But three minutes later she was sound asleep!
The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose
Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the
rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed.
"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at
least a good two hours more."
"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the
wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?"
she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They
were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been
the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up
--if such a thing were possible.
Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for
the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and
all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs,
giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug
on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books.
"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the
place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself,
you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians."
They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them
that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the
summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal
of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set
on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow.
"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a
smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh
butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the
butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are
here."
"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass
with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me,
chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she
delightfully plump?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was
all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking
person in my life."
"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on
Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can
eat it all up!"
After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would
have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared
that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had
become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they
liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way.
As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for
silence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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