"Over at the camp," smiled Dick.
"Don't they think that we need attention?" asked Susie Sharp.
"Tom is hauling firewood," Dick explained. "Greg is chopping it up. Harry is hauling the water supply and Dan is doing the housework in the tent."
"Laura and Belle have an escort for their trip into the forest, but it's not a rosy outlook for the rest of us," Clara pouted.
"Can't we all go together?" proposed Dick. "Surely, one guide ought to be enough for a party of eight girls."
Susie decided to join the botanizing party. The other girls made up their minds to take a walk under Dr. Bentley's escort. So Dick started away with the trio.
Belle and Laura carried the regulation oval cans for holding such plant specimens as they might collect. Prescott promptly offered to carry both cans, but the two girls declared that they were not going to permit him to impose upon himself.
For fifteen minutes the young people went on, farther into the forest. Though the girls wore overshoes, Dick went ahead to pick out the drier paths.
Collecting botanical specimens, though interesting to amateurs or experts, is dull work for onlookers. As both Belle and Laura were enthusiastic workers, Dick found himself walking chiefly with Susie Sharp. There was much waiting while Laura and Belle dug their mosses and plants.
Finally, Dick and Susie found themselves standing together, some feet from Laura and Belle, who were gathering wild flowers.