Dray ran his boat, the _Dixie_, alongside, and together the fleet of two comprised what the boys termed a "White House Lunch." The cooking was all done on the _Chelton_ and the eatables were handed over the bra.s.s rail to Lottie and Marita, who served as waitresses on the _Dixie_. First there were lettuce sandwiches, rolled. Any girl who can successfully roll bread and lettuce is termed proficient by the cooking teachers, and it was a tie between Belle and Cora as to who did the most and best of the rolling.

With the lettuce came the greatest treat to the boys--homemade crab salad--home caught crabs and handmade dressing thereon.

"I caught the biggest crab," declared Lottie, handing the wooden plate to Belle. "Isn't that fine!"

"Finest!" she repeated, enthusiastically. "But say! Why don't the boys catch crabs?"

The boys did not waste time asking questions. Lettuce sandwiches! Crab salad! They would be serving frappe next!

"Eat plenty of salad," Cora ordered. "We spent all yesterday evening crabbing."

"Will--we--eat--it?" exclaimed Walter. "I won't dare look at a frying pan again this week, and my term ends with the week," he said, between bites.

Next came baked potatoes. These had been done on the electric toaster, right aboard the _Chelton_, and while scarcely a correct following for salad, the first was given as an appetizer, and the potatoes as food.

The latter were served on the smallest of wooden plates, with the most extravagant little b.u.t.ter plates--really sauce or cream "thimbles,"

all fluted and shaped from white paper.

A dozen of these cups had been Belle's contribution to the feast. She spied them at the news stand, over at the point, and could not leave them.

Dried beef went with the potatoes, also dill pickles, and while Cora kept the electric toaster going, and saw to it that the "kitchen" did not run out of hot water from a reserve tank, the other girls took turns eating their own lunches. Of course, as the boys were guests, it was important their wants should be first supplied, a matter not easily managed, as the girls soon found out.

"More! More!" called Ed, who was eating the browned potato skin, or bark, with unmistakable relish. "Potatoes are good for the nerves!"

"Robber!" shouted Jack, grabbing a second supply that had just been adjusted on Ed's plate. "Potatoes are good for the lungs, and I am--winded."

"I should like just a tiny bit more crab," simpered Dray. "Fish is good for----"

"We have something more," Cora announced, "don't each too much solid stuff."

"We couldn't," declared Belle, "not if we kept eating for the rest of our mortal lives, it wouldn't be too much."

"There are the 'Likes'!" announced Lottie, indicating a canoe gliding up the bay, in which were two members of the "We-like-it" camp. "Now we will have to hide things."

"Hide things!" Belle tossed her sweater over her plate as she saw the canoe. "We are lost!"

"Oh, let us invite them alongside," suggested Lottie, who, up to that moment had been so busy with setting out plates that she had scarcely spoken to the visitors. "We have plenty of stuff."

"Nix, nary, not much!" cried Ed, in protest. "That's 'Dainty' there, the stroke, and if he gets in here he'll eat the dish pan and the cooker. I say, young ladies should be most careful what sort of fellows they a.s.sociate with."

But in spite of this the "Likes" were invited. Possibly they smelled the eatables, for they came up to the side of the _Chelton_ as nicely as if they had set out from sh.o.r.e with that intention.

"Thanks," called Dainty, the fat one, "we would be pleased to,"

although no one had asked him to do anything.

"Delighted," affirmed Kent, the other of the party. "We sent our cards by messenger."

The canoe bobbed up and down, until Cora took an extra rope from the _Chelton_ and threw it to Dainty, who in turn tied it to a small hook in the green _Snake_. This served to keep the canoe from capsizing as Dainty and Kent crept into the _Chelton_.

Just what saved all three boats from being turned upside down in the racket that followed only Neptune knows, for in their delight at seeing real food the boys from the "Likes" grew so impetuous that the "Couldn'ts" felt called upon to interfere.

Crabs, sandwiches, potatoes--each in turn were hailed with gales of glee, until the girls fell back exhausted with the strain of providing and cooking.

"Let me, let me," begged Dray, "I know exactly how to handle electric appliances. I press my neckties--with an electric iron."

He was over into the _Chelton_, and piling more potatoes under the little tin cover on the toaster, before anyone had time to answer.

"Turned or unturned?" he asked, surveying a smoking potato critically.

"Both or neither," answered the famished Dainty between gasps.

"I'll take my coffee now," announced Jack, sitting back in the cushions, and flicking an imaginary speck from his sweater.

"Now, you must wait," Cora ordered. "We have not caught up to you yet.

We are only at the entree."

Lottie declared she never had such a splendid time in her life, and the brightness of her cheeks catching the flame from her eyes bore out this statement. Marita, too, seemed to have "shook her coc.o.o.n," Jack said, his economy of language scarcely making up for the little difference in "shook" and "shaken." Certainly she managed to climb from one boat to another with remarkable alertness, while Bess, Belle and Cora acted like up-to-date society maidens, only they acted a little in advance of the "date" usually adhered to.

"And do we have to leave these sh.o.r.es?" wailed Ed, sipping a real good cup of coffee. "Why not anchor here for now and for eternity!"

"I thought you liked camping," said Belle. "Surely you are not tired of housekeeping. Doesn't it run smoothly?"

"Sure," replied Ed, "but the grub is the trouble. I wonder why mammas, with good moral intentions, train little boys to eat?"

"Do you see those clouds," remarked Cora, "they are just swooping down on us, and we are miles from home. My, but it is going to be a quick shower!"

The young people had been enjoying themselves so much that not until Cora spoke did they realize that the sky had become overcast.

"Oh, I'm scared to death," cried Marita. "Those clouds are so near--you would think they would touch the water!"

"Oh, aren't they black!" gasped Belle.

"Come, get everything under cover," called Jack, thinking first of the danger to the girls and their boat. "Dray can get his awning up quickly enough, but this one has not been opened yet."

"You boys just tie your canoe tight to us," Cora said, as the two visitors were about to climb into their frail skiff. "You would be washed out during the storm that's coming. Here, Bess, hold this,"

handing Bess one end of the awning tie. "Belle, can you keep that rope taut?"

It was astonishing how quickly the scene of enjoyment turned to one of alarm. Those of the girls who were active and eager to a.s.sist in making things safe, did not suffer so much from fright as did they who took time to watch the clouds. The first severe storm of Summer usually has a more terrifying effect upon the timid ones than those that may follow, and this one certainly was a "star" for a starter.

The lightning soon began to flash intermittently and the thunder to rumble. The clear expanse of horizon afforded such a wide view of the storm that it was small wonder those out in the bay feared for their safety.

"Oh!" wailed Marita, as one flash of lightning seemed to dart directly at the bra.s.s rail of Dray's boat. "I thought I was struck!"

Her words had not been uttered before the clap of thunder followed.

This had that queer, deep sound peculiar to the water, and certainly the heart of the storm seemed to hover over the little fleet.

All over the bay sail boats, canoes, motor boats, row boats and every sort of craft were making for sh.o.r.e, but in most of these there were little or no goods that might be damaged by rain or waves, while both the _Dixie_ and the _Chelton_ would have suffered severely had they encountered a down-pour uncovered.

The awnings were up at last, and Jack had started the _Chelton_.