“Just wait!” warned Louise from her lower limb. “When we start that twenty-five-mile hike, it will seem quite too real for comfort, take my word for it!”
“Don’t you think we could hike to camp?” appealed Winnie.
“You’ll have to practise shorter hikes first,” was the answer. “If you do that there’s no reason why we couldn’t all walk the distance. I suppose we’ll camp somewhere on the Wampoag River.”
“Yes, that’s what we thought,” said the girls.
“Of course, we’d have to break the journey,” Winnie went on.
“Well, yes, I think so,” Mrs. Bryan answered. “Oh, here are Helen and Marie now. Oh, Helen! We’re up in this tree! No, don’t come up—all the seats are full!”
“Then come down!” called Helen. “We have something to show you.”
The something proved to be a small and very scared garter-snake, that Helen was carrying in a forked stick.
“Poor little snakelet!” said Louise. “Do let him go home, Helen—I’m sure he’s not grown-up yet.”
So Helen put down the snake and off he went.