Children's Book Classics - Kate Douglas Wiggin Edition: 11 Novels & 120+ Short Stories for Children. Kate Douglas Wiggin

out from Elsie’s bedroom, while the boys, too, seemed to be somewhere in the vicinity, for there was a constant stirring about as of lively preparation, together with noise of hammering and sawing.

      ‘If you were only going, Elsie, our cup of happiness would be full,’ sighed Bell.

      ‘Not only would it be full, Bell, but it would be running over, and we should positively stand in the slop,’ said Polly. ‘No, you needn’t frown at me, miss; that expression is borrowed from no less a person than Sydney Smith.’

      ‘Don’t think any more about me,’ smiled Elsie. ‘Perhaps I can come down in the course of the summer. I know it will be the happiest time in the world, but I don’t envy you a bit; in fact, I’m very glad you’re going, because you’ll have such a lovely budget of adventures to tell me when you come back.’

      ‘When we come back, indeed!’ exclaimed Bell. ‘Why, we shall write long round-robin letters every few days, and send them by the team. Papa says Pancho will have to go over to the stage station at least once a week for letters and any provisions we may need.’

      ‘Oh, won’t that be delightful,—almost as good as being there myself! And, Margery dear, you must make them tell me every least little thing that happens. You know they are such fly-aways that they’ll only write me when they learn to swim, or shoot a wildcat, or get lost in the woods. I want to know all the stupid bits: what you have for dinner, how and where you sleep, how your camp looks, what you do from morning till night, and how Dicky behaves.’

      ‘I can tell you that beforehand,’ said Bell, dolefully. ‘Jack will shoot him by mistake on Thursday; he will be kicked by the horses Friday, and bitten by tarantulas and rattlesnakes Saturday; he will eat poison oak on Sunday, get lost in the cañon Monday, be eaten by a bear Tuesday, and drowned in the pool Wednesday. These incidents will complete his first week; and if they produce no effect on his naturally strong constitution, he will treat us to another week, containing just as many mishaps, but no duplicates.’

      By the time this dismal prophecy was ended the other girls were in a breathless fit of laughter, though all acknowledged it was likely to be fulfilled.

      ‘I went over the camping-ground last summer,’ said Margery. ‘You know it is quite near papa’s sheep ranch, and it is certainly the most beautiful place in California. The tents will be pitched at the mouth of the cañon, where there is a view of the ocean, and just at the back will be a lovely grove of wild oaks and sycamore-trees.’

      ‘Oh, won’t it be delicious!’ sighed Elsie. ‘I feel as if I could sniff the air this minute. But there! I won’t pretend that I’m dying for fresh air, with the breath of the sea coming in at my south window, and a whiff of jasmine and honeysuckle from the piazza. That would be nonsense. Are your trunks packed?’

      ‘Trunks!’ exclaimed Polly. ‘Would you believe it, our clothes are packed in gunny-sacks! We start in our camping-dresses, with ulsters for the steamer and dusters for the long drive. Then we each have—let me see what we have: a short, tough riding-skirt with a jersey, a bathing-dress, and some gingham morning-gowns to wear about the camp at breakfast-time.’

      ‘And flannel gowns for the night, and two pairs of boots, and a riding-cap and one hat apiece,’ added Margery.

      ‘But oh, Elsie, my dear, you should see Dicky in his camping-suits,’ laughed Bell. ‘They are a triumph of invention on mamma’s part. Just imagine! one is of some enamelled cloth that was left over from the new carriage cushions; it is very shiny and elegant; and the other, truly, is of soft tanned leather, and just as pretty as it can be. Then he has hob-nailed, copper-toed boots, and a hat that ties under his chin. Poor little man, he has lost his curls, too, and looks rather like a convict.’

      Mrs. Howard came in the door while Bell was speaking, and laughed heartily at the description of Dicky’s curious outfit. ‘What time do you start?’ she asked, as she laid a bunch of mignonette on Elsie’s table.

      ‘At eleven to-morrow morning,’ Bell answered. ‘Everything is packed. We are to start in the steamer, and when we come to our old landing, about forty miles down the coast, we are to get off and take a three-seated thorough-brace wagon, and drive over to Las Flores Cañon. Pancho has hired a funny little pack mule; he says we shall need one in going up the mountain, and that the boys can take him when they go out shooting,—to carry the deer home, you know.’

      ‘If I can bring Elsie down, as I hope, we must come by land,’ said Mrs. Howard. ‘I thought we could take two days for the journey, sleeping at the Burtons’ ranch on the way. The doctor says that if she can get strength enough to bear the ride, the open-air life will do her good, even if she does nothing but lie in the hammock.’

      ‘And be waited upon by six willing slaves,’ added Polly.

      ‘And be fed on canned corned beef and tomato stew,’ laughed Bell.

      ‘Not a bit of it,’ said Margery. ‘Hop Yet is a splendid cook, if he has anything to cook, and we’ll feed her on broiled titbits of baby venison, goat’s milk, wild bees’ honey, and cunning little mourning doves, roasted on a spit.’

      ‘Good gracious,’ cried Bell, ‘what angels’ food! only I would as soon devour a pet canary as a mourning dove. But to think that I’ve been trying to diet for a week in order to get intimate with suffering and privation! Polly came to stay with me one night, and we slept on the floor, with only a blanket under us, and no pillow; it was perfectly horrid. Polly dreamed that her grandfather ate up her grandmother, and I that Dicky stabbed the Jersey calf with a pickle-fork.’

      ‘Horrors!’ ejaculated Margery; ‘that’s a pleasant prospect for your future bedfellows. I hope the gophers won’t make you nervous, gnawing and scratching in the straw; I got used to them last summer. But we really must go, darling,’ and she stooped to kiss Elsie good-bye.

      ‘Well, I suppose you ought,’ she answered. ‘But remember you are to start from this gate; Aunt Truth has promised me the fun of seeing you out of sight.’

      The girls went out at a side door, and joined the boys, who were busily at work cleaning their guns on the broad western porch.

      ‘How are you coming on?’ questioned Polly.

      ‘Oh, finely,’ answered Jack, who always constituted himself chief spokesman, unless driven from the rostrum by some one possessed of a nimbler tongue. ‘I only hope your feminine togs are in half as good order.’

      ‘We take no baggage to speak of,’ said Bell, loftily. ‘Papa has cut us down to the very last notch, and says the law allows very few pounds on this trip.’

      ‘The less the better,’ quoth Geoff, cheerily; ‘then you’ll have to polish up your mental jewels.’

      ‘Which you consider imitation, I suppose,’ sniffed Polly.

      ‘Perish the thought!’ cried Jack. ‘But, speaking of mental jewels, you should see the arrangements Geoff has made for polishing his. He has actually stuck in six large volumes, any one of which would be a remedy for sleeplessness. What are you going to study, Miss Pol-y-on-o-mous Oliver?’

      ‘Now, Jack, let us decide at once whether you intend to be respectful or not. I don’t propose to expose myself to your nonsense for two months unless you make me good promises.’

      ‘Why, that wasn’t disrespectful. It is my newest word, and it simply means having many titles. I’m sure you have more than most people.’

      ‘Very well, then! I’ll overlook the irreverence this time, and announce that I shall not take anything whatever to read, but simply reflect upon what I know already.’

      ‘That may last for the first week,’ said Bell, slyly, ‘but what will you do afterward?’

      ‘I’ll reflect upon what you don’t know,’ retorted Polly. ‘That will easily occupy me two months.’

      Fortunately, at the very moment this stinging remark was made, Phil