sts. Don't tease me, for I shall not tell you."

"It hath cotht a good deal already," piped Tommy. "Let me thee. It
hath cotht one automobile, theveral thkirtth, and a girl drowned.
Thome cotht that, eh? Pleathe path the beanth."

"Tommy has a keen appetite for beans this afternoon. Will you please
open another can, Jane?" asked the guardian.

"Certainly. Will you have them cold this time, Tommy?"

"I will not, thank you. My father thayth there ith more real
nourithhment in beanth than there ith in beeftheak. I gueth he knowth.
He wath brought up on a bean farm."

"Then I'll take the beefsteak and never mind the nourishment,"
declared Jane, who was not particularly fond of beans.

"I'd rather have both," said Margery hungrily.

"Of courth you would," teased Tommy. "That ith why you--"

"Oh, say something new," groaned Buster.

Miss Elting permitted them to jest to their hearts' content. The more
they talked the better was she pleased, because it kept them from
eating too rapidly. Their meal finished and the dishes cleaned in salt
water and sand, the guardian gave thought to their next move. But she
was in no haste. The girls were allowed plenty of time to rest and
digest their hearty meal, which they did by sitting in the sand with
the sun beating down on them. After the lapse of an hour she told the
girls to get ready.

"I will say to you frankly that I do not know where I am, though I am
positive we are on the right road. Our destination can not be so very
far from here, and I believe we have ample time to reach it before
dark. However, each of you will put a can of beans in her pocket. We
will take the coffee, our cups and the coffee pot. Thus equipped, we
shall not go hungry in case we are caught out over night. Then, again,
there must be houses somewhere along this road. The first one we see I
shall stop and make inquiries."

"What shall we do with the rest of our things?" questioned Hazel.

"Make them into packages and hide the lot. You might blaze a tree near
the road, in case we forget. All parts of the road hereabouts look
very much alike to me. There is a good place for a _cache_ about half
way between here and the highway. I should go in a few rods, but any
food that is not in cans we had better throw away."

"I don't thee why we can't camp right here," said Grace.

"This is not the place to which we are going," Harriet informed her.
"I don't know where it is, but, sooner or later, we'll arriv