“Suppose we invite the boys to supper, as we are going to be their guests to-night at the house?”
A merry group sat about the great flat rock that evening while Mrs. Baker and the Guide waited on the hungry Woodcrafters. The girls told about the umbrella and the boys of their mountain hike.
The dishes cleared away, they all marched through the woods in the gloaming, and reached the house ready for more sport. Many exclamations of surprise and admiration came from the girls as they saw the way the boys had spent their afternoon.
Brightly coloured foliage festooned the doors, window-casings, and pictures of the large living-room. Pumpkins shed subdued light from the candles within their grinning faces. Red peppers, golden corn on stalks, and tall grasses formed decorations in the corners of the room. Black paper witches, bats, and yowling cats swung from invisible threads from the beams of the ceiling, and many other Hallow E’en ideas were carried out.
Regular Hallow E’en games were played at first, then Fred called for the Jack Horner Pie he had spied in the kitchen.
“Well, then, help me carry it in,” laughed Mrs. Baker.
Shortly they were seen carrying in the galvanized wash-tub that had been used for the pie-tin. A brown pie-crust fitted over the top of it, but no one knew what was under the crust. “How under the sun did you bake it?” wondered Zan.
“That’s a culinary secret!” laughed Mrs. Baker.
“Tell us, so we can enter the recipe in the Tally,” replied Elena, also laughing.
“I made the pastry rather moist and rolled it out into a great sheet and placed it on the wooden bread-board. The oven was very hot and after the sheet of dough had been in it a few moments it baked and browned enough to spread it over the tub. I pinched down the edges to the tin, and there you are! Not to be eaten, however, for you will find it too pasty.”