“Now, Gif Garrison, don’t you start to tease!” said Mary, growing red in the face. “You know well enough what I mean. You and Spouter have a secret. What is it?”
“A real, genuine, dyed-in-the-wool surprise,” answered Spouter. “The first one to guess it gets a big red apple.”
“What have you got under that robe in the back?” questioned Ruth, with a twinkle in her eye.
“A barrel of flour and two sacks of potatoes,” answered Gif glibly.
“Behold the surprise!” went on Spouter, and pulled aside the summer robe just mentioned. From underneath there emerged a close-fitting hat hiding a face just then filled with giggles, and then a small but exceedingly good-looking girl arose to her feet.
“May Powell!”
“Where in the world did you come from?”
“Oh, Spouter, it was just lovely to bring your cousin!”
“I wrote to her two weeks ago to come, but she thought she couldn’t,” said Martha. “This is certainly the dearest ever!”
Thus speaking, the other girls fairly dragged Spouter’s pretty cousin from the tonneau of the car and smothered her with kisses. Then the boys all came in for a hearty handshake, especially Fred.