“I am so glad to see you!” she declared. “I can’t wait to shake your hands in the right way. We girls were so afraid you had turned ‘quitters’! Come, this minute, and see Aunt Sallie. You must be introduced, too, to Ambassador and Mrs. Morton.”
“But where are Ruth and Grace?” inquired Ralph.
“Over yonder,” laughed Bab, pointing to the green inclosure in front of them.
The boys spied Ruth and Grace some distance off. The two girls were deep in conversation with a farm boy. Strutting around near them were a fat turkey gobbler and a Plymouth Rock rooster.
Just at this moment Ruth was giving her instructions. “Be sure you bring the turkey and the rooster over to the Fair Grounds by ten o’clock to-morrow morning.”
The boy grinned. “I’ll have ’em here sure, Miss.”
“Ruth,” asked Grace, as the two girls started back across the meadow to join their friends, “do you suppose it will be unkind for us to try to drive these poor barnyard fowls across a field before so many people? I presume the poor old birds will be frightened stiff. Whoever heard of anything so utterly absurd as a Gymkana race.”
“Oh, no, you tender-hearted Grace,” Ruth assured her. “I don’t think the kind of pets we are to drive to-morrow will be much affected by our efforts. Indeed they are likely to lead us more of a chase than we shall lead them. And I don’t believe the annoyance of being run across this field by us for a few yards equals the nervous shock of being scared by an automobile or a carriage. That alarm may overtake poor Brother Turkey and Mr. Rooster any day. I think our race is going to be the greatest fun ever! Why! I think I see Ralph Ewing and Hugh over there with the girls. Isn’t that great?”
“Miss Morton!” Hugh was protesting gayly, as Grace and Ruth joined the crowd of their friends. “You don’t mean to say that Barbara and Ruth have put Ralph’s name and mine down for three of your performances? How shall we ever live through such a tremendous strain! Kindly explain to me what is expected of us.”
Dorothy Morton got out her blankbook, where she had written each item of the next day’s programme. “Well, Mr. Post, you and Mr. Ewing are down for three of our best events, ‘The Egg and Spoon Race,’ ‘The Dummy Race’ and ‘The Thread and Needle Race.’”