Jean gasped again. Now she knew. This was not the Black Wizard shack. The tall judge stepped back and the wiry, slight, editor, Nan’s father, stepped forward from a group. “This should all be very informal,” said he, “as it is a picnic occasion. It seems to fall to me to announce to our girls that the S. P. Club owns this little cottage and that it is a gift from the S. P. fathers and mothers, who have fitted it up very simply. The boys helped build it and I assure you that we all had a time of it to keep it a secret, but I believe that it was done. We hope that it will be a happy surprise to you and that you may have a very good time of it this summer. The boys want me to announce to you that they, too, have a camp about a mile around the lake from here and that after you have looked at your new house, the picnic will be held there.”
As Mr. Standish closed, Jean looked at her father, who nodded encouragingly. She felt stunned as well as happy to know that this summer camp was theirs, but her mind had been working this time. “Oh,” she began impulsively, “you know how we must feel, Mr. Standish, more like crying for joy! I couldn’t say anything if I weren’t the president and have to. We’ll all be thanking our fathers and mothers separately, and every one of the boys for helping do this. So all I’m saying now is just thank you, everybody!”
Jean turned to her mother and put her head on that comfortable shoulder for a minute, but a sudden thought made her swallow the lump in her throat and she turned to Nan and the rest of the astonished, ecstatic girls. “Oh, say, girls, let me whisper something to you,” and she whispered to Nan, who nodded and passed the word on to the nearest girl, while Jean told someone else. That message no one but the S. P.’s were ever to know. “Let’s never tell the boys that we knew they were building,” said Jean. It was not much, to be sure, but no unpleasant note of rivalry could ever be struck between the S. P.’s and the Black Wizards!
The commotion now began. The girls were beckoned into the little house that was theirs by the parents, who wanted to see how they liked it. The boys scattered, some of them taking the baskets and wraps brought by the Dudleys and Gordons. These were carried to the other camp by boat, for a little fleet of row-boats, canoes and one small motor boat was waiting to take the picnickers to where the other “opening” was to be celebrated.
“Daddy, I forgot to tell them about our motto. And you thought up the best name yet for us, a Social Progress Club.”
“That daughter, was on the spur of the moment. Was it too much to give you such a big surprise with no warning?”
“Oh, it is just too wonderful. I can’t tell you how happy I am, and I know the other girls feel the same way. Just look at them!”
The summer cottage stood facing the path and lane in a measure, but with its back to the lake. It was explained that the road was to be widened, to permit of driving to the house with supplies and that it seemed better to have the front face in that direction. “But your screened sleeping porch is toward the lake,” one of the fathers showed them, “and your main room out upon the water.”
Neat, trim, painted white, with golden brown storm shutters, and made of boards closely set, the little house justified the girls’ exclamations. It was not plastered inside, but it was tight and snug against ordinary winds. One immense room with a pantry and a large closet opening at one side, and the long sleeping porch across the back, constituted the interior. “That big closet, girls, could be made into a bathroom,” said Mrs. Dudley, “if a water system could be arranged some time. But you will be glad of all the hooks in there, now, and a place for your luggage. Be careful of that coal-oil stove, and the big range will keep you warm in a cold spell. There is money for a little set of dishes and some kitchenware, and we thought that it would be more fun for you to buy it yourselves and fix up the place. Do you like the color the boys painted the floor?”
The girls liked everything; what fun it was going to be, to buy things for their summer cottage.