“I love the sun, but oh, you eats!” trilled Frances, casting a loving eye upon the hamper that Anne and Betty had just set upon a convenient flat rock. It being their only burden, the Equitable Eight had taken turns carrying it, having laughingly barred their hostess-guide from playing porter.
“You think more about eating than about Nature study, Frances Bliss,” accused Jane with a lofty indifference to the pangs of hunger, which were at that very moment assailing her.
“Can you look me squarely in the eyes and say you are not starved, Jane Pellew?” was the severe retort, as Frances marched over to her pet diversion, thrusting her mischievous face within a few inches of Jane’s.
“No, I can’t, you ridiculous person,” Jane’s lofty expression vanished in a half-vexed laugh. “Still, I am too polite to mention being starved unless I’m forced to do it.”
“You really mean that you lack simple frankness, Plain Jane,” translated Frances gently. “You may be polite, and occasionally frank. I can readily recall several such occasions, though I prefer not to dwell on them publicly. But I am always frank. It was my extreme frankness as a mere infant which induced my fond parents to name me Frances. Frankness and Frances are synonymous. Do you catch the beauty of the synonym?”
“Take her away,” begged Jane of the laughing listeners. “She gives me the headache.”
“Let’s condemn her to hard labor. Make her unpack the hamper,” sentenced Betty, firmly seizing the talkative synonym of frankness by the arm. Jane lost no time in grasping her tormentor’s other arm. Protesting volubly, Frances was conducted to the hamper. Then the avenging duo encountered a snag.
“You can drag an Equitable Eighter to a hamper, but you can’t make her unpack it,” jeered the victim of force.
“Oh, yes we can,” confidently assured Jane. “You make one arm go, Betty, and I’ll work the other.”
Thereupon followed a bit of by-play that sent the interested onlookers into shrieks of laughter. Frances was possessed of not only a will of her own, but corresponding strength as well. She put forth no effort to free herself; her arms simply refused to move in accordance with the will of her propellers. In fact, they flourished in every direction except hamperward, causing those of her captors to flourish unwillingly with them.