“They’re surely all right,” put in Mrs. Hunter consolingly. “They’re big enough to take care of themselves.”
“I’ll say they are,” remarked Mr. Frazier. “I caught them cutting my yew tree to make bows. There’s nothing they can’t do!”
Mary Louise regarded the hotelkeeper with contempt, thinking again how stingy he was. Anybody else would be glad to give the boys a branch of a tree!
“So long as they don’t set anything on fire,” observed Cliff lightly.
“Oh, Cliff!” exclaimed Mary Louise in horror.
David McCall nudged her meaningly.
“Criminals always try to cover up their crimes by laying the suspicion on somebody else,” he whispered. “But only a cad would blame innocent children.”
Mary Louise cast him a withering look. She was beginning to despise David McCall.
When the whole party had eaten all they possibly could, somebody started to play a ukulele, and the young people danced on the smooth grass that had been worn down by so many picnics. Nobody apparently wanted to go home, except Mrs. Gay. Finally Mrs. Reed, beginning to be anxious about her own two boys, seconded the motion for departure.
“Let’s give the rowboats twenty minutes start,” suggested Cliff Hunter. “And the canoes ten. We’ll beat you all at that!”