utes.

"Oh, I'm not dressed and the pies are not packed and--" began Roxanne,
but the dimple also began to play at the same time.

"I'll help you dress, Roxanne," said Belle meekly; for Belle is more
afraid of Tony's explosions than of anything else on earth, and he had
looked at her with a stern expression as she had fussed at and
threatened to leave Roxanne.

"I'll pack the pies," said Mamie Sue, with plain delight at the
prospect.

"Well, hurry, Dumpling, and don't take a bite out of a stray corner of
more than half those pies," Tony answered her as he rolled up his
shirt sleeves and started toward the kitchen. All the other members of
the Raccoon Patrol were with the other girls at the station, and
nobody could go without Tony, who had bought the combination ticket
for everybody, at a bargain.

It is all very well to say that "haste makes waste," but there is a
kind of hurry that gets things done, and Tony knows how to put that
kind into action. He and Mamie Sue kept to the kitchen as their scene
of operations, and before we knew it old Uncle Pomp was seated humped
over his pipe and beginning to breathe easy. Mamie Sue had hopped
around to keep out of the swirls of Tony's mop while she packed those
ill-fated but precious pies in the basket, and she was breathing
almost as hard as Uncle Pompey.

I did the best I could with Lovelace Peyton, though only the blue
apron with the largest pink patches was whole and clean; so he had to
go that way, which I know hurt Roxanne, for he had been so lovely to
look at in his part of the grandmother's sheet.

Belle was buttoning Roxanne's festive white linen up the back as Tony
came down the hall shooing panting Mamie Sue with the basket in front
of him, and collected us all. I grabbed Roxanne's hat from the closet
for her and swung Lovelace Peyton up on Tony's shoulder so he could
run on ahead with him. Belle followed Roxanne, buttoning her up all
the way to the front gate, while Mamie Sue trundled along steadily
with the two baskets.

I've heard about the excitements of the city and the quiet of the
country, but I have the opinion that the terms in this case are mixed.
We all fell aboard the car half dead, but we caught it!

I'm not going to describe this Scout outing in detail to you, my
leather-bound Louise, because it would take all night. I'm so tired
that I doubt if I get up in the morning until it is afternoon, but
there are a few high lights I will mention beca