“I and the Pickle,” he answered, referring to his friend, Dill Dodd. “How do you do, Miss Brown? Why, what has happened? Been hit by a cyclone?” Certainly Margery looked much the worse for her tumble. Her skirt was torn, and her face and hands were scratched, but her chin was not too much injured for her to be able to elevate it.
“I haven’t met a cyclone, nor is anything the matter with me, Mr. Baker,” replied Margery, rather haughtily. “When did you come in? Until just now I didn’t know that you were here.”
George smiled sheepishly.
“But where are the boys, George?” asked Harriet.
“Out yonder in the bushes,” he replied, conscious that his face was redder than usual.
“That is too bad. I should have thought of them before this. Boys, come into camp!” called Harriet. “We wish to see you.”
“It’s all right, fellows. Hike along!” commanded Captain George.
So one at a time the boys of the Tramp Club filed into the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls. They tried to look solemn-faced, yet their eyes were full of merriment. Dill Dodd led the way; then came Fred Avery, Sam Crocker, Charlie Mabie, Will Burgess and Davy Dockrill. The boys were about the same age as the Meadow-Brook Girls, though taller and of stronger build.
As the reader of this series knows, this was not the first meeting of the two clubs. Harriet and her friends were introduced in the first volume of this series, “The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas,” which told of their enjoyable adventures in the Pocono Woods. In that volume the reader became acquainted with the grit, zeal and purpose of Harriet Burrell and her chums, and with the fine influence that Miss Elting, their teacher-guardian, exercised over them.
In the second volume, “The Meadow-Brook Girls across Country,” the five girls and their guardian were shown on their long “hike” homeward, as they had elected to go on foot rather than resort to comfortable travel by train. Though at this time the Meadow-Brook Girls met with some unexpected hardships, the pleasant experiences through which they passed repaid them for their many troubles. In this volume, too, as our readers will recall, the girls first made the acquaintance of the boys of the Tramp Club, who were destined to prove valued friends in many a difficulty. But the pranks of these mischievous lads forced the girls to retaliate in kind, and not only did they pay their score, but proved themselves the boys’ equals in achievement and endurance on the homeward hike.