"Jinks! we didn't treat you like this when you came over to our camp," cried Ferd. "And we didn't come over almost before you were up in the morning," responded Frank, quickly. "How did you know we had made our 'twilights' at such an unconscionable hour?" The girls were all laughing a good deal. Nobody said a word about the "bear" fright, and the boys felt a little diffidence about broaching the subject. Evidently their joke had fallen flat. But the girls really had no intention of being mean to the six Busters. The first pan of biscuit came out of the oven a golden brown. Grace and Percy set them and the bowls of mush on the table, and handed around other bowls and a pitcher of milk to the circle of boys, sitting cross-legged on the ground like so many tailors. There was honey for the biscuits, too, as well as golden butter--both from Windmill Farm. The eggs were cooked just right, and there were plenty of them. Crisp radishes and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes added to the fare. "Gee!" sighed Tubby, "doesn't it take girls to live _right_ in camp? And look at those doughnuts." "I fried them," cried Mina, proudly. "Mrs. Havel showed me how, though." "Mrs. Havel, come over to Gannet Island and teach us how to cook," cried Dave. "We don't have anything like this." "Not a sweetie except what we buy at the Forge--and that's baker's stuff," complained Tubby. "Don't you think you boys had better be pretty good to us--if you want to come to tea--or breakfast--once in a while?" asked Wyn, pointedly. "Right!" declared Dave. "Got us there," admitted Ferdinand. "_I'll_ see that they behave themselves, Wyn," cried Tubby, with great enthusiasm. "These fellows are too fresh, anyway----" But at this the other boys rose up in their might and pitched upon Master Blaisdell, rolling him over and over on the grass and making him lose half of his last doughnut. "Now, now, now!" cried Mrs. Havel. "This is no bear-garden. Try to behave." The boys began to laugh uproariously at this. "What do _you_ know about a bear-garden, Grace?" Ferd demanded. "And wasn't that growling of Dave's awe-inspiring?" cried another. "And weren't _you_ scared, Frank Cameron?" suggested Tubby, grinning hugely when his mates had let him up. "I never did know you could run so fast." "Why, pshaw!" responded Frank. "Did you boys really think you had scared us with those moth-eaten old robes?" "How ridiculous!" chimed in Bess. "A boy is usually a good deal of a bear, I know; but he doesn't _look_ like one." "And--and there haven't been any bears in this country for--for years," said Grace, though rather quaveringly. "Say! what do you know about all this?" demanded Dave, of his mates. "Do you girls mean to say that you weren't scared pretty near into fits?" cried one lad. "Did we act scared?" laughed Wyn. "I guess we fooled you a little, eh?"