“What about you, Betty?” Miss Ruth asked next.
“Me! I want to be good and beautiful and sensible,” said Betty, very slowly, for her; “and, of course, I want a houseful of horses and a houseful of dogs.”
“And you, Elsa?”
Elsa was all ready for Miss Ruth’s question: “I am going to be the mother of five children and make them very, very happy,” she said with a most radiant expression on her flower-like face.
“Let’s stop here and build a bower to eat the lunch in,” exclaimed Betty, for all at once they came to a turn in the path and an open space, carpeted with soft, reddish-brown pine-needles, and surrounded by tall, straight tree trunks.
“Walk on a minute more,” urged Ben; “I know a lots better place.”
Soon another turn in the path brought them within sight of a hut, which the dense trees had hidden,—a low, wooden cabin, built of logs with the bark left on. In front of the hut was a wooden platform with a long seat, and above the seat, one wide window of many small panes of glass. It was a place to attract and charm any child.
With shouts of excitement, Betty, Elsa, and Alice, followed by Ben, leaped to the platform and the girls pressed their faces against the window, full of curiosity to see the inside of the hut.
“Nobody lives here,” explained Ben, turning to Miss Ruth, who was only a moment behind the others. “Some boys’ father had the hut built for them two-three years ago, but they have grown up and got tired of it. They let me have the key,” he added, proudly taking it from his pocket and fitting it into the door.
“I have been here before with Ben, but not very often,” said Alice, standing aside with her brother to let the others go into the hut first.