This was too much for the various committees, and Laura’s wild shriek was the signal for a hasty adjournment. A common danger restored peace to the assembly, and they sought the runaway in perfect harmony.
“Well,” said Jack, when quiet was restored, “I am going a little distance up the Pico Negro trail; there are some magnificent Spanish bayonets growing there, and if you’ll let me have Pancho, Uncle Doc, we can bring down four of them and lash them to each of the corners of Elsie’s tent,—they’ll keep fresh several days in water, you know.”
“Take him, certainly,” said Dr. Winship.
“Do let me go with you!” pleaded Laura, with enthusiasm. “I should like the walk so much.”
“It’s pretty rough, Laura,” objected Margery. “If you couldn’t endure our walk this morning, you would never get home alive from Pico Negro.”
“Oh, that was in the heat of the day,” she answered. “I feel equal to any amount of walking now, if Jack doesn’t mind taking me.”
“Delighted, of course, Miss Laura. You’ll be willing to carry home one of the trees, I suppose, in return for the pleasure of my society?”
“Snub him severely, Laura,” cried Bell; “we never allow him to say such things unreproved.”
“I think he is snubbed too much already,” replied Laura, with a charming smile, “and I shall see how a course of encouragement will affect his behaviour.”
“That will be what I long have sought,
And mourned because I found it not,”