“Hooray!” cried Crazy Jane.  “We will have a rolling bee in the morning, and Margery and Tommy shall bring the stones for us.”

“Yeth.  Buthter will fetch the thtoneth, too.  It will be good exerthithe for her.”

“Grace Thompson, if you don’t stop making remarks about me I’ll never speak to you again as long as I live,” threatened Margery.

Tommy did not reply to this awful threat.  She appeared to ponder deeply over it, then, edging up closer to her companion, gazed up into the latter’s face with twinkling eyes.

“Do you mean that, really and truly?”

“Yes, I do.”

Tommy shook her head.

“I’m tho thorry I teathed you, Buthter, but you know that you do need exerthithe,” repeated Tommy.

“Tommy!” expostulated Margery hopelessly.

“There!  You did thpeak to me! you did thpeak to me!” cried Tommy, dancing about and clapping her hands.  “You didn’t mean it at all.  You thee, I knew you didn’t really and truly mean it.  Oh, I’m tho glad!” She danced about until Janus laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.

“Do you see where you’re getting to?  In a second more you’d have been taking the Slide on your head.”  Janus led her away from the dangerous spot.  Miss Elting walked over to Tommy and placed a firm hand on the shoulder of the heedless little girl.

“Tommy, why will you be so careless?  You distress me very much,” rebuked the guardian.

“I’m thorry, Mith Elting.  I’ll try to be good after thith.  But I didn’t fall into the tree thith afternoon, nor out of it either, did I?”

“Her point is well taken,” answered Harriet.  “Nearly every one of us, except Tommy, distinguished herself this afternoon.  How about our supper?”

“Oh-h-h-h!” chorused the girls.  “We forgot all about it.”

“Yeth, Mr. Januth.  I’ll fetch the thtoneth for the thtove.  You get the wood, and we will have a nithe, warm thupper and have a nithe vithit, and then a nithe thleep and pleathant dreamth.  Won’t we, Buthter?”

“If you give us the opportunity,” answered Margery sourly.

“Thee!  Buthter thpoke to me again,” chuckled the little, lisping girl.  Harriet took her by the arm and led her gently back to the campsite, which was now so enshrouded in darkness that they were barely able to locate their packs.

Harriet assisted Tommy in getting stones of the proper size for their stove, after which these stones were piled and made ready for the fire that the guide was to start when he returned with the wood.  Little more could be done without light.  Hazel got the lantern from a pack, only to find that the globe had been broken.  Very soon, however, the cook-fire was snapping and crackling, the girls sitting near it with elbows on their knees.  Then came supper.  It was wonderful what a difference there was in their appetites, now that they were out in the open, compared to them at home.  But there was not as much to eat here as there would have been at home in Meadow-Brook.  What there was seemed the best ever served to a company of hungry girls.