“Lasso it!” Arthur declared, untying a stout rope which hung from one end of the weir posts.
The prospect of catching such big game was too tempting for the males of the party. And so while the girls dashed madly about, trying to get out of their reach, screaming with excitement and holding on to each other for protection, but really enjoying the situation very much—the boys chased the turtle from corner to corner, until finally Arthur managed to lasso a leathery paw and tie it captive to a weir post. How he did this, he himself found it hard to say, because the water was lashed to a miniature fury by the flounderings of both the turtle and its captors. It was probably pure accident, he was humble enough to assert. But having caught the creature, they were not content until they had brought him ashore, and so the procession started beachwards, Arthur pulling the turtle at the end of the rope.
It was a huge turtle at least two feet in diameter. It had wide leathery flappers, a wicked looking head—as big, Rosie said, as her alarm clock. But its shell was beautifully marked.
As they approached the beach they could see the great square of the tablecloth laid out on the sand and Floribel busy piling up sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs; fruit and cake. The Little Six came running to meet them and then it became a problem to keep them out of the way of the turtle’s snapping jaws. They had no difficulty however, with Floribel, who screamed with terror at the sight of the strange creature and would not allow them to bring it onto the beach. They ended by mooring it, by means of a large rock, in one of the pools near the shore.
Then, forgetting their prey for a while, they sat down to lunch. They were ready to do full justice to it.
“Lordee!” Floribel exclaimed once. “Dey’se salt enough here for an army—shuah! Who put all dat salt in the basket?”
The three girls burst into giggles.
“I was so sure we’d forget the salt,” Maida said, “that I put in a pair of salt-cellars.”
“I put in three,” declared Rosie.
“And I put in four,” confessed Laura.