Part 23 (1/2)

True it was a very small house, compared with that occupied by the Robinsons in Chelton, but then there were no maids, and there was no formality. Just a perfect little cottage with everything in it for real housekeeping!

”A regular playhouse!” commented Cora. ”I wish we could keep it all to ourselves without Nettie, or any other maid.”

”You must come and see our house when we get set up,” said Ed. ”We are going to do it all alone. Take turns at cooking, and, I suppose, take turns at eating.”

Bess and Belle were busy making a room ready and comfortable for the arrival of their mother, and her guest.

”I am sure mamma will like this room best,” said Bess, ”for it looks out over the bay and has such a lovely tree just on the east end, where the sun might have been troublesome at daybreak.”

”Yes, what a perfectly delightful room,” exclaimed Cora, a.s.sisting in arranging the bed with the white coverlets, that had been placed within reach, all ready for the first comers.

”We never before had a furnished house,” went on Belle, ”and just see!

A cake of soap and box of matches in each room! Now that is what I call _real_ furniture.”

And so they went on from room to room, the girls selecting and arranging according to what seemed most practical, and most pleasing.

The fright of the ”suicide note” was almost forgotten in the joys of exploring and experimenting.

Then the boys discovered that it was almost lunch time, and this was the signal for ”a raid” on the town stores.

Ed and Jack jumped into the _Get There_, and were off before Bess or Belle had a chance to tell them what might be ”nice for lunch.”

”Oh, we may as well try our hand all alone this time,” commented Jack, ”and if we fail in buying the right things, it will add to our general knowledge in managing 'our bungalow.'”

So they drove off, while Walter a.s.sisted in spreading rugs on the porch, and putting up hammocks.

”Wouldn't have missed this for anything,” Walter declared, when Cora asked him to help put the leaves in the dining-room table. ”Isn't this just playing house, though!”

”And to think that we do not have to wash any old, dusty dishes,”

remarked Cora. ”Dear me! I wish we could get some tangible clue to the actual whereabouts of those two lone, miserable, runaway girls!”

CHAPTER XIX

THE MOVING PICTURE ”MOVED”

”Where shall we go first?” asked Bess, in a very fever of delight.

”There are so many places down here. I had no idea it was such a lively place.”

”I vote for moving pictures,” said Cora. ”I have not seen a really good motion picture show since last summer.”

”But we have to get down to our bungalow,” objected Jack. ”When fellows rent a place they are expected to see that it doesn't burn down or--blow away.”

”Oh, can't you put up some place else to-night?” asked Belle. ”Mother will not let us go out alone, and we are just dying to see some of the seaside sights.”

”Well, seein' as it's you,” he replied, ”we might arrange to sit on the beach all night. But otherwise we have got to get down to the bungalow, and see if there is sleeping room in it, for we will not--absolutely will not--go to a hotel.”

They were seated on the porch of Clover Cottage, having just had a supper which the young ladies prepared, and which every one, including Mrs. Robinson, declared was as good and tasty a supper as one could desire. True, there was some difficulty about its preparation, as there was no gas in the cottage, and the boys had considerable trouble in procuring the sort of oil that is used in the sort of stove to be found in the furnished house at the seash.o.r.e. But all this, and much more, was finally accomplished, and the meal that evolved from the process did credit to the girls from Chelton.