"Goodness! didn't you see those girls running?" cried Ferd.

"Running? Where to?" queried the chaperone.

Dave began to look more serious.

"Perhaps they are running yet!" squealed Tubby, only seeing the fun of it.

"Bet they've gone for help to hunt the bears," laughed another of the reckless youngsters.

"They'll get out the whole countryside to find 'em," choked Ferdinand Roberts. "That's _too_ rich."

"Are you sure the girls didn't come your way, Mrs. Havel?" asked Dave, with anxiety.

"Oh, the girls will be back presently. I came up to see to the biscuit, Mr. Shepard. About inviting you to breakfast--You know, I am only a guest of Green Knoll Camp myself. I couldn't invite you," said Mrs.

Havel, demurely.

The boys looked at each other in some surprise and Tubby's face fell woefully.

"Ca-can't we do something to help you get breakfast, Mrs. Havel?"

Mrs. Havel had to hide a smile at that, but she remained obdurate. "I have really nothing to do with it, Sir Tubby. You must wait for the girls to come," she said.

The boys began whispering together; but they did not move. They had scuttled over from their own camp early with the express intention of "getting one" on the girls, and making a breakfast out of it. But now the accomplishment of their purpose seemed doubtful, and there was a hollow look about them all that should have made Mrs. Havel pity them.

That lady, however, remembered vividly how she had run along the sh.o.r.e in fear of a flock of bears; this was a part of the boys' punishment for that ill-begotten joke.

The biscuit were beginning to brown, the coffee sent off a delicious odor, and here were eggs ready to drop into the kettle of boiling water for their four-minute submersion. Besides, there was mush and milk.

Every minute the boys became hungrier.

"Aren't the girls ever coming?" sighed Tubby. "They _couldn't_ be so heartless."

"They haven't gone far; have they?" queried Dave Shepard. "We saw their canoes on the beach."

Just then the laughter of the girls in the distance broke upon the ears of those on the hillock. They were approaching along the sh.o.r.e--apparently from the direction of Jarley's landing.

"They don't seem to have been much scared, after all," grumbled Tubby to Ferd.

"It was a silly thing to do, anyway," returned young Roberts. "Suppose we don't get any breakfast?"

At this horrid thought the fat youth almost fainted. The girls came in sight, and at once hailed the boys gaily:

"Oh! see who's here!" cried Frank. "What a lovely surprise!"

"Isn't it?" said Bess, but with rather a vicious snap. "We couldn't get along, of course, without having a parcel of boys around. 'Morning, Mr.

Shepard."

Bess made a difference between Dave and the rest of the Busters, for Dave had helped her in a serious difficulty.

"Where's the professor?" demanded Grace. "Isn't he here, too?"

"He's having breakfast all by his lonesome over on the island," said Ferd, and Tubby groaned at the word "breakfast," while Dave added:

"We--we got a dreadfully early start this morning."

"Quite a start--I should say," returned Wyn, smiling broadly. "And now you're hungry, I suppose?"

"Oh, aren't we, just?" cried one of the crowd, hollowly.

"How about it, Bess? Is there enough for so many more?"

Bess was already sifting flour for more biscuit. She said: "I'll have another panful in a jiffy. Put in the eggs, Mina. We can make a beginning."

"There's plenty of mush," said Mina. "That's one sure thing."

"But we can't all sit down," cried Grace.

"You know, there are but six of these folding seats, and Wyn's been sitting on a cracker box ever since we set up the tents."

"Feed 'em where they're sitting," said Wyn, quickly. "Beggars mustn't be choosers."

"Jinks! we didn't treat you like this when you came over to our camp,"

cried Ferd.

"And we didn't come over almost before you were up in the morning,"

responded Frank, quickly. "How did you know we had made our 'twilights'

at such an unconscionable hour?"

The girls were all laughing a good deal. n.o.body said a word about the "bear" fright, and the boys felt a little diffidence about broaching the subject. Evidently their joke had fallen flat.

But the girls really had no intention of being mean to the six Busters.

The first pan of biscuit came out of the oven a golden brown. Grace and Percy set them and the bowls of mush on the table, and handed around other bowls and a pitcher of milk to the circle of boys, sitting cross-legged on the ground like so many tailors.

There was honey for the biscuits, too, as well as golden b.u.t.ter--both from Windmill Farm. The eggs were cooked just right, and there were plenty of them. Crisp radishes and sliced cuc.u.mbers and tomatoes added to the fare.

"Gee!" sighed Tubby, "doesn't it take girls to live _right_ in camp? And look at those doughnuts."

"I fried them," cried Mina, proudly. "Mrs. Havel showed me how, though."

"Mrs. Havel, come over to Gannet Island and teach us how to cook," cried Dave. "We don't have anything like this."

"Not a sweetie except what we buy at the Forge--and that's baker's stuff," complained Tubby.

"Don't you think you boys had better be pretty good to us--if you want to come to tea--or breakfast--once in a while?" asked Wyn, pointedly.

"Right!" declared Dave.

"Got us there," admitted Ferdinand.

"_I'll_ see that they behave themselves, Wyn," cried Tubby, with great enthusiasm. "These fellows are too fresh, anyway----"