“What is this ‘shore dinner’, Marion, that I hear the girls talking about?”

“I don’t know, Betty; ask Frances.”

“O, Frances!”

“Whoo-hoo,—in a minute.” Frances presently came in from hanging her bathing suit on the line outside the klondike.

“What is it, Betty?”

“The ‘shore dinner’, Frances; what is it, and where is it? I have been hearing the girls ask, ‘O, are you going to the shore dinner?’ but someway neglected to inquire. Do we go to some place on the shore and have a clam chowder or something?”

“No. The shore dinner is of sea foods, to be sure, but we have it at New Meadows Inn. They take us down to Bath and from there we take the trolley car to the Inn. I went last year and want to go again. I just love their lobster stew!”

“‘Love’ food, Frances?”

“I’m afraid I do, Miss Patty.”

“Can we stop in Bath, too?” continued Betty.

“Yes,—at least they always do let us shop a while.”

“Good! I’m going. How about you, Lilian?”

“O, I’m in for everything,” laughed Lilian, who was very happy these days. “Will you go, Hilary?”

“Indeed I shall. Do you suppose I’d miss a trip like that? Besides, I’m interested in this Maine country. I never was in New England before. I hope we’ll have the trip to Augusta soon.”

“Is Augusta the capitol of Maine?”

“Listen to her! Go and ask Virgie. She studied geography last year. Are you going, Cathalina?”

“Of course I am. I am particularly fond of clams and lobster.”

“Ugh! clams!” said Betty. “But if you all eat ’em, I will or perish in the attempt.”

“Mercy, Betty! Taste ’em and go slow is my motto,” said Hilary.

“It is always just as well to have decided whether or not you want to take a trip,” suggested Frances. “We’ll be asked and have to make a quick decision perhaps. They have to know about the numbers going, of course, both to order the dinner at the Inn and to plan about boats. Will June go, Hilary?”

“She will hate to miss anything, but I’m a little afraid to have her go. It might upset her to eat that stuff when she isn’t used to it, and the trolley sometimes makes her sick. I’ll talk to her about it. June has lots of sense, but once in a while she takes a spell and will or won’t do something. The worm turns, you know.”

“Yes, I know the feeling,” said Lilian.

“Why, Hilary, at times you have a touch of almost human intelligence,” said Frances, grinning broadly. “Get little sister to decide for herself?”

“That is the idea.”

As in odd coincidence it often happens, the shore dinner trip was announced at breakfast. The younger girls were advised not to go, as the only attraction was the shore dinner, and that a doubtful pleasure, unless they liked sea foods. All who so desired, however, were permitted to go and were to leave their names at the office at once or within a reasonable time. The dinner would be ordered by telephone and the boats would start in time to catch the twelve o’clock trolley car at Bath.

Hilary had not had time to prepare June’s mind to stay at home, but to her relief June came running to her soon after breakfast.

“I’m not going, Hilary. The girls say that they just have old clams and lobster and things like that, and I can’t eat any ice cream afterwards at Bath because it wouldn’t go with the shore dinner, and you know that I can’t even eat oysters. Are you going?”

“Yes; is there anything you’d like me to get for you at Bath?”

“We need some more films for the camera, and I need a bathing cap. Mine’s all busted up.”

“‘Torn,’ little sister.”

“O, Hilary, I heard you say ‘bust’ the other day.”

Hilary laughed, and to change the subject, said, “I suppose you will not object if I bring you something good.”

“You can’t. Don’t you remember what was said at breakfast? Nobody can buy candy or anything to eat this trip, because they couldn’t keep from eating it and so it’s safer not to buy ’em. See?”

“Sure enough. All right. Have a good time, Junie, and don’t try too many wild stunts.” This last because it was so astounding to note how June had ‘come out’ since coming to camp. Timid at first, afraid to get out of her depth in the water, used to considering what would be proper for the minister’s little girl to do, conscientious June had now thrown all timidity to the winds, frolicked in the water like a water-sprite since she had learned to swim under instruction, and was daily getting so much of the group spirit that Hilary was sometimes afraid of her going to the other extreme. But the daily exercise and happy times outdoors were giving her much color and the scales were marking greater gain every time that June was weighed with the rest.

“Think what a dress-up occasion this is, girls,” said Lilian, as she dived into her trunk for “real clothes”. “Doesn’t it seem funny to wear a suit and gloves?”

“Gloves!” exclaimed Cathalina. “I’m not going to wear gloves!”

“My, Cathalina, how you’ve changed!”

“Yes, isn’t it funny? But I just love to dress like a camper. I think our costume is fine, too, and very becoming.”

“Going to wear your sport hat?”

“Yes.”

All the way down to Bath the girls in the Aeolus, for the numbers were too many for the Truant, chatted, sang, or tried to compose verses worthy of the annual prize song. And never did the girls tire of the beautiful river, its eddies through the Burnt Jackets, its rocky banks, its breezes and flying or floating gulls. The trolley ride carried them over a winding way again, up hill and down dell, past typical New England homes in town or country. Presently they found themselves at New Meadows Inn and were ushered into its dining-room.

“O, Cathalina, thank fortune you are with us,” whispered Isabel, as she sat down next to Cathalina. “You will tell us how to eat the sea food, won’t you?”

“If there is anything you do not know about,” replied Cathalina smiling. “You’ve eaten soup?” noticing that the lobster stew was coming.

“Mean thing! Yes we’ve had soup before!”

The lobster stew proved most popular. “We don’t have lobster stew in Dakota,” explained Virgie, as she accepted the offer of a second helping.

“It is always offered here,” said Frances, “and all right to take it, and some only care for the stew.”

In came the clam course. The Western girls looked at each other and Isabel whispered to Virginia, “Shades of clams and ‘craw-daddles’ in our old creek at home! Now tell us, Cathalina.”

In a low tone Cathalina replied, “Open the shell, take the clam off where it is fastened to the shell and hold it by that end with your fingers, dip it in the little cup of broth, then in the melted butter, and eat it.”

“Why, they’re good,” said Isabel in surprise, “taste like oysters.”

Fried clams, lobsters on a little platter, New England doughnuts and a plate of crisp cookies, pickles, and hot cups of tea or coffee, all came in for a share of praise from these hungry campers. Coffee was not served at camp, but permitted on these special occasions.

At Bath they divided into parties, a councillor in charge of each, and scattered to the bookstores, the shoe stores, the jeweller’s, the drug store, the dry goods stores or the ten cent store on their different errands, till the time agreed upon to meet at the boat. Then again the curving Aeolus took them up the river.

“Swimming meet tomorrow, girls,” reminded Hilary, “you going to try, Cathalina?”

“No; I’m not speedy enough to race, though I’ve learned to swim so much better already. It’s a shame that I can’t with all the summers I’ve been at the shore. I’m going to do more of it at school next year. Are you going to enter, Hilary?”

“Yes, you know that I always have to try everything. I’ll not win, though. How about you, Virgie?”

“Not I. I never saw water I wanted to swim in till I came to school last year. I love to swim now, but I’m no fish like Izzy.”

“There it is again! She calls me a fish now!” Isabel pretended to be offended.

“Which is it, Isabel, the ‘crawl’ or the ‘overhand’?”

“The ‘crawl’ this time.”

Arrived at camp, the girls saw the Dixie from Boothbay Camp tied up at the dock, and half way up the hill they met Campbell, who greeted them and walked back to the club house with them.

“Is this the way you reward me for calling upon you?—coming home just as I have to leave!”

“It is not quite that bad, I hope,” said Cathalina. “Do you have to hurry off?”

“Before long, I’m afraid, whenever the ‘captain’ says the word. We brought up some mail and other things.”

“Come up on the porch,” invited Cathalina.

One of the swings and a few chairs held the party, which included Hilary, Eloise, Cathalina, Betty and Lilian, besides their guests. Then Jo and June came running around, their heads scarcely to the level of the porch floor.

“O, here are the girls. I wonder if they stood the sea food all right. How’s the lobster?” inquired June, waving at Hilary and not seeing the young man in the swing.

“Now what do you mean, young lady,—addressing your sister as a lobster? Come right up and apologize!”

“O, Campbell, you’re so funny!” The little girls ran up the steps, crossed the porch and June squeezed herself into the swing by Campbell, Hilary moving over.

“Do you like the little boys, Campbell?”

“Yes, Junie, we have great times. I’ll tell you about them one of these days. You are coming down to Boothbay on the picnic, aren’t you?”

“O, I should say I am!”

“Careful, June,” warned Hilary. “Watch your speech.”

“Did you ever hear the story of the hunters’ cabin?”

“Our little cabin, Campbell?”

“Yes, or thereabouts.”

“No; except that hunters often go there during the hunting season. We found the skeleton of a fox up there the other day. Tell us what the story is.”

“The story I heard is that there was an old smuggler who had his cabin up here, buried his treasure and was lost in a storm in the harbor. The treasure is still buried here, ah-ha!”

“O, really?”

“Nonsense, Campbell; you’re making it up. Somebody would have found it long ago.”

“I’m no authority myself, but that is one of the stories that they were telling in camp last night.”

“Come up some day, Mr. Stuart, and we’ll go up there and dig!” said Jo.

“Where is the place?”

“O, just a little way—up Merrymeeting Bay,” sang Lilian. “It’s in the pine grove.”

“Well, I’m a busy man these days, with a lot of lively kids to look after. Save some of the treasure for me.”

“Yes; you may have all we find,” generously offered Hilary.

“Don’t make such a rash offer, Hilary,” said Eloise, “we might really find something. Can’t you stay to supper, Mr. Stuart?”

“No, thank you; it’s after five o’clock now, the next meal at six, and we must get back to keep our especial division of boys from running off with the place.”