“That would be awfully nice of you, but we thought we’d ‘attend in a body,’ as the papers say,” answered Winona. “Aren’t you boys going to?”
“Well, you see, there are extra girls,” explained Tom. “There aren’t enough of you Scoutragettes to go round, so we’ve asked some other girls, and we have to go after them. But we’ll get them early, and be there to meet you when you get there.”
“Well, I don’t want to croak.” And Winona arose to go into the kitchen, for that way lay an honor bead, and it was nearly supper-getting time. “But I think the boy who goes after Nataly Lee won’t be drawn up to meet us, unless we kindly hold back the order of march for him.”
“Shouldn’t wonder,” called Tom after her. “Get something good for supper, there’s a useful sister!”
But though there was a slight delay in the order of march, it was Louise Lane, of all unexpected people, who was responsible for it: her headband went wrong after all, she explained when, flushed and panting, she appeared in her other one at the meeting-place.
The girls fell into step and marched, two and two, out into the street up the short block to the school-house, where most of the public affairs in the town were held.
“Oh, isn’t it gorgeous?” whispered Winona irrepressibly as they came steadily and lightly up the centre of the hall, till they faced the Scouts.
These last were drawn up in a military formation, in the order of their seniority, with the Scoutmaster at their head. He was a plump, cheerful, middle-aged man, the father of three of the Scouts, and vice-principal of the High School. But you would never have thought he had seen a class-room, he looked so military and colonel-fied, there at the head of his line of erect, soldierly-looking boys.
“It’s like real receptions!” whispered Helen to Winona, as the orchestra blared out “Hail to the Chief!” which was as near to “Welcome to the Camp Fire Girls” as the orchestra’s resources could come. Then Mrs. Bryan and Mr. Gedney gave the order to break ranks, and the orchestra slid with surprising ease into a Paul Jones. So did the boys and girls.
“We got here first, you see,” whispered Tom to Winona as he crossed her. The round went on for quite a little while before the whistle blew for the breaking up into twos, so Winona was able to question and answer bit by bit as she and her brother met and parted.