Chapter XVI: A Treat That Was Not a Treat

"Never mind. We won't be as mean as you are," declared Sam, springing up. "We will return good for evil."

"Did you see the three bulls?" interrupted Jane. "I knew you would cross that orchard and I was afraid you'd meet them."

"We did," answered Miss Elting.

"What's that?" The captain was interested instantly. "You say you met the bulls?"

"Yes. I might as well tell you," explained Miss Elting. "You think we weren't able to keep the pace we set for ourselves. I don't want my girls to rest under that imputation, for I believe that they can completely outdistance you boys. We did meet the three bulls. Yes, they treed us. We were all up in apple trees when you boys passed singing 'Forty-nine Blue Bottles.'"

Some one laughed. The captain frowned at the boy who had done so.

"You let us pass, and never called us to come to your assistance?" he demanded.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We preferred to get out of our scrape without appealing to our rivals, Captain Baker."

"Whew! That was a fix. How'd you manage it?"

"Through the resourcefulness and courage of Harriet Burrell. Had it not been for her we undoubtedly should still be up in the trees in the apple orchard."

"Please tell us about it."

"Please don't," begged Harriet blushingly.

"Now that you have aroused our curiosity, it would be cruel not to tell us the whole story," declared George.

"Yeth. Cruelty to animalth," nodded Tommy.

Miss Elting, despite Harriet's protestations, did tell the boys the story, giving the full credit for their rescue to Harriet Burrell, to whom it belonged. The boys listened in open-mouthed wonder.

"Fellows, we aren't so much as we think we are," declared the chief of the Tramp Club. "I propose three cheers for Miss Burrell. Now! Altogether! One, two, three!"

They gave three rousing cheers in which, Tommy's shrill voice joined.

"Who's all right?" demanded the captain at the end of the cheer.

"Miss Burrell's all right!" yelled the Tramps. "For she's a jolly good fel--low; For she's a jolly good fellow," sang the Tramps, as with hands on each other's shoulders they marched through the camp, and out into the field on their way to their own camp, a short distance from that of the Meadow-Brook Girls.

Miss Elting was laughing merrily. Harriet's face was crimson.

"I call that downright mean. They were making fun of me."

"Why, Harriet! You know they were not," rebuked Miss Elting. "It was the highest compliment those lads could pay."

"It hath been a day of experientheth, hathn't it?" Tommy questioned.

Harriet's face was still flushed as she began to prepare the supper. Each member of the party now remembered that she had an appetite. While they were getting the meal Jane told them how the boys had gloated over having "walked the girls off their feet," as the tramps expressed it. Jane announced triumphantly that she had been more than a match for them, which her companions could well believe, for Jane had a sharp tongue, besides being the possessor of a fund of Irish wit.

The smoke curling up from the other camp told the girls that the boys were busy getting their own supper. While eating, the guardian was obliged to go over the story of their experiences for the benefit of Jane, who interrupted now and then with humorous questions.

"Are the boys coming over this evening?" asked Margery, after they had finished supper and she and Tommy were washing the dishes.

"They did not say," called Hazel. "It is safe to believe they will. I wonder if we can't get rid of those boys? They make me nervous. It seems to me that they are perpetually on the scene whether one wants to see them or not."

"Don't be hard on the poor Tramp Club, Hazel," laughed Harriet. "Remember you might still be stuck fast in the swamp had they not come to the rescue."

"That's so," responded Hazel, with a sigh. "I never thought of that. They're really not so bad after all."

"I have met worse," averred Harriet solemnly. Whereupon there was a general laugh.

The tramps had gathered the fuel for the Meadow-Brook Girls, stacking it up in piles of various lengths. The lads really were trying to make themselves useful to the young women. As yet there had been no outward evidence of Captain Baker's assertion that some of them were "full of mischief." The girls had piled the campfire high with wood and gathered about it when strains of music were heard.

"Oh, it ith a band, it ith a band," cried Tommy.

"Coming to serenade us, probably," announced Margery.

"No. I think it is some one playing on harmonicas," answered Miss Elting after a moment of listening.

"It's those boys," groaned Hazel. "What mischief are they up to now?"

"I told you. They are coming over to serenade us. I think the serenade must be for Harriet."

"They are carrying something on their shoulders too," cried Harriet.

The girls, by this time, had run out to the edge of the camp and in the faint twilight were trying to make out what it was that the Tramp Club were carrying. As the boys drew nearer, the girls saw that it was a burlap sack. Four boys were bearing the sack on their shoulders. It appeared to be very heavy.

"Why, boys," exclaimed Miss Elting. "Are you moving?"

"Yes, Miss Elting," answered Captain Baker, doffing his hat. "We are moving, in a sense. We have come prepared to lay the spoils of our forage at the feet of beauty. Boys, dump the bag. You know where."

One of the boys untied the string by which the mouth of the sack had been secured, then the two lads at that end stepped from under. Instantly the contents began rolling out at Harriet Burrell's feet.

"Muskmelons!" gasped the girls.

Great golden and green muskmelons bumped to the ground. Harriet's face was full of color.

"They--they aren't all for me? Surely, you don't think I am equal to eating all of those?" she gasped.

"They are laid at your feet," answered George dramatically. "For you and your friends."

"This is splendid," declared the guardian, her face aglow with pleasure. "But we do not deserve so much. You have robbed yourselves. Where did you get them?"

"Of a farmer," replied George promptly.

"You must take most of them for yourselves, boys," urged Miss Elting. "We simply could not eat half of all that lot."

"No. They are all for you. We have plenty. Besides, you'll find some of them aren't good, but out of the lot you may be able to get enough for breakfast."

"We can eat all night if nethethary," announced Tommy. "Maybe we can eat them all before we go on to-morrow."

"One melon apiece will be quite enough for us, my dears," reproved Miss Elting. "Won't you join us in our feast, boys?"

The young men shook their heads.

"They're yours," replied the captain, his eyes on Harriet as he said it. "I brought you some salt, too," he added, drawing a piece of newspaper from his pocket. "Perhaps you like salt on your melons."

"You are very thoughtful," smiled Miss Elting. "I think we have salt. How about it, Jane?"

"We have a whole bag of it."

"We will take yours, thank you," smiled Harriet. "It is much finer salt than ours."

"Yes, it's the salt the farmer over yonder uses to give to his sheep," interjected Sam. "We borrowed some from him."

Miss Elting laughed a little at this blunt speech.

"You are very funny, boys!" she said. "But we are grateful to you. I don't know how we shall be able to repay you."

"We have shared your hospitality--your bounteous hospitality," answered the captain. "We wished to make some slight return."

"What shall we do with what melons are left over?" asked Miss Elting.

"Carry them on with you. You have a car in which to transport your stuff."

"I suppose we had better do that," mused the guardian. "When we reach the next camping place we shall insist on entertaining you at our camp. We greatly appreciate this treat."

"Thank you," said George Baker, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Shortly afterwards Captain Baker rose from where he had been sitting and with an uneasy look on his face announced that they must go. With his fellows he hurriedly left the camp, not even taking the melon sack along. They were seen no more that night.

The girls noted Baker's embarrassed manner and thought it strange that the boys should have left so abruptly. They were at a loss to understand it.

"I am glad they have left the melons, anyway," declared Harriet.

"Yes, wasn't that lovely of the boys to bring the fruit to us?" nodded Miss Elting. "They are really nice boys. I am rather glad that we met them."

"You may change your mind before we have finished with them," replied Harriet, with an enigmatical smile.

"What do you mean, dear?"

"I can't really explain. But I feel rather than know that those young men are ready to play tricks. They'd better not try any of them or we shall make them regret that they ever played tricks on the Meadow-Brook Girls."

"Aren't the melonth delithiouth?" breathed Tommy. She was now eating her second melon. The other girls were enjoying theirs equally well.

"Yes," agreed Miss Elting. "The finest I ever ate. They must have cost the boys quite a sum of money, even though melons are cheap in the country. I----"

"Thomebody ith coming," warned Tommy.

"The boys are returning, I presume," smiled Miss Elting. But instead of the boys they were surprised to see a strange man striding into camp. He was plainly a farmer. He wore his whiskers long and his trousers were tucked in the tops of his boots. His face did not bear a pleasant expression.

"So I've caught you at it, eh?" he said sarcastically.

"What do you mean?" demanded the guardian rising hastily.

"You know well enough what I mean. In the first place, you are trespassing on my premises."

"We have permission to camp here," interjected Jane.

"Who gave it?"

"The farmer who owns this land."

"I happen to own this land, and I haven't given any tramps permission to camp on it."

"Then some one must have played a trick on me," declared Crazy Jane. "Wait till I get sight of that man again."

"We are very sorry, sir, but we are wholly innocent of trespassing. We are not tramps, either. Of course we are willing to pay you for the privilege of camping here to-night. What do you consider a fair price?"

"Wal, I reckon about seventy-five cents will be all right for the camping."

Miss Elting handed the money over to him.

"I am sorry to have put you to all this trouble, but we supposed we had permission to stay here over night."

"Thay," questioned Tommy. "You are a rich man, aren't you?"

"No. Why?"

"Well, you thhould be."

"By the way, ladies, there is another little matter that you'll have to fix up before we go any further."

The guardian and the girls glanced inquiringly at their mercenary visitor.

"What do you mean?"

"Them melons," answered the farmer, indicating the fruit with a nod.

"I don't understand you, sir." The guardian was plainly perplexed. Harriet was smiling broadly. She thought she understood now.

"The melons you stole from my field."

"Stole from your field?" gasped Miss Elting.

"Yes."

"Sir, you insult us! We have stolen neither melons nor anything else. I demand that you leave this camp instantly. We shall not endure such accusations."

"You didn't steal them, eh?"

"No, we didn't," answered Jane, who had stepped forward.

"Then where did you get them?"

The girls looked at one another. No one spoke. None wished to place the blame on the Tramp Club. The girls now began to understand the hurried departure of Captain Baker and his friends. Miss Elting saw that there was only one course to pursue under the circumstances.

"I can't tell you where we got the melons, sir, but we didn't steal them. How much are the melons worth?"

"Why?" queried the farmer, scenting a bargain.

"We intend to pay for them," answered Harriet coldly.

"How many melons were there?" asked the farmer, more blandly.

"Two dozen," Harriet replied.

"That'll be about four-eighty," nodded the farmer.

"But that's----"

"It's cheaper than the risk of going to jail," broke in the farmer meaningly.