“Don’t go away when you have finished eating, my dears. I want you to stay around the house.”
“Why?” asked Ted. “May Tom and I go off into the woods? We heard a dog barking there last night, and maybe it was Skyrocket. Maybe he got away from the Gypsies, and has come to find me.”
“Well, I hope he does,” said Mrs. Martin. “I heard that dog barking, too, but it wasn’t Skyrocket. But the reason I don’t want you to go away is that we are going off into the woods for a little picnic, and I don’t want to have to look all over for you when I am ready.”
“Oh, are we going on a really truly picnic?” cried Janet.
“With things to eat?” asked Ted.
“I don’t believe it would be much of a picnic without things to eat,” said his mother, with a laugh. “Yes, it’s going to be a truly real one. So don’t go too far away!”
“I guess not!” exclaimed Tom, with a laugh. “I like picnics!”
“Specially the kind where you have things to eat!” added Ted.
“That’s the only kind of a picnic worth going on,” added Uncle Ben.
“Are you coming?” asked Janet. Both she and her brother had grown very fond of Uncle Ben, and Tom and Lola liked him very much, too.