“Lily Andrews! And you a Latin student. Didn’t you ever hear the word ‘porto’?”
Lily blushed; of course she remembered now. It was one of the first verbs in the grammar: “porto, portare—to carry.”
“There is this one place where the stream is very rapid and filled with dangerous rocks, so we shall have to carry our canoes about a hundred yards,” explained Miss Phillips.
“Frieda knows all about how to do that,” remarked Ruth, significantly.
The girl flushed, and Marjorie gave Ruth a cutting look. Evidently the flags of war were to be hoisted again.
“Is that the dangerous spot Michael was talking about?” she asked, in order to hide Frieda’s embarrassment at Ruth’s reference to her runaway escapade in the stolen canoe.
“I suppose so,” replied Miss Phillips. “It can be done in a canoe, but I prefer the safer way.”
“Oh, Captain, aren’t we to have any adventure at all?” sulked Ruth. “You know, if there isn’t some naturally, we may provide it for ourselves; and then maybe you’d be sorry!”
“There will be plenty of adventure,” said Miss Phillips. “Remember, you all are inexperienced canoeists——”
“Except Marjorie,” put in Ruth.