“Hear, hear!” cried Mina.
“Oh! you’ve got it all fixed up for us, I see,” muttered Ferd.
“The understanding always has been,” said Wyn, calmly, “that if one party succeeded in playing a practical joke on the other, and ‘getting away with it,’ as you slangy boys say, the party falling for the trick should pay forfeit. Isn’t that so?”
“Go on! Do your worst,” growled Ferd.
“That’s right. You state the case clearly, Miss Mallory,” said Dave, with a bow of mockery.
“And they never paid a forfeit for the time Tubby slid down our boathouse roof, plunk into the water,” cried Bessie.
“Aw–that’s ancient history,” growled Tubby.
“Let us stick to recent events,” agreed Wyn, smiling. “If we girls were at all frightened by your ‘bear-faced’ attempt to frighten us this morning, we have paid with a breakfast; haven’t we?”
“And it was a good one,” agreed Dave.
“It’s made me go right to cooking again,” said Bess. “A swarm of locusts would have brought about no greater devastation.”