la, will go with us."

"Is it very far?"

"Not so very. We've often been there. You go get your lunch and put
it in a tin bucket, or a basket, so you will have something to carry
your blackberries home in. We'll wait here for you if you hurry."

Much excited, Marian ran back to the house. This came of having
schoolmates. A picnic this very first Saturday, and the
blackberrying thrown in. She set down the little basket on the
kitchen table and exclaimed, "Oh, Mrs. Hunt, what do you think?
Marjorie Stone and Alice Evans want me to go on a picnic with them.
They're going blackberrying and it isn't very far, but I'll have to
take my lunch in something to gather the blackberries in, and----"
She paused for breath.

"Just those two going?"

"No, Alice's big sister, Stella, is going."

"Oh!" Mrs. Hunt nodded her head in a satisfied way.

"Do you think I would have time to go home?" Marian asked anxiously.
"They said they were in a great hurry."

"What is the use of your going home? I can put you up a little lunch
easy as not. Here's these cookies, and I've baked turnovers, too.
There's a basket of nice good apples in the pantry; you can have one
of those, and I'll whisk together some sandwiches in the shake of a
sheep's tail."

"Oh, that would be perfectly fine. Do you think grandma would
mind?"

"She oughtn't to. She's done the same thing lots of times herself."

"Oh!" This fact certainly set things all right, for surely no grown
person could be so absolutely unjust and inconsistent as to blame a
child for doing what she had done, not once, but often herself. So
Marian was quite assured, and smilingly watched Mrs. Hunt's kind
hands pack a lunch for her.

"There now," said the good woman when she had tucked a red napkin
over the top of the basket. "Run along and have a good time. I guess
all the quarts of blackberries you get won't make many jars of jam,
but you'll have just as much fun. If I get the chance I'll run up to
your grandma's or send word that you won't be home to dinner. Maybe
I'll see your grandpa as he comes back from the post-office."

And so, well content, Marian sped forth to join the girls who were
waiting.

"Are you going?" they asked. "You didn't have to go home, did you?"

"No, Mrs. Hunt put up a lunch for me. She is always so very kind."

"What have you got?" asked Marjorie eagerly.

"Three sandwiches, ham ones, and six cookies, two turnovers and an
apple." Marian enumerated the art