Then the boys appeared, and, with obsequious demonstrations of greeting and compliment, they invited their guests to the dining-room.
The boys all wore aprons, having confiscated, with Rosie’s help, all those belonging to the club.
Big Tom Burleigh looked especially funny in a lacy, frilly little affair of Jessie’s, and as there had not been quite enough to go round, Harry Bond had made a big pinafore of newspapers. Then some of the boys had found time to make cooks’ paper caps for them all, and, with paper roses left from the night before in their buttonholes, their appearance was festive indeed.
The dining-room was a sight to behold. They had discarded the regular dining-table, and built a long narrow one of the boards of the dismantled stage. This table, whose length was such that it required three table-cloths, was decorated with great bowls of paper roses; and the whole room was decked with green branches, palms, and paper flowers, all of which had done duty as the garden in the play.
The twenty people seated themselves at the long and festive board, Uncle Ned and Aunt Molly, of course, being invited to sit at the head and foot; and then Rosie began to serve the feast.
But one waitress was far from being enough for that hungry crowd, so the be-aproned boys took turns in playing waiter.
The first course was clam chowder, of which the Burleigh boys were justly famed concocters. It was wonderfully good, and as they had made a great kettleful, there was enough and to spare.
Next was a course of broiled lobster. Although the boys pretended at first that they had cooked these, they afterward confessed that they had ordered them sent over from the Inn. But their guests cared not a jot where the lobsters had met their fiery fate, and pronounced them the most delicious ever tasted.
After this came blackberry-pies, half a dozen of them, and Aunt Molly fairly blushed as encomiums were showered on her contribution to the spread.
The coffee was fine. Ted Lewis always made it in camp, and being accustomed to making large quantities, and in a big tin pail instead of a coffee-pot, he had no trouble in turning out a perfect concoction.