“Gracious! What an awful thing to be!” cried Patty, in mock dismay.
“And, anyway, Patty,” said the blunt Mona, “if you hadn’t put all those old weedy flowers on the tablecloth, there wouldn’t be any ants and things. They’ve mostly come out of your decorations.”
“I believe you’re right,” said Patty, laughing. “So the picnic is a success after all, and it’s only our decorations that made any trouble.”
Then they all ate heartily of the feast, and there was much laughter and merriment, and afterward they sat round the fire and told stories and sang songs, and they all declared it was the very nicest picnic ever was, and they were sorry when it was time to go home.
“But we must be going,” Patty said, “for I promised Nan we’d be home in ample time to dress for dinner, and it’s a fairly long ride.”
“Do we go back the same way we came?” asked Elise, looking at Philip with an arch air of enquiry.
“Go back any way you please, fair lady,” he replied. “The way we came is the shortest, but there is a longer way round, if you prefer it.”
“I don’t mean that,” said Elise. “I mean do we go with the same partners?”
“I do,” declared Philip, “and Miss Fairfield does. The rest of you may do just as you choose.”
“Then I think we’ll go as we came,” said Elise, with an air of satisfaction.