"Dear, dear," laughed Mrs. Crane. "No wonder they're hard. You should have soaked them all night, boiled them for an hour, and then baked them. And I think, my dears, that you forgot the pork, the molasses, and the salt—beans need a great deal of salt. But it was nice and thoughtful of you good little girls to go to all that trouble."
"We wanted it to be a lovely surprise," mourned Mabel.
"Well," teased Mr. Black, "it's certainly more of a surprise than you meant it to be, therefore more of a success, because we are all surprised."
"Cheer up," said Mrs. Crane, touched by the downcast countenances of the disappointed cooks. "We'll feed the surprise to the squirrels. After supper—you see there's plenty this time without the surprise—we'll put some more beans to soak; and to-morrow we'll cook them the other way. Anyway, I'm very glad you thought of cooking those beans—I'd forgotten that we had them."
At this the seven gloomy faces brightened. And the beans were not wasted; for the kind squirrels carried away every one.
CHAPTER XVII
The Game Warden's Visit
THE boy was really better; but very, very weak. Every time he opened an eye, that next day, solicitous Mrs. Crane was ready with a bowl of broth. Once he did not fall asleep immediately but followed her with big, questioning blue eyes as she moved about the tent. He remained awake for twenty minutes that time and even moved his hands slightly.
"You've been real sick," explained Mrs. Crane, sociably, her soft dark eyes very kind and encouraging. "You're pretty weak yet, but you're twice the boy you were yesterday. Could you eat more broth?"