“I have it,” announced Harriet.  “Listen, girls and see how you like this: 

    “’Rah, rah, rah,
      Rah, rah, rah
      Meadow-Brook, Meadow-Brook,
      Sis, boom ah!’”

“What do you think of that, girls?  Isn’t that simply fine?” cried Miss Elting enthusiastically.  But her voice was lost in the chorus that welled forth from the throats of the Meadow-Brook Girls, who had taken up the yell with a will.  Tommy’s “thith boom ah!” at the end of the yell sent not only the girls, but Miss Elting as well into peals of merry laughter.

Jasper never smiled.  He stroked his long whiskers reflectively.  Harriet who occupied the seat beside him, stole a glance at the old man out of the corner of one eye.

“I suppose you are used to girls, aren’t you!” she asked.

“Ya-a-a-s,” drawled Jasper then relapsed into silence.  The girls promptly broke the silence again by giving the Meadow-Brook yell.  They continued to give it until their throats ached.  Now and then three of them would stop short of the last line in order to catch more clearly Tommy’s “thith boom ah!” which always sent them into screams of laughter.  Finally Tommy became angry and refused to yell.  But the little lisping girl was like an April day.  Her frowns of displeasure were replaced by smiles within a very few minutes.  The girls had learned not to take Grace’s fits of temper seriously.  When she became ruffled, they simply left her to herself for a few moments well knowing that the clouds would soon pass and the sun shine again.

“There are the woods!  Oh, girls, look at them,” cried Harriet.  The wagon had reached the top of a high knoll in the road, when below them was revealed the dark blue of a forest that stretched straight ahead and to the right and left as far as the eye could reach.

“Yes, that is Pocono Woods,” Miss Elting informed them.  “Are they large enough to suit you?”

“What would we do if we were to get lost in there?” gasped Margery.

“I know what I’d do,” piped Tommy.  “I’d yell like thixthty.”

“You are likely to do that even though you are not lost,” chuckled the guardian.

“How far into the woods do we go?” wondered Harriet.

“’Bout ten mile, I reckon,” answered Jasper.

“Ten miles?  Listen to that, girls.  Oh, isn’t it perfectly splendid?” exclaimed Harriet.  “I never dreamed that I should have such a glorious vacation as this is going to be.  How many girls are there in camp, Miss Elting?”

“Forty or fifty I should say.  I do not know the exact number.  You will find a happy lot of young women.  Are you hungry?”

There was a general assent to the question.

Miss Elting produced a small hamper in which were sandwiches, cold tea, milk and fruit.  It was a delightful surprise to the girls.  They showed their further appreciation by eating every crumb of the luncheon, while Jasper contented himself with nibbling at a single sandwich which he held in one hand, driving the young horse with the other.