Ralph and Barbara found Ruth with a big sheet of paper in her hand and her brow wrinkled into a serious frown.
“We must decide at once what to have to eat at our supper party to-night. Naki is in a hurry to get off to the village, so as to be back in time to help with the preparations. Listen, chilluns, while I read you my menu,” commanded Ruth solemnly. “I am going to have a regular, old-fashioned supper party with everything on the table at once. Naki and Ceally can’t serve so many people in any other style. Besides, if we have to eat supper at eight and start off on our coon hunt at nine, there won’t be time for many courses. So here goes: Roast chicken, ‘ole Virginy’ ham, sent by Mr. Robert Stuart for just such a special occasion, roast pig and apple sauce, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, jellies, pies, doughnuts——”
“Cease, and give me breakfast ere I perish at the thought of overeating,” remonstrated Hugh. While Miss Sallie protested, as she sat down to her breakfast, “My dear Ruth, are you planning to feed an army, or to entertain a few guests at supper?”
“What shall we do to help with the preparations, Miss Sallie?” queried Grace.
“Just keep out of the way as much as possible, child,” Miss Stuart answered.
But this suggestion did not agree with Ruth’s ideas. “At least, Aunt Sallie,” she expostulated, “we may be allowed to decorate the hut as we like.”
“Certainly, child. Spend the day bringing the woods into the house, and to-morrow in throwing the trash out again, if you like. Only don’t interrupt Ceally and Naki.”
At half-past seven everything was ready for supper. As for the coon hunt, no one of “The Automobile Girls” had the faintest conception of what it would be like, and Miss Sallie was as ignorant as the rest of them.
“It is only an excuse for a midnight frolic among the young people,” she thought, indulgently. “I presume no mischief will come of it.”
A barking of dogs announced the approach of the guests. Four lean hounds, brown and yellow, baying and straining at their leashes, tore up the hill. Already the keen mountain air stirred them. Br’er Possum and Br’er Coon were even now placidly eating their suppers. The dogs longed to be at the night’s business.