“Are you going to let me help you play hostess?” Charles asked.
“I certainly am,” Penny told him briskly. “And for pity’s sake, start right in with all that baggage. I’m sure Mal will be floored when he sees it!”
But all Charles could really get to carry up was one small bag, since Mal, Pat, Jimmy and the other two boys made quick work of getting the car unloaded. Penny suspected the rush act was put on because they were all anxious to drive the beautiful, shiny Cadillac into the shed.
For the next few days the Lodge was a beehive of activity. There was much conversation and laughter and a great deal of coming and going about the grounds. There were beach parties, hikes and picnics and an impromptu evening party with everybody joining wholeheartedly in all the games that were suggested.
Jimmy arranged a “snipe hunt.” Phil was the only other person besides Jimmy who knew there were no snipe around there. Everybody started out at twilight with flashlights and paper bags to hunt for the elusive snipe. And when they all came back, empty-handed, one by one, Jimmy greeted them with a big stuffed bird in his hands. Brook said it was an old logger’s trick, and everybody in New England knew about it, but he couldn’t understand how he and all these other people would fall for it. Nevertheless, they had all enjoyed their tramp through the woods and the snack that awaited them when they returned.
There was little rest for the Allens now. Penny would slip away when everybody was being entertained to make out orders and menus. She also found that she would have to make arrangements for some of the village people to come in and help with the cleaning as well as the ironing and serving when more guests arrived.
Things were really getting down to quite a businesslike basis, however, and Penny was pleased with the routine they seemed to have fallen into partly by plan and partly by accident. They had planned to try and get all of their actual work done in the morning, but the first few days it had not worked out that way since most of the guests were up bright and early. But after a few days, when the novelty of the Lodge had worn off, and their guests had become quite settled, most of them slept later, and this gave the Allens time for their work.
Penny and Phil both had a disappointment in common when Peter Wyland and Adra wrote that they would not be able to come to the Lodge until the first week in August. Adra Prentice was spending some time with her father, whom she had hardly seen all winter. And since Mr. Prentice could not come to the Lodge at all as he had originally planned, Adra had decided to spend July with him and then come to the Lodge for August. Peter, of course, was in Mr. Prentice’s employ, and so he could not come for the same reason. However, they both wrote in their letters to Phil and Penny that they would be there in August and Peter hinted that he might be able to come a week earlier.
“It’s a good thing we haven’t much time to miss anyone these days,” Phil said and Penny smiled.
“Yes, keeping busy is a wonderful antidote for some things,” she said.