"Yas'm! Thain't hide or har of them lef'. If I hadn't er wrung they necks myself, I would er thought somethin's been a-ketchin' 'em; but land's sakes, the way these week-enders do eat chicken is a caution!"

"All right, I'll get our young people to start out today and find some more for us. A big crowd will be up on Friday."

"Yes, I'll be bound they will, and all of them empty. I should think the railroad cyars would chawge mo' ter haul the folks back from this here camp than what they do to git 'em here. They sho' goes back a-weighing mo' than what they do whin they comes a-creepin' up the mountain actin'

like they ain't never seed a squar' meal in they lives."

Oscar's grumbling on the subject of the amount of food consumed by the boarders was a never failing source of amus.e.m.e.nt to the Carter girls.

They were never so pleased as when the boarders were hungry and enjoyed the food. No doubt Oscar was pleased, too, but he was ever outwardly critical of the capacity of the week-enders.

Lucy and Lil, Skeeter and Frank were delighted to be commissioned to go hunting for food. Many were the adventures they had while out on these foraging parties and many the tales they had to tell of the inhabitants of the mountain cabins. There were several rules they must obey and besides those they had perfect liberty to do as they felt like. The first rule was that they must wear thick boots and leggins on these tramps. The snake bite Helen had got early in the summer had been a lesson learned in time and now all the campers were made to comply with the rule of leggins whenever they went on hikes. The second rule was that they must be home before dark and must report to Douglas or Helen as soon as they got home. The third was that they must tell all their adventures to one of the older girls. If they obeyed these three rules they were sure to get into no trouble.

"Fix us up a big lunch, please, Helen. We are going 'way far off.

There's a man on the far side of Old Baldy that Josh says has great big frying-sizers," declared Lil.

"Well, be sure you are back before dark," admonished Helen, in her grownupest tone, according to Lucy.

"All right, Miss Grandma, but I don't see why I have to get in before dark if you don't. You know you and Doctor Wright came in long after supper one night--said you got lost, but you can tell that to the marines," said Lucy pertly.

"Just for that, I've a great mind to put red pepper in your sandwiches,"

said Helen, blushing in spite of herself.

"Well, I suppose if we get lost, we won't have to get in before dark, either," teased Lucy.

"Yes, but don't you get lost. Douglas and I are always a bit uneasy until you are back, as it is," pleaded Helen. "You know mother would have a fit if you were out late."

"Oh, don't listen to her, Miss Helen. We'll take care of the girls and bring 'em back safe. Frank and I couldn't get lost on these mountains if we tried," and Skeeter drew himself up to his full height, which was great for a boy of fifteen and seemed even greater because of his extreme leanness.

"Can't we take our guns, Miss Helen?" pleaded Frank.

There was another rule that the boys must not take the guns if the girls were along. Guns are safe enough if there are no bystanders.

"Oh, Frank, ask Douglas! I am afraid to be the one to let you do it."

"Can I tell her you say yes if she does?"

"Yes, I reckon so! But if she does say yes, please be awfully careful."

"Sure we will! I tell you, Miss Helen, if anything happens to these girls, Skeeter and I'd never show our faces in camp again."

"I know you will look after them," said Helen. These boys were great favorites with Helen, and they admired her so extravagantly that sometimes Lil and Lucy, their sworn chums, were a bit jealous. "I've made your kind of sandwiches, Frank, sardines. And I've stuffed some eggs with minced ham the way you like them, Skeeter."

"Bully!" exclaimed both knights.

"And I s'pose what Lil and I like or don't like didn't enter your head,"

pouted Lucy.

"Why, Lucy, you know you like sardine sandwiches better than anything, you said so yourself," admonished Lil.

"Helen didn't know it."

"If you don't like what I put up, you can do it yourself next time,"

snapped Helen.

"''Tis dog's delight To bark and bite,'"

sang Douglas, coming into the kitchen to spy out the nakedness of the land preparatory to sending her order for provisions to the wholesale grocer in Richmond. "What are you girls sc.r.a.pping about?"

"Helen said----"

"Lucy's always----"

"Yes, I haven't a doubt of it," laughed the elder sister, who was ever the peacemaker. "I haven't a doubt that Helen did say it, but she was just joking, and I know Lucy is always trying to help and is a dear girl. Now you children trot along and bring back all the chickens you can carry. Have you got your bags?" Gunnysacks were always taken to bring home the provender. "And money to pay for the chickens? If you see any eggs, buy them, and more roasting ears, but don't try to carry everything you see. Have the mountaineers bring them to camp. Good-bye!

Be sure to come back before dark."

"Ask her about the guns," whispered Frank to Lil.

"Douglas, can the boys take their guns? Helen says she says yes if you say yes. They won't carry 'em loaded."

"We--ll, I believe we can trust you; but do be careful, boys."

With a whoop the boys flew to their tent for the guns. The sizable lunch was dumped in the bottom of a gunnysack and slung over Skeeter's shoulder, and the cavalcade started, after many admonitions from Douglas and Helen to be careful of their guns and to come back before dark.

"Ain't they the scared cats, though?" laughed Lucy.

"Yes; what on earth could happen to us?" said Lil.

"Nothing, I reckon, with Skeeter and me here to protect you--eh, Skeeter?"

"I just guess we could hold a whole litter of bears at bay with these guns. I almost wish we would run into some kind of trouble just so Frank and I could show your big sisters we are responsible parties."

"Maybe we will," and Lil danced in glee at the possible chance of getting into trouble so their devoted swains could extricate them.

"Maybe we will meet a drunken mountaineer--or maybe it will be a whole lot of drunken mountaineers, a camp of moonshiners--maybe they will capture Lucy and me and carry us to their mountain fastness and there hold us for ransom."

"Huh! And what do you think Skeeter and I'll be doing while they are carrying you off?" sniffed Frank. "Standing still, I reckon, and weeping down our gun barrels!"

"Well, s'pose they are all of them armed to the teeth, a company of stalwart brigands," suggested Lil, who, by the way, was something of a movie fan, "and they come swooping down on us, the leader bearing a la.s.so in his brawny hand."

"Yes," put in Lucy, "and he will swirl it around and will catch both of you in the same coil and then will tie you to a tree there to await his pleasure. I think there had better be two leaders, though, Lil. So you can have one and I can have one. I bid for the biggest."

"Bid for him! If you girls don't beat all! I do believe you would like to be attacked by outlaws," and Skeeter looked his disgust at the eternal feminine.

"Of course we'd like it if it came out all right; that is, if the leaders fell in love with us and reformed and turned out to be gentlemen who took to moonshining and highwaying because they had been cheated out of their inheritances by fat-faced uncles in Prince Albert coats," and Lil looked very saucy as she switched on ahead of the others down the narrow trail.

"And where would we come in?" asked Frank whimsically. "We would have to stay tied to the tree while you and Lucy acted about a thousand feet of reels. I tell you what I mean to do. I mean to train a squirrel to come gnaw me free. What you say to that, Skeeter?"

"Squirrel much! I'm going to be so quick with my gun that the bold brigands will wish they had stayed with Uncle Albert. As for la.s.soing--I am some pumpkins myself with the rope. Look at this!" and twirling the gunnysack around with the lunch serving as ballast, Skeeter caught his chum neatly around the neck.

"Oh, oh! You'll mash the sandwiches!" wailed the others.