The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat | Page 4

soon as the water was heated, Jane produced some full length gingham aprons, which she tossed to her companions. Arrayed in these, the girls took up scrub brushes and soap and got to work on the inside of the cabin. Their skirts were pinned up, their sleeves rolled back to the shoulders and they looked like veritable scrub women.
"Let's all work on the same side of the boat," called Jane. "I want one side to get dry so we can begin to paint it." The slap, slap of the painters' brushes already was heard on the outside. The remaining boards over the windows had been torn off and carefully laid aside for other uses.
Two hours later Jane got the painters to open the cans of white paint and stir up the contents. The men put in plenty of drier so the paint would dry quickly and began their work. Tommy could not resist trying to paint too. Seizing a brush she began laying about her, sending the paint into her hair, over her clothes and spattering her companions until they threatened to throw her overboard if she did not desist. Tommy's impish face already was decorated with polka dots of white paint.
"I would suggest that Tommy go out and use some red paint," said Harriet laughingly. "Some red dots would make you look perfectly lovely, dear."
"Yes and some blue," added Jane. "She'd be red, white and blue then, and we could hang her over the stern. That would save getting a flag."
"Girls, what are we going to do with the ceiling!" asked Miss Elting, regarding it with wrinkled forehead.
"We might paint in white between the beams, covering the beams themselves with green," suggested Harriet.
"That would be pretty," agreed the guardian, tilting her head to one side and regarding the ceiling reflectively. "Yes, it would be very artistic. Have we any green paint?"
"We'll have some," answered Jane promptly. "What shade?"
"Grath green," suggested Tommy.
"Olive," suggested Hazel.
Miss Elting nodded. Olive green paint would look well for the ceiling, she decided. Already the interior of the houseboat was beginning to brighten. But they saw that, to do a thoroughly good job, at least two coats of paint would be necessary. They hoped to get one coat of paint on before night, putting on the finishing coat on the following morning.
The slap, slap of the brushes outside had ceased and the men were heard talking. Jane rushed out brandishing her paint brush.
"Get to work, you lazy bones!" she shouted. "Am I paying you for holding conversations about red paint! On with your work!"
Jane presented such a ferocious appearance that the painters resumed their work hurriedly. There was no more lagging on their part. Jane frequently ran out to see what they were doing. The result was that the "Red Rover" was painted in record time, both outside and in, and a coat of paint laid on the top of the house. Jane McCarthy had an idea in regard to this roof. The next morning she put the plan into execution.
That night the girls were so tired that they gave no thought to their appearance until they had reached their rooms at the hotel and looked into their mirrors. Their paint-streaked countenances were a sight to behold and Tommy carried a part of her facial decorations to bed with her.
They were up early on the following morning, and were first in the dining room at breakfast.
"I just can't wait until I get to work," declared Jane McCarthy, her eyes shining.
"I can wait until I've eaten my breakfast," replied Margery, then flushed as Tommy giggled meaningly.
Readers of the first volume of this series, "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS" will recall the many exciting adventures that befell the five girls and their guardian, Miss Elting, while summering at Camp Wau-Wau, a part of the Camp Girls' organization. The attempts of two mischief-making camp girls to disgrace Harriet in the eyes of the camp, Harriet's brave rescue of her enemies during a severe storm and her generous method of dealing with them aroused the interest and admiration of the reader. The various ludicrous happenings in which Grace Thompson and Jane McCarthy figured prominently also added to this absorbing narrative of outdoor life.
"THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY" relates the adventures of the girls and their guardian on their homeward march from Camp Wau-Wau. Their meeting with a number of boys on a hike, who styled themselves the Tramp Club, and the subsequent wager made with them by the Meadow-Brook Girls to race them to the town of Meadow-Brook, furnished the theme for the narrative. While following the fortunes of the road the girls met with numerous adventures. The reader will recall their encounter with the tramps, their rescue by Sybarina, the Gipsy, and the night spent in the Gipsy camp