"Well, I've a splendid idea. There are heaps of hot ashes down under the logs. We can bury some potatoes there,--the cowboys cook them that way and they are delicious. Then with some devilled-ham sandwiches we could sit right here and eat, and have no tiresome dishes to wash up afterwards." "Hear, hear!" cried Kitty and Debby. "It's easy to see whose turn it is to wash dishes," laughed Amanda. "It's right handsome of you, Blue Bonnet," Kitty remarked gratefully, "--especially when it wasn't your turn to officiate. I'll make the sandwiches and Debby--you get the potatoes." That buffet supper was later pronounced the most successful meal ever prepared in _Poco Tiempo_. "This is truly Bohemian," remarked Mrs. Clyde, as with a newspaper for both plate and napkin, she joined the group about the fire, "--much more so than the studio-luncheons they call Bohemian in Boston." "Fancy anything trying to be Bohemian in Boston!" exclaimed Blue Bonnet. "They haven't a thing in common." "They both begin with a B," said Sarah. The girls were too surprised to laugh. "Is that a joke, Sarah?" asked Kitty in an awestruck tone. "Of course not,--they do, don't they?" she returned. As the girls collapsed at this, she looked up in puzzled surprise. "I'd like to know what's so funny about that," she remarked plaintively. "There comes Mrs. Judson," exclaimed Debby. There was a hasty wiping of blackened fingers on newspaper napkins as the girls rose to greet this unexpected guest. The little figure approaching them seemed slighter than ever, and the gingham dress fairly trailed over the long grass. The face was hidden in the inevitable sunbonnet. "Hello, everybody, are you dry yet?" called a cheerful voice. "Carita!" exclaimed Blue Bonnet. "We thought you were your mother." Carita looked down at her loosely fitting garment and laughed. "I had to wear this while my dress dried. Knight said I ought to hang out a sign--'room to let.' Mother made me wear the sunbonnet because my hair is still wet. But I said I could dry it by your fire as well as anywhere else." She tossed away the cavernous bonnet and the chestnut locks fell in a cloud about her shoulders. With her dark eyes and skin framed by the long straight hair she looked like a young Indian. "Have a potato?" asked Blue Bonnet, spearing one with a stick and presenting it to the guest. "Thank you." Carita took it as if this were the usual fashion of serving this vegetable, and ate it with the ease born of long experience. Suddenly she gave an exclamation. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Alec sent over something. The boys couldn't come for they've nothing to wear but blankets--they're rolled up like a lot of mummies around the fire. But Alec and Knight and Sandy have been writing something,--I think it's a letter." "It's a poem!--oh, Blue Bonnet, you read it aloud." Kitty handed over the verses and in the flickering light they gathered close about Blue Bonnet as she read: THE BRIDGE