Dorothy Dales Camping Days | Page 9

floor has contributed to the collection and we venture to present to
you the most unique tea set that has ever gone in or out of Glenwood.
Here," and she set her contribution down, "is my prettiest piece."
"And here is mine," followed Edna, placing on the table a real
gold-and-white creamer.
"And mine--with my love," whispered Nita, putting down an egg-shell
cup and saucer.
"Oh!" gasped Dorothy. "How lovely!"
"And, Doro, dear," added Lena Berg, "I brought my tankard. It was the
best piece, and nothing else would satisfy the committee."
"I am sure----" began Dorothy.
"Not too sure," interrupted Dick, or Molly Richards. "For here is
mine--it came all the way from Holland!"
"Girls! How can I take all these beautiful things? I am sure you must
want them your own selves----"
"Not half as much as we want you to have them," declared Cologne.
"The fact is, we were just waiting for such a chance as this. We are all
gone--soft to-night. Take care we don't kiss you, Doro."
Tears were in Dorothy's eyes. She loved her school friends, and this
was an affecting parting.
Tavia snatched up the banjo. She sang:
"Good night! Good night! Good night! Good night! Good night again;
God bless you. And, oh, until we meet again, Good night! Good night!

God bless you!"
The strain swelled into a splendid chorus, and, while they sang, the
girls wrapped up the china pieces, putting each safely in the box beside
the damaged ones.
"Speech! Speech!" came the demand from Tavia's corner, and without
further ceremony Dorothy was lifted bodily up on the table and
compelled to make a speech. It was a dangerous, undertaking, for the
sofa pillows that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere put in
so much punctuation that the address might have been put down as a
series of stops. However, Dorothy did manage to say something, for
which effort she was roundly applauded.
The night bell called them to the sense of school duties still unfinished.
"Oh, that old bell!" complained Nita, pouting.
Cologne drew Dorothy over in the corner. "Ask Tavia about the man on
the horse," she whispered. "She got a letter from him!"
CHAPTER IV
THE PREMATURE CAMP
After all, the last days of school came and went, and the Glenwood
girls had started off for their respective homes before Dorothy had a
chance to fully realize that the vacation had really begun, and that each
day of that delightful calendar now seemed suspended from the very
skies, illumined with the prospects of the very best of good times.
Dorothy had promised to spend a greater part of the summer with
Rose-Mary Markin at the Markin summer place, a delightful spot on
Lake Monadic in Maine. This plan was particularly fortunate, as Mrs.
Winthrop White, Dorothy's Aunt Winnie, with whom the Dales had
lately made their home, was to go abroad, while Ned and Nat,
Dorothy's cousins, had arranged such a varied itinerary for their
summer sports, that one might imagine, to hear the schedule, that the

particular summer involved must have been of the brand which has
neither night nor autumn to mark its limits.
Then Major Dale, and Dorothy's brothers, Joe and Roger, were to take
a long-promised cruise on the St. Lawrence, so that Dorothy was quite
at liberty to plan for herself.
But these plans could never interfere with a visit to the Cedars, the
White's summer home, and here, on the afternoon of which we write,
Dorothy found herself at last surrounded by her family, and submerged
in their joyous welcome.
"Roger, how you have grown!" she kept saying as her eyes, time after
time, sought out the "baby" brother of whom Dorothy was so fond.
"And Joe! Why, you are getting to look so much like Nat----"
"Here, now! No knocking!" called out the jolly Nat. "I don't want to be
handsome, but I simply refuse to look ten years younger!" This last was
said in imitation of the "lady-like way" girls are supposed to have in
expressing their compliments.
"And me?" asked Ned, pulling himself up out of his high-enough
height before his cousin. "What is the verdict? Am I
not--ahem--stunning?"
"You are big enough, that's sure," admitted Dorothy, giving him a look
of unstinted admiration, "and as to being stunning--I just imagine that
you are even that--in your golf suit."
"There now!" and Nat went off into kinks; "he has to wear knickers to
look cute. You ought to see me in my football togs if you want to
behold something really magnificent."
"Here, here!" called out Major Dale. "When I was a lad it was
considered a crime to keep a mirror in one's room. We used to keep one
blind shut to get a reflection on the