Mrs. Merrill shook her head and Mary Jane, without a word (though she was trembling inside, she was that excited over her secret) picked up a big, funny looking package and unrolled it slowly. The girls scented a secret and watched eagerly. Slowly the paper unrolled—and then the white paper inside and—there was the secret in plain sight!
"Sausages!" exclaimed all the girls in one breath, "sausages we can cook!"
"How jolly!" cried Alice. "You certainly did keep that secret well, Mary
Jane—I never even suspected."
"May we cook them right away?" asked Ruth. "I could eat a million!"
"Pass them around, Mary Jane," said Mrs. Merrill. "I expect you could eat a good many, dear, but be sure to cook each one well before eating it—you don't need to hurry, I think there are plenty!" she added teasingly.
The girls, each armed with a long fork on the end of which was speared a sausage, gathered round the fire. Mary Jane had her own fork and her own sausage, just like the big girls and cooked her sausage without burning her fingers, which was lucky, as burns are no fun.
How good those warm sausages did taste with the fine sandwiches and pickles and other goodies from home. But Ruth didn't eat a million after all—she found three quite a-plenty; if she'd had more she couldn't have eaten any cake and that would have been too bad!
By half past twelve, there wasn't a scrap of anything left and every one was saying that they had had just exactly enough to eat.
"Then I suggest we shake our crumbs into the creek," said Mrs. Merrill, "I know the minnows will enjoy them. Then you can fix the baskets ready for your posies and still have a good two hours left for picking."
So the napkins were shaken out and the baskets arranged in neat order on the biggest rock and then every one ran in search of flowers.