They were all so sleepy that they decided to tumble into bed and forego the campfire that night. With the hot water bottles, which Mrs. Williamson filled from the teakettle, and the sleeping bags and blankets, they were as comfortable as could be, when tucked in, and were asleep almost before they had finished saying “good-night.”
Artie was the first to wake in the morning. He opened one eye, glanced around, trying to remember where he was, and then, happening to see through the open end of the tent, he shrieked in delight.
“Fred! Ward! Wake up! It snowed!” he cried.
That roused the camp, and the six chums dressed in such haste it is doubtful if they missed the steam heat of their bedrooms at home. The girls came out of their tent at the same moment the boys stepped from theirs, and a royal snowball fight was on before breakfast.
“Could you consider an armistice—for flap-jacks?” called Mr. Williamson, from the door of the kitchen lean-to.
Could they? You might have thought they had never had anything to eat since the summer before, to see them at that breakfast table. Mrs. Williamson insisted on baking cakes till no one could eat a morsel more, and then the boys made her sit down, while Polly, under her directions, mixed more batter and baked a fresh and hot supply for the jolly cook. The three boys took turns carrying them in, and Mrs. Williamson said she felt as a queen must feel with some one to wait on her.
After breakfast there was the dinner to be considered. Mrs. Williamson had done nearly everything at home the day before, and after more wood and water had been brought in and Polly and Margy had set the table with a clean cloth and the pretty favors Mr. Marley had given them in a box before he left, the children were told to go off and coast till they were called.
“I’ll ring the old cowbell as a signal,” said Mrs. Williamson, pointing to an old bell that hung on a nail in the kitchen.
Mr. Williamson stayed with her, and the rest went off with Fred’s sled to find a good coasting hill.
“We can’t go off the island, or we won’t hear the bell,” said Polly.