“Come on, girls, or we’ll be late,” urged Mabel. “Have we got everything?”
“If we haven’t we can’t carry any more,” declared Natalie. “I wonder if I’ll do any work on my bead head-band now that I’ve toted it along with me, and the loom, too,” and she regarded it rather regretfully.
“Oh, we’ll have lots of time to make bead work,” said Alice. “It won’t take us long to explore the old mill, and then we can pic-nic and do as we please.”
“Then you don’t believe we’ll find anything?” asked Natalie.
“Not a blessed thing, my dear,” answered Alice, “except cobwebs, with big, fat spiders in them——”
“Oh, you horrid thing!” cried Mabel. “I’ll not set foot in the old place!” and she hung back.
“We’ll get a broom and brush them all down,” said Mrs. Bonnell. “There are the boys beckoning to us. Hurry, my dears!”
They had passed along the lake shore beyond the camp of Jack and his chums, and were now approaching the We-Too aggregation of tents, this being the name adopted by the young men who had assisted in the search for Natalie that night. They had been friends with the girls and their brothers since.
“My! you’re equipped for a long stay,” remarked Ford Armstrong, one of the campers, as he saw the well-laden girls and their guardian. “Let me take some of your bundles.”
“And whatever you do, don’t drop that basket!” cautioned Alice. “It’s got eggs in it, and some of them may not be hard-boiled.”