrying stones and piling them up to build the stove. There was plenty of wood about, and when the fire was built, the raw potatoes that Harry had secretly brought along were roasted, finer than any oven could cook them.
Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had spread the tablecloth on the gra.s.s, and were now busy opening the baskets and arranging the places. There were so many pretty little nooks to explore in the woods that Mrs. Bobbsey had to warn the children not to get too far away.
”Are there giants?” Freddie asked.
”No, but there are very dark lonely places the woods and little boys might find snakes.”
”And bears!” put in Freddie, to which remark his mother said, ”perhaps,” because there really might be bears in a woods so close to the mountains.
CHAPTER VIII
FUN IN THE WOODS
”Dinner served in the dining car!” called Bert through the woods, imitating the call of the porter on the Pullman car.
”All ready!” echoed the other boys, banging on an old boiler like the Turks do, instead of ringing a bell.
”Oh, how pretty!” the girls all exclaimed, as they beheld the ”feast in the forest,” as Nan put it. And indeed it was pretty, for at each place was set a long plume of fern leaves with wood violets at the end, and what could be more beautiful than such a decoration?
”Potatoes first!” Harry announced, ”because they may get cold,” and at this order everybody broke the freshly roasted potatoes into the paper napkins and touched it up with the extra b.u.t.ter that had come along.
”Simply fine!” declared Nan, with the air of one who knew. Now, my old readers will remember how Nan baked such good cake. So she ought to be an authority on baked potatoes, don't you think?
Next came the sandwiches, with the watercress Harry and Bert had gathered before breakfast, then (and this was a surprise) hot chocolate! This was brought out in Martha's cider jug, and heated in a kettle over the boys' stone furnace.
”It must be fun to camp out,” Mabel Herold remarked.
”Yes, just think of the dishes saved,” added Mildred Manners, who always had so many dishes to do at home.
”And we really don't need them,” Nan argued, pa.s.sing her tin cup on to Flossie.
”Think how the soldiers get along!” Bert put in.
”And the firemen'” lisped Freddie, who never forgot the heroes of flame and water.
<script>