"They are laid at your feet," answered George dramatically. "For you and your friends."

"This is splendid," declared the guardian, her face aglow with pleasure.

"But we do not deserve so much. You have robbed yourselves. Where did you get them?"

"Of a farmer," replied George promptly.

"You must take most of them for yourselves, boys," urged Miss Elting.

"We simply could not eat half of all that lot."

"No. They are all for you. We have plenty. Besides, you'll find some of them aren't good, but out of the lot you may be able to get enough for breakfast."

"We can eat all night if nethethary," announced Tommy. "Maybe we can eat them all before we go on to-morrow."

"One melon apiece will be quite enough for us, my dears," reproved Miss Elting. "Won't you join us in our feast, boys?"

The young men shook their heads.

"They're yours," replied the captain, his eyes on Harriet as he said it.

"I brought you some salt, too," he added, drawing a piece of newspaper from his pocket. "Perhaps you like salt on your melons."

"You are very thoughtful," smiled Miss Elting. "I think we have salt.

How about it, Jane?"

"We have a whole bag of it."

"We will take yours, thank you," smiled Harriet. "It is much finer salt than ours."

"Yes, it's the salt the farmer over yonder uses to give to his sheep,"

interjected Sam. "We borrowed some from him."

Miss Elting laughed a little at this blunt speech.

"You are very funny, boys!" she said. "But we are grateful to you. I don't know how we shall be able to repay you."

"We have shared your hospitality-your bounteous hospitality," answered the captain. "We wished to make some slight return."

"What shall we do with what melons are left over?" asked Miss Elting.

"Carry them on with you. You have a car in which to transport your stuff."

"I suppose we had better do that," mused the guardian. "When we reach the next camping place we shall insist on entertaining you at our camp.

We greatly appreciate this treat."

"Thank you," said George Baker, looking somewhat embarra.s.sed.

Shortly afterwards Captain Baker rose from where he had been sitting and with an uneasy look on his face announced that they must go. With his fellows he hurriedly left the camp, not even taking the melon sack along. They were seen no more that night.

The girls noted Baker's embarra.s.sed manner and thought it strange that the boys should have left so abruptly. They were at a loss to understand it.

"I am glad they have left the melons, anyway," declared Harriet.

"Yes, wasn't that lovely of the boys to bring the fruit to us?" nodded Miss Elting. "They are really nice boys. I am rather glad that we met them."

"You may change your mind before we have finished with them," replied Harriet, with an enigmatical smile.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "So I've Caught You at It?"]

"What do you mean, dear?"

"I can't really explain. But I feel rather than know that those young men are ready to play tricks. They'd better not try any of them or we shall make them regret that they ever played tricks on the Meadow-Brook Girls."

"Aren't the melonth delithiouth?" breathed Tommy. She was now eating her second melon. The other girls were enjoying theirs equally well.

"Yes," agreed Miss Elting. "The finest I ever ate. They must have cost the boys quite a sum of money, even though melons are cheap in the country. I--"

"Thomebody ith coming," warned Tommy.

"The boys are returning, I presume," smiled Miss Elting. But instead of the boys they were surprised to see a strange man striding into camp. He was plainly a farmer. He wore his whiskers long and his trousers were tucked in the tops of his boots. His face did not bear a pleasant expression.

"So I've caught you at it, eh?" he said sarcastically.

"What do you mean?" demanded the guardian rising hastily.

"You know well enough what I mean. In the first place, you are trespa.s.sing on my premises."

"We have permission to camp here," interjected Jane.

"Who gave it?"

"The farmer who owns this land."

"I happen to own this land, and I haven't given any tramps permission to camp on it."

"Then some one must have played a trick on me," declared Crazy Jane.

"Wait till I get sight of that man again."

"We are very sorry, sir, but we are wholly innocent of trespa.s.sing. We are not tramps, either. Of course we are willing to pay you for the privilege of camping here to-night. What do you consider a fair price?"

"Wal, I reckon about seventy-five cents will be all right for the camping."

Miss Elting handed the money over to him.

"I am sorry to have put you to all this trouble, but we supposed we had permission to stay here over night."

"Thay," questioned Tommy. "You are a rich man, aren't you?"

"No. Why?"