But at this the other boys rose up in their might and pitched upon Master Blaisdell, rolling him over and over on the gra.s.s and making him lose half of his last doughnut.

"Now, now, now!" cried Mrs. Havel. "This is no bear-garden. Try to behave."

The boys began to laugh uproariously at this. "What do _you_ know about a bear-garden, Grace?" Ferd demanded.

"And wasn't that growling of Dave's awe-inspiring?" cried another.

"And weren't _you_ scared, Frank Cameron?" suggested Tubby, grinning hugely when his mates had let him up. "I never did know you could run so fast."

"Why, pshaw!" responded Frank. "Did you boys really think you had scared us with those moth-eaten old robes?"

"How ridiculous!" chimed in Bess. "A boy is usually a good deal of a bear, I know; but he doesn't _look_ like one."

"And--and there haven't been any bears in this country for--for years,"

said Grace, though rather quaveringly.

"Say! what do you know about all this?" demanded Dave, of his mates.

"Do you girls mean to say that you weren't scared pretty near into fits?" cried one lad.

"Did we act scared?" laughed Wyn. "I guess we fooled you a little, eh?"

"You're just as much mistaken," said Frank, "as the red-headed man was who went to see the doctor because he had indigestion. When the doctor told him to diet, it wasn't his hair he meant; but the red-headed man got mad just the same. Now, you boys----"

"Aw, come! come!" cried Dave. "You can't say honestly you were not scared. You know you were."

"I am afraid your joke fell flat, Davie," laughed Wyn. All the girls were enjoying the boys' discomfiture. "Of course, I suppose you thought you deserved your breakfast as a forfeit because you got a trick across on us. But you'll have to try again, I am afraid. Just because we ran doesn't prove that we did not recognize the combination of a boy and a buffalo robe."

"Aw, now!" cried one of the boys. "What did you run for?"

"There's a reason," laughed Percy.

"Wait!" advised Frank, shaking her head and her own eyes dancing. "You will find out soon enough why we ran."

"'He laughs best who laughs last,'" quoted Grace. "Bears, indeed!"

The boys were puzzled. Breakfast being over the girls went about their several tasks and paid their friends of the opposite s.e.x very little attention. To all suggestions that they get out the canoes and go across to the island with the boys, or on other junkets, the girls responded with refusals. They evidently thought they had something like a joke themselves on the boys, and finally the latter went off through the brush toward the spot where they had tied their canoes, half inclined to be angry.

They were gone a long while, and were very quiet. The girls whispered together, and kept right near the tents, waiting for the explosion.

"At least," Wyn said, chuckling, "we gave them a good breakfast, so they won't starve to death; but if they want to go to the island they will have to swim."

"We've given them 't.i.t for tat,'" said Frankie, nodding her head. "Glad of it. And _they'll_ pay the forfeit, instead of us."

"If they don't find the canoes," whispered Grace.

"They wouldn't find them in a week of Sundays," cried Percy.

"Then let's set them a good hard task for payment," suggested Bess.

"That's right. They oughtn't to have tried to scare us so," agreed Mina.

"I guess it is agreed," laughed Wyn, "to show them no mercy. Ah! here they come now."

The Busters slowly climbed the knoll in rather woebegone fashion. Their feathers certainly were drooped, as Frank remarked.

"Well," said Dave, throwing himself down on the sward, "we must hand it to you Go-Aheads. You've got us 'way out on the limb, and if you shake the tree very hard we'll drop off."

"No, thanks!" snapped Bess. "We don't care for green fruit."

"Oh, oh!" squealed Ferd. "I bet that hurt me."

"Now, there's no use quarreling," said Dave. "We admit defeat. Where under the sun you girls could have hidden our canoes I don't see. And your own haven't been used this morning, that's sure."

Wyn and her mates broke into uncontrollable laughter at this.

"Who's the joke on now?" cried Bess.

"What will you give to find your canoes?" exclaimed Frankie.

"Aw--say--don't rub it in," begged Tubby. "We own up to the corn. You beat us. Where are the canoes?"

"Ahem!" said Wynifred, clearing her throat loudly, and standing forth.

"Hear, hear!" cried Mina.

"Oh! you've got it all fixed up for us, I see," muttered Ferd.

"The understanding always has been," said Wyn, calmly, "that if one party succeeded in playing a practical joke on the other, and 'getting away with it,' as you slangy boys say, the party falling for the trick should pay forfeit. Isn't that so?"

"Go on! Do your worst," growled Ferd.

"That's right. You state the case clearly, Miss Mallory," said Dave, with a bow of mockery.

"And they never paid a forfeit for the time Tubby slid down our boathouse roof, plunk into the water," cried Bessie.

"Aw--that's ancient history," growled Tubby.

"Let us stick to recent events," agreed Wyn, smiling. "If we girls were at all frightened by your 'bear-faced' attempt to frighten us this morning, we have paid with a breakfast; haven't we?"

"And it was a good one," agreed Dave.

"It's made me go right to cooking again," said Bess. "A swarm of locusts would have brought about no greater devastation."

"Then, gentlemen," said Wynifred, "do you admit that the shoe is now on the other foot? You cannot find your canoes. Will you pay us to find them for you?"

"That's only fair," admitted Dave.