“Well, I don’t care,” he said, goaded by the laughter of the girls, “I’ll get even by eating as many of those animals as I can, and maybe one of them will be the one that bit me.”
“It won’t do any harm to think so,” said Bob. “I hated to tell on you, Herb, but that story was too good to keep.”
“All right! I’ll get even with you some day,” threatened Herb. “It’s just your confounded luck that you didn’t get nipped instead of me.”
“Oh, well, it’s all in the day’s fun,” said Bob. “I’ll bet these fellows will taste so good we’ll forget about the trouble we had while we were catching them.”
This prophecy was fully justified that evening when the unfortunate crabs disappeared as if by magic.
“We’ll have to try this again some day soon,” said Bob. “I never knew a crab could taste so good.”
They all agreed to this, and were still discussing the afternoon’s fun when they heard a familiar voice on the porch, and a moment later Dr. Amory Dale walked into the room. They all sprang to their feet and gave him a hearty welcome.
He told them all the local news of Clintonia, and then broached the real object of his visit. He had conceived the idea of making up a party consisting only of the adults and taking a tour through the South, taking in Washington and other of the larger Southern cities. As outlined by him, the party was to go by rail, and return by steamer from Norfolk, Virginia, to Boston.
“Mrs. Dale has not been well recently,” he concluded, “and, as the doctor has ordered a change of scene for her, I thought it would be nice to get a small party of friends and all take the trip together. What do you think of the proposition?”
All the adult members of the party received the idea with approbation, although for one reason or another some of them feared that they would be unable to go. Their objections were argued away by Doctor Dale, however, and before the evening was over Mr. and Mrs. Layton, Mrs. Plummer, and Mrs. Atwood had promised to make the trip. Rose begged so hard to go that finally she, too, was included. The rest of the evening was taken up by excited discussion of the proposed trip. Dr. Dale was urged to stay all night, and finally, as it was getting late, he agreed. He found time to question the boys about their trip to the big wireless station, and they told him enthusiastically all about it. The evening passed so quickly that they were all surprised to find that it was considerably past their usual bedtime, and it was a tired but happy quartette of lads that finally said “good-night” and left the older people to complete the plans of their forthcoming trip.