"For the land's sake, Miss!" drawled Lizzie Bean, "I never had no idea
the woods was so lonesome--for a fac'."

"No?"

"I sh'd say not! I went to bed and lay there an' listened. The trees
creaked, and the crickets twittered, and some bird had the nightmare
an' kep' cryin' like a baby----"

"I expect that was a screech-owl, Lizzie," interrupted Laura. "They
come out only at night."

"Goodness to gracious! Do they come out _every_ night?" demanded the
girl.

"I expect so."

"And them frogs?"

"They are tree-toads. Yes, they are here all summer, I guess."

"Goodness to gracious! And folks like to live in the woods? Well!"

"Do you think you can stand it?" queried Laura, much amused, yet
somewhat anxious, too.

"As long as I'm goin' to get all that money every week it'll take more
than birds with the nightmare an' a passel of frogs to drive me away.
Now! when do you want breakfast, Miss?"

"Not until Mrs. Morse gets up. And none of the other girls are out
yet," said Laura.

But very soon the other girls began to appear. They had agreed to have
a dip the first thing, and the girls who first got into the water
squealed so because of the cold, that it routed out the lie-abeds.

Lily would not venture in. She sat on a stump, with a blanket wrapped
around her, and shivered, and yawned, and refused to plunge in with
the others.

"And it's so early," she complained. "I had no idea you'd all get up
so early and make such a racket. Why, when there isn't school, I
_never_ get up before nine o'clock."

"Ah! how different your life is going to be on Acorn Island," said
Bobby, frankly. "You'll be a new girl by the time we go back home."

"I don't want to be a new girl," grumbled Lily.

"Now, isn't that just like her?" said Bobby, _sotto voce_. "She is
perfectly satisfied with herself as she is. Humph! Lucky she _is_
satisfied, I s'pose, for nobody else could be!"

CHAPTER XI

LIZ SEES A "HA'NT"

After their bath the girls got into their gymnasium costumes. Then
they clamored for breakfast, and had Mrs. Morse not appeared just then
there certainly would have been a riot at the cook-tent. Lizzie was a
stickler for orders, and she would not begin to fry cakes until Jess'
mother gave the signal.

Flapjacks! My! weren't they good, with butter and syrup, followed by
bacon and eggs and French fried potatoes? The girls ate for a solid
hour. Lizzie's face was the color of a well-burned brick when the
girls