“Perfectly. Make a few more cheese sandwiches, Jean, and we’ll soon be ready. I think I’ll put in those cookies, too. We can buy something for Sunday if we’re all eaten out of baked things.” Mrs. Gordon said nothing about the fat meat loaf in the bottom of the basket or the chicken which she had fried while Jean was at Nan’s Friday afternoon. She looked like a little older edition of Jean as she hurried around with flushed cheeks.
Presently they were all out upon the pretty river road, the Dudley car overtaking them. The girls leaned out to call to each other, as the machines drew abreast for a short distance. “I think we’ll go on to what the youngsters call Baldy for our lunch, Dudley. What do you think?” asked Judge Gordon.
“You could not find a better place,” Mr. Dudley replied. “Take the lead. I’ll follow.”
So the two gentlemen were not looking up the “piece of land” at once. The girls were quite satisfied, but wished that they had thought to bring their bathing suits. They crossed the river by the big bridge, took a roundabout route by fairly good roads through the beautiful, undulating country with its frequent pools and tiny lakes. Stretches of woodland or pastures and fields were equally attractive, but at length they came to the thick woods where a road ran in for a little way, then changed from lane to footpath.
“Isn’t this the grandest woods?” asked Jean, whose favorite adjective was “grand.” The other girls agreed that it was and that it was a shame they could not come more often to this lake. Yet it was too far for an ordinary hike and the machines of the parents were not available, as a rule. These facts were mentioned, and the girls did not notice a lad who viewed the party from a woodsy distance and then noiselessly slipped away to give the word.
The two fathers carried the two large baskets, while the two mothers and girls brought the light blankets used in the cars in cool weather. These would do to spread upon the ground. Various small articles which had not found room in the basket were distributed. “My, but we’re going to have a big lunch!” cried Nan. “It’s a regular S. P. picnic. I wish my mother and father could ever get away for one. Poor Dad! Always at the office!”
The girls ran on ahead, as girls do. The mothers and fathers exchanged glances. “It worked out better than I was afraid it would,” said Mrs. Gordon. “Jean doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“I’m relieved that the secrecy is over, though,” said Mrs. Dudley with a smile. “Now we’ll see how they like it. I hope everybody is here. You took us for a fine ride around, Judge Gordon.”
“I tried to give everybody time enough, Mrs. Dudley.” The judge looked at his watch. “Just eleven. They’ll be here. I suppose that the boys have been having their scouts out to watch us and report. Jimmy Standish was the only one who had to wait, on Nan’s account, and drive his father and mother.”
It took probably ten minutes of walking through the woods by the pretty trail before they came to the sloping shores of the lake that stretched its shining ripples so invitingly before them. “Why, Mother!” exclaimed Jean, looking to the left toward a cleared space, “Someone has been building a summer cottage! Oh, it must be the Black Wizards!” For Judge Gordon gave a little whistle and from behind the house the boys came running, Jimmy and Billy in the lead.