“Oh, I’m easily satisfied,” Belle murmured. “What a perfectly gorgeous view!” she cried, as she looked down from a height toward a village that lay nestled in a green valley, girt around by a winding, silvery river, glimpses of which could be had now and then between the trees that lined the shores.
“Yes, it is a good view,” agreed Cora, stopping the car. “Cheerful Chelton looks even more amiable and love-like than usual to-day. It’s cooler up here, too. Now pass over those chocolates, Bess.”
“And watch her get more and more—well, I’ll say plump—before your eyes, like that fat boy Scott tells about,” laughed Belle.
“It wasn’t Scott’s fat boy. He was in Dickens,” corrected Cora. “Nicholas Nickleby, I think.”
“Pickwick Papers!” voiced Bess. “There! I know something even if I am—plump. But, girls, I have lost five pounds in the last month.”
“Not so’s you’d notice it,” murmured Belle.
“Cease! Cease and have done!” admonished Cora. “How does that new one go—two slow and one quick to the side and then——”
“Not slow at all!” interrupted Bess. “You’ve got to follow through or you’ll slice the ball and——”
“What in the world are you talking about?” demanded Cora, her eyes opening wide. “Slice the ball? What’s that in? The fox trot?”
“She’s taken it up to—reduce,” whispered Belle.
“I thought you meant that new three-step we tried the other night,” came from Cora.
“It’s too warm even to talk about dancing,” declared Belle. “Really we must think of getting away sooner. Do you think we could get that bungalow at Camp Surprise earlier than we had planned to take it, Cora?”
“I don’t know. Mother made all the arrangements. But I can find out. Do you really think you’d like to go sooner?”
“I certainly do,” murmured plump Bess, who seemed to feel the sudden summer heat more than did Cora, or the more svelt Belle. “Oh, by the way, Cora! why do they call it Camp Surprise?”
“I meant to ask that, too,” added Belle. “It’s such an odd name.”
“And there’s an odd story connected with it,” said Cora. “I’ll have to ask mother about it. She merely mentioned it, and something else came up so I forgot to get the particulars. I’ll find out when we go back. But if you girls are really in earnest about starting our summer vacation a little earlier this year——”