Dray ran his boat, the Dixie, alongside, and together the fleet of two comprised what the boys termed a “White House Lunch.” The cooking was all done on the Chelton and the eatables were handed over the brass rail to Lottie and Marita, who served as waitresses on the Dixie. First there were lettuce sandwiches, rolled. Any girl who can successfully roll bread and lettuce is termed proficient by the cooking teachers, and it was a tie between Belle and Cora as to who did the most and best of the rolling.
With the lettuce came the greatest treat to the boys—homemade crab salad—home caught crabs and handmade dressing thereon.
“I caught the biggest crab,” declared Lottie, handing the wooden plate to Belle. “Isn’t that fine!”
“Finest!” she repeated, enthusiastically. “But say! Why don’t the boys catch crabs?”
The boys did not waste time asking questions. Lettuce sandwiches! Crab salad! They would be serving frappé next!
“Eat plenty of salad,” Cora ordered. “We spent all yesterday evening crabbing.”
“Will—we—eat—it?” exclaimed Walter. “I won’t dare look at a frying pan again this week, and my term ends with the week,” he said, between bites.
Next came baked potatoes. These had been done on the electric toaster, right aboard the Chelton, and while scarcely a correct following for salad, the first was given as an appetizer, and the potatoes as food.
The latter were served on the smallest of wooden plates, with the most extravagant little butter plates—really sauce or cream “thimbles,” all fluted and shaped from white paper.
A dozen of these cups had been Belle’s contribution to the feast. She spied them at the news stand, over at the point, and could not leave them.