The Meadow Brook Girls Across Country Part 25

CHAPTER XVI-A TREAT THAT WAS NOT A TREAT

"Never mind. We won't be as mean as you are," declared Sam, springing up. "We will return good for evil."

"Did you see the three bulls?" interrupted Jane. "I knew you would cross that orchard and I was afraid you'd meet them."

"We did," answered Miss Elting.

"What's that?" The captain was interested instantly. "You say you met the bulls?"

"Yes. I might as well tell you," explained Miss Elting. "You think we weren't able to keep the pace we set for ourselves. I don't want my girls to rest under that imputation, for I believe that they can completely outdistance you boys. We did meet the three bulls. Yes, they treed us. We were all up in apple trees when you boys pa.s.sed singing 'Forty-nine Blue Bottles.'"

Some one laughed. The captain frowned at the boy who had done so.

"You let us pa.s.s, and never called us to come to your a.s.sistance?" he demanded.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We preferred to get out of our sc.r.a.pe without appealing to our rivals, Captain Baker."

"Whew! That was a fix. How'd you manage it?"

"Through the resourcefulness and courage of Harriet Burrell. Had it not been for her we undoubtedly should still be up in the trees in the apple orchard."

"Please tell us about it."

"Please don't," begged Harriet blushingly.

"Now that you have aroused our curiosity, it would be cruel not to tell us the whole story," declared George.

"Yeth. Cruelty to animalth," nodded Tommy.

Miss Elting, despite Harriet's protestations, did tell the boys the story, giving the full credit for their rescue to Harriet Burrell, to whom it belonged. The boys listened in open-mouthed wonder.

"Fellows, we aren't so much as we think we are," declared the chief of the Tramp Club. "I propose three cheers for Miss Burrell. Now!

Altogether! One, two, three!"

They gave three rousing cheers in which, Tommy's shrill voice joined.

"Who's all right?" demanded the captain at the end of the cheer.

"Miss Burrell's all right!" yelled the Tramps. "For she's a jolly good fel-low; For she's a jolly good fellow," sang the Tramps, as with hands on each other's shoulders they marched through the camp, and out into the field on their way to their own camp, a short distance from that of the Meadow-Brook Girls.

Miss Elting was laughing merrily. Harriet's face was crimson.

"I call that downright mean. They were making fun of me."

"Why, Harriet! You know they were not," rebuked Miss Elting. "It was the highest compliment those lads could pay."

"It hath been a day of experientheth, hathn't it?" Tommy questioned.

Harriet's face was still flushed as she began to prepare the supper.

Each member of the party now remembered that she had an appet.i.te. While they were getting the meal Jane told them how the boys had gloated over having "walked the girls off their feet," as the tramps expressed it.

Jane announced triumphantly that she had been more than a match for them, which her companions could well believe, for Jane had a sharp tongue, besides being the possessor of a fund of Irish wit.

The smoke curling up from the other camp told the girls that the boys were busy getting their own supper. While eating, the guardian was obliged to go over the story of their experiences for the benefit of Jane, who interrupted now and then with humorous questions.

"Are the boys coming over this evening?" asked Margery, after they had finished supper and she and Tommy were washing the dishes.

"They did not say," called Hazel. "It is safe to believe they will. I wonder if we can't get rid of those boys? They make me nervous. It seems to me that they are perpetually on the scene whether one wants to see them or not."

"Don't be hard on the poor Tramp Club, Hazel," laughed Harriet.

"Remember you might still be stuck fast in the swamp had they not come to the rescue."

"That's so," responded Hazel, with a sigh. "I never thought of that.

They're really not so bad after all."

"I have met worse," averred Harriet solemnly. Whereupon there was a general laugh.

The tramps had gathered the fuel for the Meadow-Brook Girls, stacking it up in piles of various lengths. The lads really were trying to make themselves useful to the young women. As yet there had been no outward evidence of Captain Baker's a.s.sertion that some of them were "full of mischief." The girls had piled the campfire high with wood and gathered about it when strains of music were heard.

"Oh, it ith a band, it ith a band," cried Tommy.

"Coming to serenade us, probably," announced Margery.

"No. I think it is some one playing on harmonicas," answered Miss Elting after a moment of listening.

"It's those boys," groaned Hazel. "What mischief are they up to now?"

"I told you. They are coming over to serenade us. I think the serenade must be for Harriet."

"They are carrying something on their shoulders too," cried Harriet.

The girls, by this time, had run out to the edge of the camp and in the faint twilight were trying to make out what it was that the Tramp Club were carrying. As the boys drew nearer, the girls saw that it was a burlap sack. Four boys were bearing the sack on their shoulders. It appeared to be very heavy.

"Why, boys," exclaimed Miss Elting. "Are you moving?"

"Yes, Miss Elting," answered Captain Baker, doffing his hat. "We are moving, in a sense. We have come prepared to lay the spoils of our forage at the feet of beauty. Boys, dump the bag. You know where."

One of the boys untied the string by which the mouth of the sack had been secured, then the two lads at that end stepped from under.

Instantly the contents began rolling out at Harriet Burrell's feet.

"Muskmelons!" gasped the girls.

Great golden and green muskmelons b.u.mped to the ground. Harriet's face was full of color.

"They-they aren't all for me? Surely, you don't think I am equal to eating all of those?" she gasped.