“Three more as good and we’ll have all the money we need!” she declared.
And, as a matter of fact, the three following sales were better than the first. Adelaide developed a real talent for jelly-making, and the orders for that alone helped a good deal. At the crowning sale, the next one to the last, they made twenty-one dollars, and eighteen and nineteen at the other two.
Mrs. Bryan went off to the city to buy tents, and was understood to have come back with ten that were marvellous bargains. The Camp Fire darned all its stockings, and tidied itself, and was collectively very good at home, so as to leave a pleasant last impression.
Mrs. Merriam lamented that she was going to be very, very lonely, for Tom was going out camping with the Scouts only a day or so later than Winona and Florence were to go with Camp Karonya. As for Puppums, there were many arguments about him, for Tom thought he would make a fine mascot, and so did Winona and Florence. It was finally settled by the fact that another of the Scouts owned a collie and was going to take him; and Puppums, while he was a friendly dog in the main, and indeed had quite a social circle of his own, bit collies whenever he saw them. So there were bound to be fights if Puppums went with Tom, and it was decided that the girls should have him.
Nobody thought there were going to be any more members added to the Camp. But one afternoon, while Winona was out in her back garden with Louise and Helen and a medicine ball, Nataly Lee from next door came calling. The three girls were dusty and tousled; Helen’s braid was half-undone, the ribbon was off Winona’s curls, and Louise, who had just fallen full-length across the nasturtiums in a vain effort to get the ball, had a streak of mould and grass-stain from her shoulder to the hem of her skirt. Altogether, they were as badly mussed a trio as you could wish to see, when Tom came out the back door toward them.
He said nothing whatever, but he bore high in his hand the very largest tray the house afforded, and in its black and banged centre reposed a small calling-card which said “Miss Nataly Lee. The Cedars.” He made a low bow, and held the tray toward his sister.
Winona took off the card, and the three girls looked at it together.
“Where do you suppose she keeps the cedars?” asked Louise in a stage whisper. “There aren’t any next door.”
“Sh-h. That must be her ancestral estate,” surmised Helen respectfully. “Oh, dear, Winnie, I can’t go in this way, to a call that has a card and all that!”
“Of course you can,” said Winona cheerfully. “I did worse than that when I went calling on her. I didn’t take any card at all. To be frank with you, I haven’t any. Anyway, she received me with her wrapper on, and that’s no better than grass-stains.”