“Maybe it’s in with the lunch,” suggested Alice.
They had brought along some sandwiches, and a large bottle of olives, stuffed with Pimento peppers, for they did not expect to get back to camp for dinner. But an inspection of the several packets into which the “eats”, as Alice called them, were divided, disclosed no chart, map or other sailing directions for locating the Gypsy camp.
“Never mind!” exclaimed Marie. “I’m sure I can find it without that. Reuben went over it very carefully with me.”
“Reuben being the aforesaid bashful boy?” asked Mabel.
“Yes. And you needn’t make so much fun of him, either. He’s real nice when you get to know him, though he does say ‘yes, ma’am,’ and ‘no, ma’am,’ to me, and he’s older than I am.”
“How much?” inquired Natalie promptly.
“I sha’n’t tell! But come on if we’re going to get to Bear Pond before noon,” and she quickened her pace.
“I wonder if the boys suspected where we were going?” ventured Alice.
“I don’t believe so,” replied Mrs. Bonnell. “I told them they mustn’t feel obliged to look after us, or to accompany us everywhere we went. It was very nice of them, I said, but we had come to the woods to be real Camp Fire members, and didn’t want to trouble them.”
“I don’t believe they call it trouble,” said Marie.