"When?" questioned Emma, her interest instantly aroused.
"Sat'dy night to the schoolhouse over in the holler yonder. Mebby you-all kin help we uns to pay the band."
"What? Do you have a band up here?" wondered Anne.
"Uh-huh—fiddle and er banjer, and the feller that plays the banjer kin tear more music out o' it and stomp on the floor harder'n any other perfesser in the mountains. Better come if Paw ain't run you-all out befo' then."
"Don't worry, little one. Paw won't run this outfit out just yet," replied Hippy.
"I dunno, I dunno. Ain't no tellin' 'bout Paw. Bye." Julie pushed a mass of hair from her forehead, gave her head a jerk to settle the hair more firmly in place, then, turning on her heel, walked away without once turning her head.
"With a stomach like his, 'Paw' should have been in France fighting the Boches," observed Emma Dean solemnly. "I'm going to the dance! I'm going to the dance! Tra-la-la," she cried, doing a fancy step about the camp, keeping time with her upraised arms until she stepped on Washington Washington's foot and brought a howl from that worthy.
The Overland girls then fell upon and subdued Miss Dean without loss of time.
"If you let her go to that dance there will be a riot, as sure as I am a foot high," declared Hippy Wingate, in which assertion most of the girls agreed with him.