Itwas a lovely picnic. The girls could not remember when they had enjoyed anything so much.
The boys put themselves out to be entertaining, the weather was excellent. No one had ever tasted such nectar as those “hot dogs” cooked in the open, corn boiled in a big, blackened pot over the campfire and fairly dripping butter. Clarice’s chicken mayonnaise sandwiches were not neglected, nor the cake with its filling of thick almond cream. Never was such a feast. The young folks ate to repletion, and then ate some more.
Only Edina Tooker seemed to have lost her appetite.
After the luncheon they sat around for an hour or two, too absolutely comfortable and lazy to move.
“Like anacondas, sunning themselves,” observed Vi lazily.
Laura, half-asleep, opened one eye to stare at her reproachfully.
“How complimentary you are! I refuse to be compared to any snake—even an impressive one like theanaconda. Now, if anybody has anything more to say, please don’t say it. I’m going to sleep!”
After a while they roused themselves sufficiently to make a tour of the island. Finding a little pool among the bushes, they made themselves crude fishing tackle of tree branches, a ball of cord conveniently produced by Chet from a roomy pocket, and a few fishhooks left by someone in one of the boats.
During an hour or two of fishing, Edina succeeded in hooking one poor little fish which was so tiny and, Vi declared, looked at her so pathetically she had not the heart to keep it. At any rate, she removed it with gentle fingers from the hook and flung it back into the cool depths of the little pool.
“A fine fisherman you’d make!” scoffed Ferd. “Here you hook the best catch of the afternoon and you aren’t sport enough to recognize good fortune!”
Edina shook her head, answering his badinage seriously.
“It was too little to be any use, anyway. And I never could kill anything just for the fun of killing it.”
Here was a new light on Edina’s true character. How cruelly the girls at the Hall had misjudged her, thought Billie. At heart Edina was kindly and gentle, sympathetic and loyal. How gently she had removed the poor little tortured fish from the hook! And yet the girls still called her the “lion cub!”
“She’s a darling,” thought Billie warmly. “AndI’m glad I’ve stood by her. I’d do it all over again if I had to!”
After a while the young folks resumed their stroll and wound up finally at the site of the campfire.
Here they discovered that their appetites had miraculously revived. Whereupon they fell upon what remained of the provisions and gobbled them up.
“What a swarm of locusts we are!” chuckled Laura, regarding the ruins of their feast. “I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to eat again.”
“Until to-morrow morning,” observed Billie drily.
The premature shadows of autumn were falling over the lake when they reluctantly decided that it was time to go back.
Like all good woodsmen, they cleaned up the scene of their picnic until everything was as neat and orderly as they had found it.
“I hate to go,” said Vi, looking back longingly. “It’s probably the last picnic we’ll have this year.”
“Probably,” agreed Billie. “It’s always a little sad, saying good-by to summer. And this year, what with the treasure hunt and Sun Dial Lodge, we have had such marvelous fun.”
Later, as the little fleet moved slowly across the water in the direction of Three Towers Hall, the young folks sang, joining their voices in the sweet old melodies of Juanita, Suwanee River, and endingwith the solemn and beautiful Now the Day Is Over.
When they landed on the dock the shadows had descended in a gentle mist over everything, touching familiar objects with a mysterious magic, wrapping the young folks about in a pleasant isolation.
In the shadows close to her, Billie heard some one sob. She turned about, surprised, to find it was Edina who had made that choking, desperate sound.
“Why, Edina! What is it, dear? Edina, tell Billie!”
“I love it all so!” said Edina, in a curious, harsh voice. “It’s been such a wonderful day. I never knew what it was to be so happy!”
“But, Edina, that’s nothing to cry about!”
“That—that’s all you know! You shouldn’t ’a’ been so nice to me—you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t! If I have to go away from here now—it will—just clean—break my heart!”
Edina whirled quickly and vanished in the mist and the shadows, leaving Billie to wonder if she had not dreamed the curious interview.
“What’s the matter with her?” Vi stood at Billie’s elbow. “She’s upset about something, isn’t she? Could it be anything Paul Martinson said or did, do you suppose?”
Billie shook her head.
“Paul has been a lamb. I overheard him invite her to the hop at Boxton on the third.”
“What then?”
“I don’t know.” Billie spoke wearily. Her knee was beginning to hurt again—and the tennis tournament was only a little over two weeks away! “Unless there was bad news in the letter I gave her to-day,” she added. “I thought there was at the time. Now I am practically sure of it.”