"Ah there, my size!"
And various other boyish exclamations gave voice to surprise and delight on the part of the onlookers. But they paused several steps away from the feast.
"That's a girls' layout," said Bert Fayre, nodding his head sagaciously; "no fellows ever set up that dinky business! But it looks good to me!"
"Good!" exclaimed Jack; "I'd face a term in State's prison to nab that loot! Wonder who owns it!"
"Certainly not the people who stole our grub; so we can't claim this in return. Oh, I smell coffee! 'M-mm!"
Unwilling to intrude further on what was so evidently a girls' picnic, and yet equally unable to tear themselves away from the enticing scene, the boys stood, a comically eager crowd, looking vainly about for signs of the picnic party.
"Seems 'sif I must grab one sandwich," said Bob, rolling his eyes comically toward the piled-up dishes.
"Well, you won't," said Bert, who had no fear that Bob would be guilty of such a thing, but he wasn't quite so sure of some of the other boys, and so they stood like a lot of hungry tramps, a little bewildered at the situation and greatly tantalised by the sight of the feast and the odour of steaming coffee.
"Nothing doing," said Bob, at last. "We can't touch other people's property, and we might as well go on home. But if the ladies belonging to this church sociable would show themselves, I'd sit up and beg for a bone of that fried chicken over there."
"Maybe we all wouldn't!" commented several, and then, at a signal from Dolly, the girls sprang from their hiding-places and stood laughing at the crowd of hungry boys.