“You must be damp and chilly,” he said, “and a little fire will thaw you out. Mother, will you get something ready for a feast?”
“We should have waited dinner,” began Mrs. Warner, “and we did wait until after ten, and then we gave you up.”
“It’s nearer time for breakfast than for dinner,” said Elise.
“I don’t want breakfast,” declared Roger, “I don’t like that meal anyway. No shredded whisk brooms for me.”
“We’ll have a nondescript meal,” said Mrs. Warner, gaily, “and each one may call it by whatever name he chooses.”
In a short time they were all invited to the dining-room, and found the table filled with a variety of delicious viands.
Such a merry tableful of people as partook of the feast! The Warners seemed to enjoy the fact that their guests arrived at such an unconventional hour, and the Farrington party were so glad to have reached their destination safely that they were in the highest of spirits.
Of course the details of the trip had to be explained, and Roger was unmercifully chaffed by Winthrop and his father for having taken the wrong road. But so good-naturedly did the boy take the teasing, and so successfully did he pretend that he came around that way merely for the purpose of extending a pleasant tour, that he got the best of them after all.
At last Mrs. Warner declared that people who had been through such thrilling experiences must be in immediate need of rest, and she gave orders that they must all start for bed forthwith.
It is needless to say that breakfast was not early next morning. Nor did it consist as Roger had intimated, of “shredded whisk brooms,” but was a delightful meal, at which Patty became better acquainted with the Warner family, and confirmed the pleasant impressions she had received the night before.