“I suppose so,” agreed her brother. “But you know my cot isn’t very wide.”
“Oh, we’ll manage all right,” returned Mary Louise. “And thank you very much.”
It was not until after supper, while the girls were waiting for their boy-friends to come, that Jane had a chance to ask Mary Louise why she wanted to sleep outdoors tonight.
“I want to sleep in my clothing, Jane,” was the surprising reply. “Remember the scout motto, ‘Be prepared’? That’s ours for tonight.”
“Prepared for what?”
“For a fire. I think there’s going to be one. I’m only hoping that it won’t be our cottage. But you never can tell.”
“What makes you think there will be one tonight?” demanded Jane.
“From something I learned this afternoon from that Adams family. You remember hearing Freckles describing a queer creature he saw last night on his way home from the woods? Well, we almost ran over her this afternoon! With her pitcher, looking for well water! ‘To put out the fires which the Lord sends upon the wicked’ were her words.”
Jane giggled.
“You think we’re as wicked as that, Mary Lou?” she asked.