April, with its soft, sudden showers and its exquisite velvety greens ran into May with its first hot days and the sound of Peter Cooper's hammer loud in the land as he diligently worked putting up screens and awnings. Aunt Trudy began to "feel the heat" and Winnie and Sarah battled again over the ethics of killing defenseless flies. Toward the end of the month, the Student's Council, conceived the plan of holding a picnic for the three schools, an all-day picnic some Saturday. The plan was proposed at a morning assembly and met with such vigorous and hearty response that the date was settled upon then and there. Winnie was besieged that night by three excited girls who asked her advice on what "would do" to take to the picnic. "We want to take enough, because some of them will bring only a little," said Rosemary. "The boys always stuff an apple in their pockets and then wonder why they are hungry when noon comes." "I'll pack you three lunches that will be lunches," promised Winnie, "and there'll be enough to give away, too." "We're going in motor trucks," bubbled Shirley, "I want to ride up front." "I want to ride on back," proclaimed Sarah who never, by any chance, seemed to agree with anyone else. "I want to ride with my feet hanging over. And I'm going to tie a string to Shirley's rag doll and drag it in the dust--like the pictures in the Early Martyrs book, you know." Shirley began to hop up and down with anger and began to cry. "I won't have my dolly dragged in the dust," she shrieked. "Martyrs have to be dragged in the dust," the perverse Sarah insisted. "I want to see her bounce when she hits the stones." "Oh, Sarah, do be still," begged Rosemary. Then, to the weeping Shirley, "Sarah is only teasing you, darling. She wouldn't hurt your dolly." "Are the teachers going?" asked Aunt Trudy anxiously. "I hope some older people will be on hand to look after you." "Oh, the teachers are going--worse luck!" Sarah assured her. "I'll bet they shriek every time I find a water snake." CHAPTER XXVI THE SCHOOL PICNIC The Saturday chosen for the picnic dawned clear and warm and there was no sleep for anyone in the Willis family after six o'clock. Shirley and Sarah had to be forcibly restrained from investigating the boxes on the kitchen table and Winnie finally decided to finish packing them before breakfast, in order to "get a moment's peace" as she said. Sarah flatly refused to go to the picnic unless her red tie could be found, not that she wanted to wear it for decorative purposes, she carefully explained, but because she thought she could catch minnows in it. There was a brook running through the picnic field and Sarah meant to explore it thoroughly.