"You girls lose time by flitting from bush to bush like butterflies," added Mat.
"We are more like busy bees, Mat. We gather only the best as we fly! There's Laura, no boy can beat her picking berries," said Ivy.
"I believe there's a good deal in what Hugh says," remarked Laura, "not only in berry picking, but in work and study. We accomplish more by sticking to one thing at a time. They say 'Beware of the man of one book.'"
"I would indeed be beware of him. He'd be an insufferable bore!" retorted Ivy, as she moved away to another bush.
"Now we will transmigrate ourselves into robins and do the 'babes in the wood' act!"
Ivy gazed at the speaker compassionately.
"Has the poor boy gone daffy?"
Mat pointed to the two buckets, by that time filled with berries.
"We will cover them over with leaves!"
"Do you know what Claude does when he's angry or out of humor?" inquired Ivy.