“Then all we’ll have to do is to get everybody else’s permission, and I’m pretty sure if Grace is with us, and we don’t go too far away, they’ll let us.” Jean’s voice had a happy lilt.
“Wait, Jean,” said Molly. “Mother told me that Grace had already written to her about it, but that she thought it too soon to make it definite and there were other reasons why she had not said anything. Grace said that one of the senior girls had been a junior councilor at an eastern camp for girls, that another had a troop of girl scouts in her home town and still another knew all about the camp fire girls. So Grace will know a lot of things for us to do. I wish Grace was going to be at home next year!”
“Is she going to teach or something?”
“Worse. She’s going to be married.”
The Black Wizards were behaving in a most mysterious fashion in these days. The girls were quite sure that they had not seen them that day upon the river road, or they would have suspected that their secret was known or surmised.
After school they would disappear with great suddenness. On street corners or in the school grounds they held secret confabs when they met. Sometimes a machine would be waiting for them after school. As boys do, they would pile into it and drive off with more than the usual air of a good time. Indeed, they made an effort to repress their usual high spirits and noise, a thing which in itself would have called attention to them. The girls saw no more lumber going out of town, but that was because the early and late hikes had stopped, or possibly because the lumber had all been delivered. It would have been fun to find out where they were building, but the girls were too busy with other things. It was not directly on any of the main roads, at least, where they drove with their parents at odd times. Miss Haynes had announced her plans early enough for them not to count upon her, but they were quite content to rest their hopes on Grace French, who was so attractive, and engaged!
With much glee the girls made fudge that evening of the called meeting, one batch after another, more than one kettle on at a time, each in charge of a separate S. P., since too many cooks do often “spoil the broth.”
“After saying that we’ll have to give up making money, here Jean puts us at making candy to sell to-morrow!” whimsically Phoebe complained.
“We need just a little more for that set of nature books,” said Jean. “Besides, what cruelty not to supply those Black Wizard carpenters with something to eat while they work! Do you realize that to-morrow is the last day for us, except when we go to get our grades? Now, Molly, you can start the hard molasses taffy. We’ve got enough fudge, after we get that last beaten. Leigh, did you bring that oiled paper? And oh, Nan, did you put down how much we paid for the sugar? Mother gave us the cream. While the last cools, we’ve got to make the little S. P. cornucopias, if we stay up half the night to do it! Don’t you think that we could charge ten cents for them instead of five?”
“Poor Wizards!” cried Molly.