"I don"t see why we shouldn"t be able to do anything those boys do,"
declared Bess, with her usual contempt for the vaunted superiority of the other s.e.x. "If they can run down and plunge right into the water, right out of bed, why can"t _we_?"
So even Grace--who had her doubts about it--ventured on this second morning. They slipped out of their sleeping clothes and into bathing suits. There _was_ a little chill in the air; but Wyn a.s.sured them the water would be warmer than the air and--if they remained in half an hour, or so--the sun would be up and his rays would warm them when they came out.
And Wyn"s prophecy was proven right. The six girls disported in the lake like a flock of ducks. Mrs. Havel, however, would not let them remain more than twenty minutes. The sun had shot up, then, and already the green knoll was warm in his first rays.
Wyn and Frank scurried into their clothes and hurried away to the farm for the milk and vegetables. Frank saw the windmill on the summit of the hill, and nothing would do but she must run up and inspect it. The breeze was rising and the farmer, who was likewise the miller, was preparing to "grind a grist."
"We"ve got a good bit of grain on hand; but we"ve not had wind enough of daytimes lately to grind a handful," he said. "I can"t invite you inside, young ladies, because when they set up this mill for me they made the door, as you see, right behind the sails. When the arms are in motion I am shut in till the grist is ground; or I stop the sails with this lever just inside the door--d"ye see?"
As the girls went back toward the house the arms began turning with a groaning sound. The wind became fresher. Round and round the long arms turned, while the canvas bellied like the sails on a boat.
Louder and louder grew the hum of the mill. The miller threw in the clutch and the stones began to grind. They heard the corn poured into the hopper, and then the shriek of the kernels as they were ground between the stones. The whole building began to shake.
"What a ponderous thing it is!" exclaimed Frank. "And see! there"s a tiny window in the roof facing the lake. I imagine you could see clear to Meade"s Forge from that window."
"Farther than that, my dear--much farther," said the farmer"s wife, handing Frank the basket of fresh vegetables over the garden fence. "On a clear day you can see "way across the lake to Braisely Park. The tower of Dr. Shelton"s fine house is visible from that window. And the whole spread of the lake. But the air must be very clear."
"Goody! We"ll bring the other girls up here some day when the mill is not running and climb to the top of the mill for the view," declared Frank.
Bess and Mina, with some advice from Mrs. Havel, made a very good breakfast. Although neither was very domestic in her tastes, the two young cooks were on their mettle, and did the best they could. If the hot biscuits were not quite so flaky as their mothers" own cooks made them at home, and some of the poached eggs broke in the poacher, and the broiled bacon got afire several time and "fussed them all up," as Mina said, the general opinion of the occupants of Green Knoll Camp was that "there was no kick coming"--of course, expressed thus by the slangy Frank Cameron.
Grace _would_ dawdle over the dishwashing, and Percy was a good second. Therefore, those two still had work on their hands when Bess sighted a motor boat coming swiftly toward their camp from the direction of Gannet Island.
"Now somebody"s going to b.u.t.t in and bother us," declared Bess. "It can"t be the Busters, I s"pose?"
"That"s exactly who it is!" cried Wyn, delightedly. "That"s the _Happy Day_. Dave said if his cousin, Frank Dumont, could come up here, he would bring his father"s motor boat. And he must have come yesterday when we were busy and did not see him."
"Hurrah!" cried Frank. "A motor boat beats a canoe all to pieces."
"The Busters are aboard, all right," sighed Bess, after another look.
"Now we"ll have a noisy time."
"Now there"ll be something doing!" quoth Frank. "That"s the trouble with a crowd of girls. After they have played "Ring Around the Rosy" and "London Bridge is Falling Down" they don"t know another living thing to do except to sit down and look prim and be prosy. But with boys it"s different. There"s something doing all the time."
"You should have been a boy, Frank," declared Bess, with some disgust.
"If I was one, I"d be hanging around your house all the time, Bessie mine," laughed the other, hugging the boy-hater.
"Get away! I"d have Patrick turn the hose on you if you did!" cried Bess, in mock wrath.
But secretly, Miss Lavine, as well as her mates, was glad of the break in the quiet affairs of Green Knoll Camp made by the appearance of Dave Shepard and his spirited chums.
"Oh, crackey, girls! you ought to see our camp! We"ve got a regular pirates" cave," declared Ferdinand Roberts.
"Did your stores get wet in that awful storm?" demanded Wyn from the top of the knoll.
"Not much. We managed to cover them with the canvas. And now we"ve cleaned out the cave and it"s great. All we need is some captives to take over there and chain to the rocks," laughed Dave.
"And fatten "em up till they"re fit to eat," drawled Tubby Blaisdell.
"Stop it, Tub!" cried one of his mates. "We"re not going to play cannibals, but pirates."
"Well, in either case," declared Bess, "you will not get captives at Green Knoll Camp."
"Is that what you call this pretty hillock?" cried Dave. "Well, it _is_ a beauty spot! And how nice you girls have made everything.
Why! you don"t need any boys around at all."
"That"s what I"ve always told them," murmured Bess. "They"re only a nuisance."
"We came over to see if we could help you," continued Dave. "Here"s my cousin, Frank Dumont, girls. Some of you know him, anyway. This is his motor boat, and if there really is nothing we can do to help you here, why, Frank wants to take you all--with Mrs. Havel, if she is agreeable--for a trip around the lake. We"ve got supplies aboard and we"ll stop somewhere and make a picnic dinner."
"Goody!" cried Mina. "Then we will not have to make dinner here, Bess."
"Agreed!" announced Grace. "There will be no more dishes to wash until evening, then."
"Well, I don"t know," Dave said, slowly. "Of course we like to have you girls go along; but usually girls do the grub-getting and dishwashing on a picnic."
"Nothing doing, then," declared Frank, laughing at him. "This crowd of girls are going as invited guests, or not at all. We promise to be ornamental, but not useful."
"You"re ornamental, all right, in those blouses and bloomers," declared Ferd, for the girls had discarded skirts about the camp, and felt much more free and comfortable than they usually did.
"If worse comes to worst," said Mrs. Havel, smiling, "_I_ will be the camp drudge, boys, for I want to see the lake sh.o.r.e in panorama."
"Oh, let "em come," drawled Tubby, still lying on his back on the little deck of the _Happy Day_. "They"ll get hungry some time and _have_ to cook for us."
And so, amid much bustle, and laughter, and raillery, the girls of Green Knoll Camp joined the boys of Cave-in-the-Wood Camp in the motor boat for a trip around the big lake.
CHAPTER XI
WHERE THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED
"And where is Professor Skillings?" asked Mrs. Havel, as the well-laden launch drew away from the little natural landing which defended one end of the girls" bathing beach at Green Knoll Camp.
"Bless your heart, ma"am," said Ferdinand Roberts, laughing, "the old gentleman is trying to figure out one of Tubby"s unanswerable arguments--that is, I believe, what you"d call it."
"One of Tubby"s unanswerable arguments?" cried Wyn. "For pity"s sake!
what can that be?"
"Why, at breakfast this morning the professor got to "dreaming," as he sometimes does. He tells us lots of interesting things when he begins talking that way; but sometimes, if we are in a hurry to get away, we have to put the stopper in," chuckled Ferd.
"Tubby usually does it. Tubby really _is_ good for something beside eating and sleeping, girls--you wouldn"t believe it!"
"You _do_ surprise us," admitted Bess Lavine, cuttingly.