“Oh-h!” Madge exclaimed, when a tempting brown fish was laid on her plate. “Am I supposed to eat a whole one?”
“Wait till you see me eat a whole twenty,” Eric remarked, as he gave a fish to Adele and another to Eva. Then, bringing out bread and butter and filling their tin cups with sparkling water from a spring, Eric exclaimed, “Now, having filled the immediate wants of our fair guests, I’ll hie me over to the small whale that I see waiting upon my plate.”
“I never, never tasted fish cooked to such perfection!” Madge declared.
A merry meal it was, and when at last there was nothing left but bones, Adele looked at her wrist-watch and then sprang up, exclaiming: “It’s quarter to six. We never can walk to Sunnyside in fifteen minutes!”
“Hark!” cried Eric. “I hear an automobile plunging madly down the lake road. Come on, Petey. Let’s hold them up, whoever they are, and command them, at the point of the gun, to take our fair guests to their destination.”
Snatching up a rifle which stood leaning against the shack, he emptied the barrel as he ran toward the road. The machine had not yet turned the curve, and when it did, the driver was indeed surprised to see two highwaymen standing in the middle of the road, but their laughing, boyish faces showed that they were not very dangerous. Beside the driver a young girl was seated. When the car had slowed down, Eric exclaimed, “Kind sir, if you are going to Sunnyside, we have passengers for you.”
Just then Madge and the two girls emerged from the pine trees, and Adele joyously cried, “Oh, it’s Betty Burd and her Uncle George. Mr. Wainwright, would you mind if we rode with you into town? Mother is expecting us home by six.”
“Why, Adele Doring!” Betty exclaimed before her uncle could reply. “You know we’re glad to have you.”
Then Adele introduced her friends, and Betty asked, “Miss Peterson, wouldn’t you like to ride with us?”
“Why don’t you, Sis?” Everett exclaimed. “It won’t take but a moment for Mr. Wainwright to stop at the inn, and then I’ll stay a spell with my old friend here.”