When Flat Rock, a huge boulder with a table top, overlooking a small lake, was reached, everybody was in the best of spirits, and they piled out and helped unload.
Polly and Lois, as before, captured the mysterious box and managed to hide it in the bushes. A camp fire, under Miss Stuart’s direction, was soon blazing, and the girls were seated on rugs and pillows, toasting bacon.
Now every one knows that a bacon bat is loads of fun to talk about before it happens, and to remember
afterwards, but the actual eating of the bacon, which is always burned long before it is cooked, is not so much fun in itself.
This bacon bat was like every other. When the bacon was all gone, and a good deal of it had been surreptitiously thrown away, every one looked around for something to really eat. The sandwiches were not very satisfying, and it was too soon to offer the bananas.
The Freshmen began to look uneasy. It entered their heads that perhaps their party was not going to be the success they had planned. Then just as Polly and Lois were exchanging glances, Betty, who was hunting for more wood for the fire, stumbled over the mysterious box.
“Hello, what’s this?” she called. “Why, it says Freshman Class on it.”
Every one pounced on the box and opened it, to find a big fat turkey all carved but held together by a narrow white ribbon, paper plates and napkins and drinking cups, cranberry jelly, a huge chocolate cake, any quantity of cookies, and boxes of candy.
Well, you can imagine the surprise. As each new item was unpacked, there was a chorus of exclamations, such as:
“Where under the sun did it come from?”