Two Little Women

CHAPTER XIII

THAT LUNCHEON

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

"They're always like that," said Dotty, carelessly. "They like to ramble through the woods or cruise around the lake by themselves. They wear old flannel shirts and disreputable hats, and they eat their lunch any old way, without any frills or fuss. I don't like that sort of picnicking myself, I like pretty table fixings even if they're only paper napkins and pasteboard dishes. But the boys like tin pails and old frying pans and they catch their fish and cook 'em and eat 'em like a horde of savages."

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

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

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

The two Holmes girls, Maisie Norris, Dolly and Dotty, and three or four others, were in the crowd and they were to go in two motor boats to Bramble 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, she flattered herself, would even up with Bert for the joke he had played on her.

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

There were boxes of devilled eggs, each gold and white confection in a case of fringed white paper. Sandwiches in tiny rolls and fancy shapes. Dishes of salad that were pictures in themselves, and platters of cold meats cut in appetising slices and garnished with aspic jelly in quivering translucence. Platters of cold chicken, delicately browned and garnished with parsley and lemon slices. Dainty baskets of little frosted cakes and tartlets filled with tempting jam covered with frosting.

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

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

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

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

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

When they reached Bramble Brook they did not go to the regular landing place, but Long Sam cleverly found a concealed nook where they could land 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 well known 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 and things is stacked in the clearing, and I reckon they'll be coming along back in about an hour to feed. They started pretty early and I reckon they can't hold out much longer 'thout their grub. What next, ladies?"

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

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

He returned with a big basket on either arm.

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

"Here's their coffee," cried Edith Holmes, who was peering into the baskets. "And here's bacon and eggs, oh, what horrid looking stuff! And loaves of dry bread! Guy and Elmer just hate plain bread. May be they won't care for our sandwiches!"

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

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

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

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

Heavy brown papers had been spread on the ground, and these were covered with a tablecloth of white crepe paper with a design of green ferns for a border. Real ferns were laid here and there under the dishes of good things, and piles of white pasteboard plates and paper napkins were in readiness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Never mind if we do!" said Dotty; "there's nothing that can take any hurt. There's nothing to get cold except the coffee, and Sam will attend to that. The glass fruit jars full of lemonade are in the brook, so that will 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 your mind 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 they were all quiet as mice, awaiting developments.

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

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

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

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

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

"Some other crowd of fishing chaps," said Bob Rose, confidently, "but it doesn't often happen, – a thing like that. No decent fellows would do it."

The girls, only a few rods distant, were peeping through the bushes and shaking with silent laughter at the discomfited boys. Such looks of chagrin and dismay as they showed! and such belligerent determination to 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 this time, and they've probably eaten up all our snacks. Wow, but I'm hungry!"

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

"Not a snip-jack of anything," Jack went on, peering vainly into a few empty baskets that Sam had left behind him. "The nerve of them, to steal our 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 of summers 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 will share their grub with you, but I never knew 'em to hook it! Must be an awful mean crowd."

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

"We can cook our fish," said one of the boys "but we'll miss the coffee and potatoes and bread and such various staffs of life. We haven't such a 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 whole afternoon on empty stomachs. What do you say, shall we cook the fish, or light right out for home?"

"Here's a cracker they dropped," cried Bert, who spied a soda biscuit on the 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 farther along.

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

Dolly and Dotty, with their arms around each other, were peeping through the trees, and they shook with glee as they saw the boys eagerly hunting for 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 toward where the girls were hidden. The trail of crackers had been adroitly arranged to bring them finally within sight of the appetising luncheon so daintily set forth.

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

Nor were they disappointed. In a moment more the boys came in sight of the 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 delight on the part of the onlookers. But they paused several steps away from the 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 that loot! Wonder who owns it!"

"Certainly not the people who stole our grub; so we can't claim this in return. 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 signs of the picnic party.

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

"Well, you won't," said Bert, who had no fear that Bob would be guilty of 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 at the situation and greatly tantalised by the sight of the feast and the odour of steaming coffee.

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

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

"Oh, you Dotty Rose!" cried Jack Norris, as he caught Dotty's dancing black 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. Are you hungry, boys?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It's both, adorable damsels," declared Bob. "Just let us appease our hunger, and goodness knows you've enough stuff here for a regiment, and then 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, a concert, lecture, or song and dance, as you decree."

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

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

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

"Oh, my goodness! do I eat ribbon and all? I can do magical stunts for you 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 tiny sandwiches. "Why, I always have my meals tied up in ribbons. I have sashes 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 only real proper way."

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

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