Betty laughed. "On that basis, then, Gypsy, I don't care, but I think one of you ought to be chairman just the same. Will Miss Fox know how much of everything we ought to have?"

"Of course she will. She's got the names of everybody that signed up to go. I don't know whether we ought to allow for girls coming at the last minute, or bringing company, or allow the other way for those that think they'll go and won't."

"Always better to have too much, than not enough," said Betty, thinking of one or two tight squeezes when her mother had had the missionary society and more came than usual.

"Yet that is very wasteful, Betty."

"Yes, Dotty, it is. I think _you_ ought to be chairman."

"No, thanks. Some time I'll tell you how narrowly we escaped having another member on this committee."

"You are a case, Dotty Bradshaw. What have you been doing now?"

"Nothing much, Kathryn. Somebody call this meeting to order."

"All right. Betty, you're chairman."

"Honestly, I wasn't named chairman, girl. Ask Miss Fox whom she intended for chairman--_please_, Gypsy."

"All right--to settle it."

Kathryn dashed across the room, stopping behind Miss Fox and waiting for an opportunity to speak to her. There was a brief conference and Kathryn returned to tell Betty triumphantly that she was chairman.

"Yes, of course," returned Betty. "I saw you fix it up with her. Did you tell her that I would be deeply disappointed if I didn't have the honor?"

"Something like that," laughed Kathryn. "Now let's get down to business."

The morning of the hike was clear and sunny, when the sun finally decided to get up. Fifty girls were up first, getting ready. The "bunch"

who hiked were to meet at the school, but the committee on refreshments was to drive with their supplies. Miss Fox had accepted the offer of Kathryn's brother to drive the Allen car out for them and to help arrange their temporary camp. Lucia Coletti, interested and anxious to help, had begged her uncle for the use of his car. "It will be ready for you to go to business," she said, "for it is only to take out boxes of food and perhaps a few rugs."

"Why turn my car into a grocery delivery wagon?" teasingly Mr. Murchison asked Lucia.

"Because the groceries will not deliver the things for us."

"Very well, then, Lucia, if you can make your peace with the chauffeur."

"Oh, Horace! He will do anything! But I will tell him to come back immediately."

"Will there be no one to come back, nothing to bring?"

"Oh, no--no--no, we all hike back, even those who ride out to do the breakfast."

"I see; and the food will have been disposed of. See, Lucy, sister, how American your daughter is becoming? She talks of hikes and things."

"I am only part American, Uncle," said Lucia, soberly and with emphasis.

"I am also the daughter of Count Coletti!"

Chauncey Allen, understanding that only Kathryn and Betty would be in their car, asked two of his friends to accompany him. When they appeared at the Allen house Kathryn wanted to know "how come," as Chauncey reported to Chet Dorrance later on.

"I have to have somebody, don't I, to keep me in countenance before all those girls. Moreover, I want help in making the fires."

"We girls are perfectly capable of making the fires."

"Honestly, Kit, don't you like it?"

"Yes, I really do, but I don't know whether it's proper or not, or whether Miss Fox will like it or not."

"She knows I'm going to drive, don't she?"

"Doesn't she, you mean. Yes. Oh, I suppose it's all right, if we can get all the things in."

"Wait till you see us fix 'em!"

Thus Kathryn and Betty had three escorts and a goodly amount of supplies. It was cold riding in the early morning, but the girls wore warm knickers and sweaters and drew over the blankets which the car was furnished. It was a jolly ride. Betty had scarcely seen all summer these boys with whom she had become acquainted at the freshman parties and other meetings of her first year at Lyon High. Kathryn's brother had been at a boys' camp. Chet had been away with his mother and brother, Ted, of the romantic disaster. The other boy was "Mickey" Carlin, whom Betty did not know so well; but Mickey was full of fun and contributed his share of life to the occasion.

The five miles were quickly covered by machine and as the spot chosen was a picnic resort on the river, it was not difficult to dispose of the supplies which they had brought. They arrived at about the same time as Miss Fox and more of the committee in two other cars, and while they were unloading, here came the Murchison car and its colored chauffeur in uniform.

Miss Fox was not only not annoyed at the presence of the boys but was glad to accept their services. "We need some camp-boys," said she laughingly. "It isn't going to take our hikers so long to cover five miles, though I told them to take their time and see whatever there was to see on the way."

"Don't worry, Miss Fox," said Chauncey with a chuckle. "They'll wait till they hike back to see things, and believe me they'll have an appet.i.te for breakfast!"

"All right, Chauncey. I shouldn't be surprised but you're right. By the way, you are invited for breakfast with the other boys, and you might just consider yourselves added to the refreshment committee. Yes, girls, all the milk and stuff can be carried to those picnic tables under the shelter house. We'll mix the cocoa there and open up the buns. Careful to wipe off the tables and put papers under everything, girls. If we eat our peck o' dirt we'll do it without germs, I hope."

Pans, stacks of buns, paper plates, pickles (so appropriate for a breakfast, Dotty said), eggs to be scrambled, bacon to be cooked, and great sacks of apples and bananas were sorted and arranged under the direction of Betty, who sprang to the fore when she saw that Miss Fox was going to leave it to her. Betty had learned that summer that orderly arrangement was half the battle in getting a meal. Quickly, from her little note-book, in which she had carefully written the names of the committee a.s.signed to the various tasks, she told each one her duty and divided the supplies accordingly. Fun was held in abeyance for a little, till things were fairly started. Oh, it would work out all right, Betty told herself. The girls would select each a plate and visit "each pot and pan," in due order.

The sun was up and it grew hot near the fires, but sweaters could be thrown aside. The cooks were adorned with a pointed head-dress of white with G. A. A. in blue letters printed upon it. Dotty called it the G. A.

A. crown and fastened one around Betty's locks, saying that she was chief cook and bottle-washer and must have one whether she really cooked or not.

"I'm floor-walker, Dotty, but I'm going to oversee the scrambled egg business, because if we have 'em at all they want to be good. I've practiced at home several days under Mother, so I'm going to do the mixing up. Gracious, did we bring the salt!"

For a minute Betty looked blank, while Dotty consolingly remarked that the bacon would be salty enough anyhow. But the salt was discovered in one of the cars, a whole container of it, and Betty's moment of panic was over. This was to be a real breakfast, Dotty declared, and several little squirrels dashing up and down the trees nearby were doubtless hoping that they would be invited.

CHAPTER IX: WITH LUCIA AND MATHILDE

Meanwhile the hikers were having a good time of it. Scattered in little groups of two or three or more, they were steadily advancing over hill and dale in the beautiful country surrounding the city, striking through in a direction not so closely built up in suburbs, for the high school was one in an outlying suburb, where beautiful homes and large estates were the rule as soon as one pa.s.sed beyond its center.

The country was in its handsomest fall attire. Leaves of all colors attracted the girls who were interested in trees and learning to know them by their leaves, as well as those who, with no knowledge of this sort at all, could still appreciate the beauty of color with which the woods were alive.

This hike, naturally, was not confined to soph.o.m.ores, though that cla.s.s had been charged with the duty of serving the breakfast this time; and a good breakfast it should be, thought the soph.o.m.ores.

Lucia Coletti had fallen into conversation with Carolyn Gwynn before the start and asked if she might walk along with her and Peggy Pollard, who was with Carolyn. "Indeed you may," said cordial Carolyn, looking admiringly at Lucia, for she was a slender, pretty figure in a costume that had seen use in Switzerland, it was evident, and was different from what the other girls wore in the style of its short coat, the knickers, stockings and strong shoes. She carried, moreover, an alpenstock, for which she apologized when she saw that the other girls did not carry them.