“‘He laughs best who laughs last,’” quoted Grace. “Bears, indeed!”
The boys were puzzled. Breakfast being over the girls went about their several tasks and paid their friends of the opposite sex very little attention. To all suggestions that they get out the canoes and go across to the island with the boys, or on other junkets, the girls responded with refusals. They evidently thought they had something like a joke themselves on the boys, and finally the latter went off through the brush toward the spot where they had tied their canoes, half inclined to be angry.
They were gone a long while, and were very quiet. The girls whispered together, and kept right near the tents, waiting for the explosion.
“At least,” Wyn said, chuckling, “we gave them a good breakfast, so they won’t starve to death; but if they want to go to the island they will have to swim.”
“We’ve given them ‘tit for tat,’” said Frankie, nodding her head. “Glad of it. And they’ll pay the forfeit, instead of us.”
“If they don’t find the canoes,” whispered Grace.
“They wouldn’t find them in a week of Sundays,” cried Percy.
“Then let’s set them a good hard task for payment,” suggested Bess.
“That’s right. They oughtn’t to have tried to scare us so,” agreed Mina.
“I guess it is agreed,” laughed Wyn, “to show them no mercy. Ah! here they come now.”