The children were all delighted with the idea. They often had small picnics, but never any so extensive and grown-up as this.
And then the blackberries! Think of the quarts and bushels they would bring home! What visions of unlimited jam, and spiced blackberries without stint, floated before their eyes.
Papa teased the girls a little.
“Perhaps I had better send Thomas and the oxen to meet you at the bars? If they should happen to come home rather fast, you could have blackberry jam without any trouble,” he said, laughing. Then he suggested that they should make arrangements with some farmer to take their extra berries into Boston to sell.
“We don’t want to be swamped under blackberries, you know,” he added. Then, of course, the boys had their remarks to make.
“You’ll have to take Mopsie and Charcoal, and drive around from house to house to sell your berries,” said Will.
“Bet you they won’t bring home half a pint between them all,” said Archie.
“Better keep off Mr. Trante’s land, anyway. All the best berries grow in his pasture, and wouldn’t he like to catch you picking them!” said Donald. “He’s been lying in wait for you children, ever since you flooded his meadows. Most probably he’d put you all in the lock-up, if he caught you.”
This was a sore subject with Eunice and Cricket, and they turned the conversation by asking mamma what cook should put up for their luncheon.
“We want a lot,” said Cricket, decidedly. “’Cause we’ll have to have our dinner, you know, and then we must have enough left for a nice lunch before we start for home. And have a lot of supper ready, mamma, dear, ’cause we’ll be ’most starved.”