The slap, slap of the brushes outside had ceased and the men were heard talking.  Jane rushed out brandishing her paint brush.

“Get to work, you lazy bones!” she shouted.  “Am I paying you for holding conversations about red paint!  On with your work!”

Jane presented such a ferocious appearance that the painters resumed their work hurriedly.  There was no more lagging on their part.  Jane frequently ran out to see what they were doing.  The result was that the “Red Rover” was painted in record time, both outside and in, and a coat of paint laid on the top of the house.  Jane McCarthy had an idea in regard to this roof.  The next morning she put the plan into execution.

That night the girls were so tired that they gave no thought to their appearance until they had reached their rooms at the hotel and looked into their mirrors.  Their paint-streaked countenances were a sight to behold and Tommy carried a part of her facial decorations to bed with her.

They were up early on the following morning, and were first in the dining room at breakfast.

“I just can’t wait until I get to work,” declared Jane McCarthy, her eyes shining.

“I can wait until I’ve eaten my breakfast,” replied Margery, then flushed as Tommy giggled meaningly.

Readers of the first volume of this series, “The Meadow-Brook girls under canvas” will recall the many exciting adventures that befell the five girls and their guardian, Miss Elting, while summering at Camp Wau-Wau, a part of the Camp Girls’ organization.  The attempts of two mischief-making camp girls to disgrace Harriet in the eyes of the camp, Harriet’s brave rescue of her enemies during a severe storm and her generous method of dealing with them aroused the interest and admiration of the reader.  The various ludicrous happenings in which Grace Thompson and Jane McCarthy figured prominently also added to this absorbing narrative of outdoor life.

“The Meadow-Brook girls across country” relates the adventures of the girls and their guardian on their homeward march from Camp Wau-Wau.  Their meeting with a number of boys on a hike, who styled themselves the Tramp Club, and the subsequent wager made with them by the Meadow-Brook Girls to race them to the town of Meadow-Brook, furnished the theme for the narrative.  While following the fortunes of the road the girls met with numerous adventures.  The reader will recall their encounter with the tramps, their rescue by Sybarina, the Gipsy, and the night spent in the Gipsy camp where Harriet, disguised as a Gipsy, told the fortune of George Baker the leader of the Tramp Club, and at the same time under the pretense of revealing his past rated him soundly for a trick which he and his band had played upon the girls.

Once back in Meadow-Brook the girls had settled down to a busy winter in high school.  Now that summer had come again, accompanied by Miss Elting, they had planned to spend their vacation on Lake Winnipesaukee, aboard a houseboat owned by Miss Elting’s brother.