“You horrid mean thing!” cried Joanne, “you know you didn’t expect anything of the kind. I’ll leave it to anybody if you ever saw the place in such apple-pie order. Just come and see.” She led him from spot to spot till he was obliged to confess she spoke truly.
“I give in,” he exclaimed. “You are fairies or brownies or anything you choose, and I take off my hat to the Girl Scouts. Of course I didn’t think you would do any harm deliberately, but I didn’t know but you would be more or less careless. Where’s Miss Dodge?”
Joanne hunted her up and a long conference followed between the captain and Mr. Pattison. The girls, all ready to go, stood around impatiently. “I wonder what they are talking about,” said Joanne.
“Miss Dodge looks mightily pleased,” returned Winnie.
“Probably he is complimenting her upon being at the head of such a fine troop,” remarked Claudia.
“Oh, Claudia, what a conceited remark,” exclaimed Esther.
Claudia laughed. “How literal you always are, Ess,” she said.
“All the same,” remarked Winnie serenely, “we are a fine troop; no one can deny.”
“Oh, Win,” Esther began but stopped short as she saw that the conference had broken up and that the two were coming toward them.
“It is evident that Miss Dodge’s smile is the kind that won’t come off,” whispered Winnie to Joanne; “it is getting broader and broader.”