CHAPTER XI
LIZ SEES A “HA’NT”
After their bath the girls got into their gymnasium costumes. Then they clamored for breakfast, and had Mrs. Morse not appeared just then there certainly would have been a riot at the cook-tent. Lizzie was a stickler for orders, and she would not begin to fry cakes until Jess’ mother gave the signal.
Flapjacks! My! weren’t they good, with butter and syrup, followed by bacon and eggs and French fried potatoes? The girls ate for a solid hour. Lizzie’s face was the color of a well-burned brick when the girls admitted they were satisfied. The out-of-door air had given even Lil an enormous appetite.
“If my mother had any idea that I’d eat so much at this time in the morning she’d never have let me come camping,” she said. “Why! do you know—I only drink a cup of coffee and pick the inside out of a roll, at breakfast, at home.”
There was a general inclination to “laze” 103 about the camp and read, or take naps after that heavy breakfast. But Laura would not allow the other six girls of Central High any peace.
“Of course, we have a big ham and a case of eggs with us,” said Mother Wit. “But we don’t want to eat ham and eggs, or bacon and eggs, three times a day while we stay here.
“Beside, the eggs, at least, won’t hold out. We must add to the larder––”
“What shall we do?” asked Dora Lockwood. “Paddle to the mainland and kill some farmer’s cow to get beef?”
“No, indeed,” Laura said, laughing. “We must, however, make an attempt to coax some of the finny denizens of the lake out of it and into Lizzie’s fry-pan.”