“Fall into line,” called out Nan, with a bang on her pan. “One, two, three. Keep step, please. Mr. Wells, you will have to go ahead with the lantern.”
“As if any one could keep step on this uneven ground,” complained Jean who failed to appreciate the subtlety of Nan’s joke.
So laughing, stumbling, making all the racket they could, they escorted the doctor to Mrs. Corner’s tent where he was received sensibly. “I might have known what to expect,” he said after the greetings were over, “though I must say I was rather startled. That war-whoop coming out of the darkness was most uncanny, and gave one a creepy feeling of having really fallen into the hands of the redskins. You were startled, too, Marc; you needn’t deny it.”
“I’m not ‘denying’ it, Betsy,” he replied. “Shall I set the lantern outside, Mrs. Corner? Are we to come in?”
“We are to go over to the living-room. There is a fine fire there,” Nan told him. “You and mother take them over, Aunt Helen, and present the hero properly to Miss Marshall and Miss Lloyd, while we girls go hunt up the feast, for of course there must be a feast. We haven’t any, but we’ll find one.”
She went off leaving the young men to the older ladies, while with the rest of the girls she collected such odds and ends as she could. A few peanuts, half-empty boxes of candy, crackers in a broken state, some miserable looking grapes were found.
“Let’s have everything,” demanded Nan, “the more measly looking the better. I know some one must have some stale cakes, or buns or something.”
Jo produced some week-old doughnuts after rummaging around for a while. Jack found some lozenges and pop-corn left over from the last visit to the little country shop, and this was all that could be scared up.
“If we had some cheese we could make a rarebit,” said Mary Lee.
“Oh, no, we’d better not attempt one. You remember how stringy the last was,” Jo reminded her. “The cheese we get from the store isn’t the proper kind for rarebits. We could make fudge if Miss Marshall has the things.”