Blinded and dripping, Joe made a frantic effort to head the bottle another way, and in the attempt turned a liberal portion over Bert, who was standing near.
"I was just about to say," continued Charlotte calmly, "that boys always do everything in such a complete way."
"Well they know when not to talk," growled Joe, mopping himself with a napkin, and frowning darkly at the offending young lady.
It was a supper of gayety, and good things to eat. The boys were so proud of their cooking that they disliked to let the conversation wander from that particular subject, and brought it back by some skilful remark whenever they thought the interest of the girls was flagging. Each club toasted the other, and Jack toasted the ladies, ending with the sentence, which became a byword in Glenloch, "Girls are all right if you only know how to manage 'em."
"What a lot of dishes," said Betty with a sigh as they rose from the table.
"We will now show you how the powerful masculine mind handles the problem of dishes," proclaimed Phil.
"Do those dishes worry us? Not at all," added Bert as the boys lifted the table bodily and put it in a comer of the room.
"Now you see 'em," said Joe, helping to unfold two screens borrowed for the occasion, "and now you don't."
"Yes, but they're there all the same," argued Dorothy unconvinced.
"Mrs. Flinn will change all that, little sister," answered her brother condescendingly. "We have bribed her to spend to-morrow morning cleaning the club room, and she thinks we are 'blissed young gintlemen.'"