When they reached the water, Marjorie stepped into the canoe, intending to take her place in the bow; but John surprised her by asking her to sit in the middle.
“You can rest for one afternoon, can’t you?” he pleaded. “It’s so hard to talk when I have only your back to look at!”
Laughingly, Marjorie agreed, and seated herself upon a cushion on the bottom. She, too, wanted to have a confidential little chat.
It was not until they had gone for some distance, away from the shallow water, that John plunged into the subject in which he was so interested. He began by telling about his mother’s invitation.
“Marjorie,” he said,—“or rather, Lieutenant Marjorie, for I am asking you now as I would consult the officer of Pansy troop, do you think your patrol would like to have a little week-end house party soon after we get back home?”
Before Marjorie answered, John knew by the sparkle of her eyes that the idea appealed to her. Had not the girls all expressed such a desire only the day before, and had not Alice put it up to her to provide the means? Naturally, she answered readily in the affirmative.
“We’d all love it!” she cried.
“That’s bully! Well, you know mother has a cottage at Cape May—nothing gorgeous, you understand, but quite comfortable—and she would like to entertain the whole patrol before you separate. How about the week-end after we get home?”
“That would be perfectly heavenly!” she replied. “Oh, if you could know how much we wanted one more reunion; but we simply didn’t see how we could manage it.”
“Then that’s settled. Will you invite the others for mother? She’d have written, but she thought it would be better to have me ask you privately first.”