“Oh, must you go so soon, boys?” pleaded Ruth. “We are planning the jolliest lark. We are to have a coon hunt up on the hill with some acquaintances we have just made in Lenox. They are to have supper with us, and are to bring up a guide and some coon dogs for our hunt later on. And you simply must stay at the cabin to-night. See, there is a lounge here in the living room, and we have plenty of quilts and steamer rugs. One of you can have the couch and the other can sleep on the floor by the fire.”
“May we, Miss Sallie?” Hugh queried.
“As you like, boys,” declared Miss Stuart, now completely restored to good humor.
“Then let’s stay by all means!” urged Ralph. “What should we expect to sleep on except the floor or the ground? This is the most effete camping party I ever saw,” he declared, looking around their cosy little cabin. “You have all the comforts of home, here!”
“Do you think you and Ralph can stay for our coon hunt, Hugh?” asked Bab.
“Oh, for sure, Barbara,” Hugh asserted. “I will fix things up with the mater for a day; but we shall have to be off the next day without fail. Now, I have an awful confession to make.”
“What is it Hugh?” Ruth demanded.
“Ralph and I are starving!” he answered. “We were so bent on getting up to your hut before it was too late, we didn’t have time to get any dinner. Could you, would you, just give us each a hunk of bread to stay our appetites?”
“You poor souls!” cried Ruth. “Come on out in the kitchen with me, Mollie. Let Bab and Grace do the entertaining. We’ll fix you some eggs and bacon in no time, the best you ever tasted. Our cook has gone to bed.”
“Let’s have a feast for everybody,” proposed Bab. “May we, Miss Sallie? I am dreadfully hungry again. I haven’t had anything to eat for at least two hours and a half.”