“I thought I’d never get here before you left!” she gasped. “Uncle Eph was so late this morning. He’s been out hauling since four o’clock, and has just got back. But here are your lobsters, Tante. I boiled them myself before I came. I’m glad you waited.”
“Dick wouldn’t have had a clam-bake without you, Nelly,” said Tante. “And anyway, we are not quite ready ourselves.”
“Dick has invited us all to a clam-bake,” Nancy explained to Anne. “He has done his studying ahead and has a free morning.”
“I hate clams,” answered Anne with a wry face. “I think I won’t go to the clam-bake.”
“Oh, very well.” Nancy’s voice was cool. “But I think you will be sorry. We have great fun at our picnics, and this one is to be at a new place that Dick has discovered. He and the Twins dug the clams yesterday afternoon. Everybody is going; but you can stay and keep house with Patsy, of course.”
Anne had no mind to be left alone in the camp, even with Patsy. “Well, I suppose I had better go with you,” she said, rather ungraciously.
“Where are your clams, Dick?” inquired Tante, hailing him as he was starting down to the boat with his two swaggering partners, proud of their importance on this occasion.
“Oh, they’re all right,” said Dick mysteriously. “I took good care of them yesterday. Don’t worry; I didn’t leave them in the sun, Tante. I was too clever for that. They are where they’d like to be. Say, there are clams enough at that place to feed the whole United States, I do believe! And all as happy as clams.”
Dick came from the far West, where his father had a ranch. Everything about the sea was wonderful to him, and he was never tired of making new discoveries and serving up old ones in a new dress.
Tante looked thoughtfully at Dick. “Of course you know all about clam-bakes, Dick,” she said. “I know how you helped Cap’n Sackett last week. But—hadn’t we better take some luncheon besides? We never seem to have too much food on our picnics; and perhaps someone may not care for clams.”