Part 16 (2/2)
When the earliest riser among the girls (who was Laura herself) peeped into the cooking tent at daybreak, the fire in the stove was already roaring, and Lizzie had gone down to the sh.o.r.e to wash her face and hands in the cold water. Laura ran down in her bathing suit.
”What do you think of this place, Lizzie?” she asked the solemn-faced girl.
”For the land's sake, Miss!” drawled Lizzie Bean, ”I never had no idea the woods was so lonesome--for a fac'.”
”No?”
”I sh'd say not! I went to bed and lay there an' listened. The trees creaked, and the crickets twittered, and some bird had the nightmare an' kep' cryin' like a baby----”
”I expect that was a screech-owl, Lizzie,” interrupted Laura. ”They come out only at night.”
”Goodness to gracious! Do they come out _every_ night?” demanded the girl.
”I expect so.”
”And them frogs?”
”They are tree-toads. Yes, they are here all summer, I guess.”
”Goodness to gracious! And folks like to live in the woods? Well!”
”Do you think you can stand it?” queried Laura, much amused, yet somewhat anxious, too.
”As long as I'm goin' to get all that money every week it'll take more than birds with the nightmare an' a pa.s.sel of frogs to drive me away.
Now! when do you want breakfast, Miss?”
”Not until Mrs. Morse gets up. And none of the other girls are out yet,” said Laura.
But very soon the other girls began to appear. They had agreed to have a dip the first thing, and the girls who first got into the water squealed so because of the cold, that it routed out the lie-abeds.
Lily would not venture in. She sat on a stump, with a blanket wrapped around her, and s.h.i.+vered, and yawned, and refused to plunge in with the others.
”And it's so early,” she complained. ”I had no idea you'd all get up so early and make such a racket. Why, when there isn't school, I _never_ get up before nine o'clock.”
”Ah! how different your life is going to be on Acorn Island,” said Bobby, frankly. ”You'll be a new girl by the time we go back home.”
”I don't want to be a new girl,” grumbled Lily.
”Now, isn't that just like her?” said Bobby, _sotto voce_. ”She is perfectly satisfied with herself as she is. Humph! Lucky she _is_ satisfied, I s'pose, for n.o.body else could be!”
CHAPTER XI
LIZ SEES A ”HA'NT”
After their bath the girls got into their gymnasium costumes. Then they clamored for breakfast, and had Mrs. Morse not appeared just then there certainly would have been a riot at the cook-tent. Lizzie was a stickler for orders, and she would not begin to fry cakes until Jess'
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