“What’s the programme for to-day?” Grace asked.
“Somebody must go down the hill with me this afternoon,” Ruth answered. “The automobile is to meet us there you know, to take us to a postoffice to mail our letters to our beloved families. This morning we can just poke round the camp. I want Naki to teach us how to make a camp fire.”
Mollie looked down at her dainty hands. “It is rather dirty work, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Not a bit of it, Mollie,” put in Bab. “Don’t be finicky, or we shall put you out of camp. It’s a good thing to know how to build a first-class fire. Suppose one of us should be lost in the woods some day!”
“We will suppose no such thing,” protested Miss Stuart.
Early in the afternoon Miss Sallie and the four girls started down the hill. Bab, Mollie and Miss Stuart were to go only a part of the way with Ruth and Grace, the two girls continuing their walk until they met the chauffeur, who was to bring the motor car up to the point of the road where Ruth had told him to meet her.
Mollie and Bab begged off from the excursion. “I don’t want to know,” Bab argued, “how near we still are to civilization. If I go to town with you to-day, no matter how long the drive is, it will take away a part of the romance of living in the hills.”
Miss Stuart was not much of a walker. Before they had gone half a mile she decided that it was high time to turn back.
“Good-bye girls,” she called to Ruth and Grace, who were hurrying on. “Do not stay too late. You must be back by dusk, or I shall be most uneasy. At five-thirty I shall expect you in camp. These are my orders.” Miss Sallie turned to Bab and Mollie. “Seriously, children,” she explained, “I think I shall establish military rules. If one of you stays out after dusk, I believe I shall shut you up in the guard house for twenty-four hours.”
“But where is the guard house please, Miss Sallie?” inquired Mollie meekly.