No one had, but all had heard the scratching at the front door.
"He wasn't at camp with us to-night, for he would have begged for supper," added Nita.
Some of the girls ran to the front door and, opening it, displayed Wickee on the door mat. He was perfectly dry and had been camping on the porch in preference to returning through the cold wet woods when his mistress went to camp that afternoon.
As Zan went out to the well to bring in a bucket of water, she called to all of the others, "Oh, come here and see Lake Superior!"
When Miss Miller and the girls reached the porch a strange sight, indeed, met their gaze. The torrents of rain that had fallen could not seep into the ground quickly enough and had run down from the gardens and grove, over the surface, until the lawn was reached. As the front lawn had a decided depression in the centre a lake about an acre in extent was the result.
"Imagine what would have happened if we had stumbled into this in the darkness, coming by the path we generally use?" said Miss Miller.
"We'd have had something worth Elena's crying over," said Jane.
"Well, I don't care, now! I'll be sick anyway after this soaking!" whimpered Elena.
"Indeed you won't! You'll go straight home if you continue that strain of thought here where all of us are proving that health is not subject to wet skins!" replied Miss Miller, sternly.
Elena was so amazed at the unexpected attitude of the Guide that she hurried into the house and said not another word of fear of sickness.