“Over in the big living-room, I think. They were all going there. Let us go, too, Jean. Maybe they will be having some fun we might be missing.”
Jean quickly agreed, and Jack having donned dry clothes was content to seek the big cabin under shelter of an umbrella.
In the big living-room with its huge stone fireplace, most of the campers were congregated. A fine log fire leaped and snapped cheerily. Around the large table half a dozen girls were seated writing; some others were reading near the windows, while on the skins spread upon the floor before the hearth were those who had been Jack’s companions during the walk to the woods. As usual, Jo had the floor, and was making them all laugh by an account of some of her exploits at school.
Jack seated herself on the outskirts of the group and picked up a dictionary which Daniella had carried over. She turned the pages thoughtfully and presently said to Jean, “If I had another dictionary I could invent a game.”
“Here’s another one,” said Jo, handing over a small black volume. “I’m never safe without it. Tell us about your game, kiddie. Perhaps we’ll all take a hand. Fire ahead.”
“Well, but you see you would all have to have dictionaries.”
“Perhaps we can scare up enough. Go on and tell us first and then we’ll see.”
“Well,” began Jack, “it’s this way: You choose a letter of the alphabet and then you take a certain number of the hardest words you come to, say ten words; they must be awfully hard that the others aren’t liable to know the meaning of, and then you write something using the words in what you write, then the rest have to guess what the words mean. The one who guesses the greatest number gets the game.”
“Oh, I see,” said Nan thoughtfully. “That’s not bad, kitten. Suppose we try it just to see how it goes. Dictionaries! Dictionaries! Who has a dictionary, or two? Don’t all speak at once.”
By dint of inquiry and search as many as eight dictionaries were discovered and handed around to those who cared to try the game.