And they raised such a din with the chorus that the boys came streaming over to see what the fun was about and to inquire casually if supper wasn’t nearly ready.
“Goodness, no,” answered Nyoda; “we’ve just got our beds made. Go overpower Slim, if you are hungry, and take his bottle away from him. By the way, which cabin is to be honored by the smell of the cooking?”
“The log cabin is the largest,” said Uncle Teddy, “and it has both the fireplace and the little stove. The other is just a sleeping cabin. I guess the honor is yours. All aboard for the dining car! Where’s that canned soup? Bring in the wood, boys, and make a cooking fire in the stove. You know what a cooking fire is, I suppose. Everybody get to work. Too many cooks can’t spoil this broth.”
They flew around, getting in each other’s way dreadfully, but under Uncle Teddy’s and Aunt Clara’s able management they did contrive to accomplish the things they were trying to do, and in less than no time the supper was steaming on the table.
“Maybe I won’t do anything to that soup and that creamed fish!” sighed Slim, his face beaming at the sight of the banquet spread before him.
“Maybe it won’t do anything to him!” said Katherine in an aside to Sahwah. “I got a whole teaspoonful of Hinpoha’s old talcum powder in the cream sauce before I discovered it wasn’t flour, and then it was too late to take it out again.”
“Never mind,” Sahwah giggled back, “it’s so hot you can’t taste it, and it won’t last long enough to get cold. Your secret is safe in our stomachs!”
The paper plates made a grand glare in the fireplace after supper was over and in its light Katherine and Slim gave a Punch and Judy show until Slim showed symptoms of bursting from want of breath, whereupon the play came to an end and it was discovered that Bottomless Pitt had fallen asleep in a corner.
“Hide his shoes!” suggested the Monkey, and promptly took them off and tied them by strings to a tack in the ceiling.
“Let’s enchant him altogether,” said the gifted Katherine, and fastened the little mustache to his lip. Then they stuck his head full of paper curls and powdered his face with flour. The effect when he woke up was all they had hoped for. They had set a small wall mirror on the floor beside him, so he got the full benefit of his altered appearance on his first glance around. Uttering a startled yell, he sprang to his feet, looking wildly around. Brought to himself by the laughter on all sides, he shook his fist fiercely at Slim and the Captain, declaring that he would make the fellow who did that eat soap. As Katherine was the “fellow” in question this only increased the merriment at his expense. Slim leaned against the wall so helpless from laughter that he didn’t even resist when Pitt climbed on his shoulders to haul down his shoes, but went on chuckling violently until he sagged to one side and down came both boys in a heap, shoes, tack and all.