Buster, somewhat mollified, smiled and sat down. The girls glanced about them inquiringly.
“What are you boys doing here?” demanded the guardian, glancing curiously about her.
“Oh, Miss Elting, they are making a practice court,” cried Harriet.
“Why, boys, you shouldn’t have gone to all that trouble. The games come on the day after to-morrow and we shall have very little use for a court. Then, again, you have peeled off the sod. Why couldn’t we have practised on a grass court for the short time?” asked the guardian. “Of course we appreciate this, just as we do everything you have done for us, but you have done altogether too much.”
“In the first place,” replied George, “all you will wish to do on the courts out there is to warm up, to limber up. You will wish to practise some of your fancy strokes, which you can do here without any one observing you. We shall see to that. We shall stand guard and not let any one near the court while you girls are at work. The reason we peeled the sod is that you will play on a hard court in the contest. To play on a grass court here for practice might undo all you have accomplished thus far with regard to foot work. I know P. E. would agree with me in that.”
“Hathn’t George got a head to be proud of?” demanded Tommy. “I withh I had a head like hith, only much more beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Captain George bowed with great ceremony, as though deeply appreciative of this rather doubtful compliment.
“You do think of everything, George,” remarked Harriet. “You are right, too. This court will be of no little assistance to us for the finishing touches. I have some new strokes that I have thought out, strokes that I should like to try without any one’s observing me. Come, let’s look at the tents.”
There were two of these, one for Miss Elting, the other for the girls. The boys had given the guardian one of their small camping tents. The girls uttered exclamations of surprise when they entered the tent. Everything was arranged with as much taste as they themselves could have shown. In addition to this the interiors of the two tents were decorated with cedar boughs that the lads had gathered by the wayside on their way to Newtown. On the two end poles crossed tennis racquets had been fastened with a tennis ball in the crotch formed by each pair of racquets. In the center of the girls’ tent was a small folding table covered with a scarf that George had borrowed from his mother, and on the center of the table stood a pitcher filled with roses.
“Oh, you boys, you boys!” exclaimed Miss Elting, her eyes shining happily. In her own tent she found a similar condition.