“Good!” exclaimed Jack. “I don’t know that you could have anything better. Still, if you do need us, a loud call will carry to our camp, and we can get here in three minutes coming by the lake-shore path.”
Then they sat about the fire, talking of many things, until the blaze died down for lack of fuel. And when Natalie would have replenished it, the other girls voted against it.
“Let’s go to bed,” proposed Alice. “Boys, we don’t want to be inhospitable, but really you must go. We are very tired.”
“Will you go for a trip on the lake to-morrow?” asked Blake. “We have hired a little launch.”
“Will it run?” asked practical Marie.
“Sometimes,” answered truthful Jack, and there was another laugh.
Good-nights were said, and soon, with the flaps of their tent tightly drawn the girls prepared for their first night in the woods. They had thoughtfully filled a lantern that had been among their camp-stuff, and its gleam through the white sides of their tent could be seen amid the trees even as far as the canvas shelter of the boys.
“Last one under the covers put out the light,” called Alice, as she made herself comfortable on her cot.
“Let’s burn it all night,” suggested Mabel.
“I can’t sleep with a light,” declared Marie.