The small tent, that had been packed in sections, had already taken on something of the dispiriting color of the landscape in which it had been set. Within the tent the girls had leveled off the ground as well as possible and dug deep trenches on the uphill side, so that they might not be drowned out in case of a heavy rainstorm. They had chosen this uninviting spot principally because it was different from any place in which they had made camp during their summer vacations of the past two years. They could easily shift to another location were they to tire of this one. One advantage of the present site lay in the fact that it was removed from human habitation by some miles. Their own homes lay about twelve miles to the eastward.
Hazel Holland, the fifth girl of the Meadow-Brook Girls’ party, also saw that Harriet had something in mind. She walked over near the fire and sat down, regarding Harriet inquiringly.
“What do you mean, Harriet?” she questioned.
“I haven’t said. Use your eyes. I am too busy getting supper now to make any explanations. Haven’t you girls seen anything unusual?”
“Yes, I have,” answered Margery. “Everything is unusual around here—too much so to suit my cultivated tastes.”
“There ith thome mythtery here,” observed Tommy Thompson wisely.
Miss Elting asked no questions. She knew that Harriet would speak of what was in her mind when she was ready to do so. The supper was soon cooked, the dishes set on a blanket, which had been spread on a fairly level place. Other blankets had been laid down on which the girls took their places with their feet curled underneath them. The dishes were mostly tin and paper, but the supper, smoking and steaming on the blanket, was savory and appetizing. The girls forgot their dismal surroundings in the pleasure of eating what Harriet Burrell had prepared for them, though Margery did her best to look sour, in order to hide her satisfaction, while Tommy now and then regarded her with a smile.
“I don’t believe Buthter intendth to thtop eating to-night,” was the little lisping girl’s comment.
“You stop making remarks about me,” exploded Buster. “Didn’t I tell you I should go right back home if you did it again this summer?”
“Buthter never liketh to hear the truth about herthelf,” averred Tommy with an impish grin.