“What?” gasped the other girls.
“Mrs. Pendleton is going to pay the wages of a girl to go with us and do the camp work,” announced Bobby, and now she spoke with some enthusiasm.
“Goodness!” exclaimed Laura.
“Not so bad,” sighed Nellie, who really did not like hard work and had dreaded that division of labor which she knew must fall to her if they went camping without “help.”
“Having a girl along to cook and do up the beds and wash dishes and the like wouldn’t be so bad,” announced Bobby, growing braver as Nell seemed to encourage the idea.
“Well! Miss Hargrew!” accused Laura. “I believe you have gone over to the enemy. You really want Lil to go with us to Acorn Island.”
“No. But I’d be glad to have her mother pay the wages of somebody to do most of the hard work,” grinned Bobby.
There was a regular “buzz society,” as Bobby called it, after the girls were dressed. The original 32 six who had planned to go camping on Acorn Island did hum like a colony of bees when they all learned that Lily Pendleton was likely to be foisted upon them.
“It’s a shame!” exclaimed Jess, angrily. “She knows well enough we don’t want her.”
“Well,” murmured one of the Lockwood twins. “She asked us and we said the invitation would have to come through Laura.”