“Oh, thave me! There they come,” moaned Tommy.
“It’s the Tramp Club as I live,” exclaimed Miss Elting. “Girls, we must call to them. It is a humiliating position for us, but we must get out of here. They can at least go for the farmer and ask him to drive the animals off.”
“Oh, Miss Elting, please don’t call to them,” begged Harriet.
The boys were swinging down the road at a rapid but steady pace. They were walking in step, each with a heavy pack on his back, hat brims tilted back, a manly looking lot of young men. As they reached a point opposite to the lower end of the orchard they began to sing, their voices raised in chorus:
“Forty-nine blue bottles are hanging on the wall,
Forty-nine blue bottles are hanging on the wall.
Take one of the bottles down and there’ll be forty-eight
blue bottles a hanging on the wall, a hanging on
the wall.
Take one of the bottles down and there’ll be forty-eight
blue bottles a hanging on the wall, a hanging on
the wall.”
“Oh, help!” moaned Margery Brown.
“Thave me!” wailed Tommy.
Harriet and Miss Elting burst out laughing, but not loudly enough for their laughter to reach the Tramp Club, the members of which organization were trudging along past the orchard, wholly unconscious of the nearness of their friends.
CHAPTER XIV—HARRIET IS RESOURCEFUL
The boys were still removing blue bottles from the wall as they swung on out of sight of the girls in the apple trees. Harriet Burrell was shaking with laughter.