too bad!" said Mrs. Merrill.

"Pooh!" exclaimed John, dismissing the whole question of castles with one
wave of the hand, "who cares about castles! _We're_ going to have supper."
And every one set to work.

Mary Jane was supposed to be head cook, but as she had never before been
to a beach party, she really didn't know what to do. So she simply stayed
close by the hot fire while the boys brought three benches and made them
in a triangle around the fire--a little way back of course. Then Mrs.
Holden and Mrs. Merrill unpacked the baskets and fixed a place on the
bench for each person. To be sure nobody was expected to sit on the
bench--that would be quite too proper for a beach party meal. But the
mothers put a paper plate and a cup for each person on the benches and
then they put on the plate as many sandwiches and pickles and cookies and
everything as each person was entitled to.

While they were doing this, Linn raked down the hot coals, set in place a
light wire rack he had made and spread a couple of dozen weenies out to
roast.

"Now then, Mary Jane," he said to the head cook, "you take this long fork.
And as soon as a weenie begins to sputter and brown, turn it over so it
browns on the other side too."

That was a very important job, Mary Jane could easily see, and she
determined that every weenie _she_ cooked would be done just to a turn.
She bent over the fire till her back got a crook in it; then she sat down
on the hot sand close to the coals and by the time the weenies were done
ready to eat she was so dry and hot that she felt sure she had never
slipped into the lake--never!

And all the time Mary Jane was cook, Linn and Mr. Merrill stayed close to
see that the coals kept evenly hot and that no bit of flame started up to
burn the head cook.

At last the weenies were ready. Each one was beautifully brown and was
sizzling and sputtering and sending a most tempting odor to hungry folks.

"Form a line, folks," said Mrs. Holden, "ladies first!"

With much laughter, each person got their own roll, which had been split
and buttered, and filed passed Mary Jane. And Mary Jane, instructed by
Linn just how to do her job, picked up one weenie after another on the
long fork and dropped each one in an open roll held out before her. It was
a scary job, for the sand was close below and Mary Jane knew that weenies
dropped into the sand wouldn't taste very good. But she took her time--too
much time, John thought.

"