Two barrels of potatoes.
Six jugs of molasses.
One dozen cans each peas and corn.
Eight pounds of salt pork.
“All present and accounted for,” said Mrs. Bryan, as the men who had been loaned with the wagon rolled the barrels and carried the boxes off to a little tarred shack near the spring. “We’ll have to buy butter and eggs and fresh fruit and vegetables as we go along. They’ll keep in the spring, for it seems to be ice-cold.”
“And did just things to eat for us cost all that beautiful eighty dollars we made at all the cake-sales?” asked Florence indignantly. She had helped make fudge for those sales, and she felt as if they had been her personal venture.
“It came to about fifty-five dollars, wholesale,” said Helen, looking down at the itemized list she held. “We figured out that the other thirty dollars would just about keep us in the green things and dairy things we had to have. The corn and peas are in case we’re weatherbound and can’t get fresh vegetables.”
“And how long did you say we could live on that perfect mountain of food?” inquired Nataly Lee’s mournful voice from where she was lying on the grass with her knapsack under her head.
“Three weeks, no more,” said Helen briskly. “If we want to stay we shall have to earn more money.”
“I think we could,” mused Winona thoughtfully.
“But what about the tents?” asked Elizabeth curiously. She was a quiet, competent little thing. “I don’t see where the money for them comes in.”
“That’s the most splendid thing of all,” smiled Mrs. Bryan, as the men began to slide ten dusty-looking tents out of the wagon. “Mr. Gedney, the Scoutmaster, called up Mr. Bryan just before I was going shopping for tents, and told me about these in case we wanted them. They belonged to the National Guard, and the State had condemned them, because they were shabbier than some politician or other liked them to be. So the Scouts were offered them at a ridiculously low price, if they would only take enough. Rather than let such a bargain go by the Scouts took them all, though there were more than they needed. And Mr. Gedney says we may use these, and needn’t pay for them till next winter.”
The girls agreed that it certainly was luck, and followed on down to see the tents put up—ten little brown tents in a row, with two cots and a box-dressing-table in each.