oachfully at Dolly.

"I thought you were going to be good and not tease Walter any more!" she
said, half smiling.

"Oh, he's so stupid--it's just fun to tease him, and he's so easy that I
just can't help it," said Dolly.

"I don't think he's stupid--I think he's a very nice boy," said Bessie.
"Don't you, Margery!"

"I certainly do, Bessie--much too nice for a little flirt like Dolly to
torment him the way she does."

"Well, if you two like him so much you can have him, and welcome!" cried
Dolly, tossing her head. "I'm sure I don't want him tagging around after
me all the time the way he does."

"Better be careful, Dolly," advised Margery, who knew her of old. "They
say pride goes before a fall, and if you're not nice to him you may
have to come home from the festival tonight without a beau--and you know
you wouldn't like that."

"I'd just as soon not have a beau at all as have some of these boys
around here," declared Dolly, pugnaciously. "I like the country, but I
don't see why the people have to be so stupid. They're not half as
bright as the ones we know in the city."

"I don't know about that, Dolly. Bessie's from the country, but I think
she's as bright as most of the people in the city. They haven't been
able to fool her very much since she left Hedgeville, you know."

"Oh, I didn't mean Bessie!" cried Dolly, throwing her arms around
Bessie's neck affectionately. "You know I didn't, don't you, dear? And
I'm only joking about half the time anyhow, when I say things like
that."

"Here comes Walter now--we'll see whether he doesn't admit that this is
the best dinner he ever ate in the fields!" said Margery.

It was, too. There was no doubt at all about that. There were cold
chicken, and rolls, and plenty of fresh butter, and new milk, and hard
boiled eggs, that the girls had stuffed, and a luscious blueberry pie
that Bessie herself had been allowed to bake in the big farm kitchen.
They made a great dinner of it, and Walter was loud in his praises.

"That certainly beats what we have out here most days!" he said. "We
have plenty--but it's just bread and cold meat and water, as a rule, and
no dessert. It's better than they get at most farms, though, at that."

When the meal was finished the girls quickly made neat parcels of the
dishes that were to be taken back, and all the litter that remained
under the tree was gathered up into a neat heap and burned.

"My, but you're neat!" exclaimed Walter, as he