"Well, I just guess you wouldn't see anything funny in your feet!" whined Nita, still holding her toe.
"We were not laughing at your funny feet, but at your ridiculous face!" retorted Jane.
"Perhaps we will all use more caution in our next attempt to get out of this," ventured Miss Miller, skirting about the girls and reaching the area steps with her lumber.
As no further sympathy was vouchsafed the two girls, they soon followed their companions up from the cellar. After all the extra lumber was piled up on the back porch, Miss Miller invited the labourers to rest under the front oak tree.
"As Zan was saying in the cellar, the next thing is to get our boards over to the Bluff," said Miss Miller, when the cool breeze had refreshed the girls.
"Zan said to tie them up and drag them over! Is there any difference between boards and bundles being carted by Nancy?" asked Hilda.
"Of course not! I forgot!" admitted Zan.
Miss Miller laughed at the relief shown in the faces around her. Also, at the progress the girls were making in the use of their thoughts.
"Dear, dear! That means some one will have to get Nancy!" continued Zan, after a minute's pause.
"But your private
wire from the house to the cottage is not out of commission, is it?" asked the Guide.
"No-oo! but how will Nancy get here unless Bill leads her?" wondered Zan.
"Bill has to visit the garden and out-houses every morning, he said yesterday, to see if there is anything wrong. Why not ascertain on the 'phone if he has left his home. If not, he can ride Nancy over and we can use her going back; at the Bluff we can let her go down to her stall alone."
Before any comments could be given, Zan had jumped up and was running toward the house to call up Bill.
While waiting for the farmer to bring Nancy, the Band members went to the tool-house and selected what material might be needed at camp. In one corner of the place stood a partly demolished express wagon, such as children play with. Miss Miller saw it in a glance. It also happened that Zan saw it.
"Say, Miss Miller, won't the dragging boards cut up all the grass? Besides, Nancy can't climb over stone walls and snake fences!" declared she.
"What would you advise?" came from Miss Miller.
"Take the wheels of that broken wagon and tie two under the front of the lumber and two under the back end. Then, Nancy can go around by the road and up to Sherwood's cottage, where we can let her drag it up the slope."
"Splendid! Zan, you may consider yourself promoted into the class of advanced thinkers!" commended the Guide.
Zan smiled with pleasure and Hilda remarked in a teasing voice, "Hump! just see Zan preen her feathers!"
The wagon was quickly taken apart and pieces of wire found in the closet which was a catch-all. By the time Bill came up the road with Nancy, the impromptu vehicle was ready to hitch to the horse.
Bill chuckled at sight of the dray, and tipped his old farm hat on one side of his head. "That there's anuther patent o' th' teacher's, hain't ut?" chuckled he.
"Nop! This time you've got to hand me the bouquet!" smiled Zan, proudly.
"Wall, yuh gals'll all be comin' along fine, pritty soon, with such a smart lady as Miss Miller," commented Bill.
He watched the party drive Nancy down the road with the funny wheeled apparatus rattling after, and then went on to inspect the gardens and out-houses.
It was the first time that the members of the Band had walked along the road that ran through a section of the farm. When they neared Sherwood's place, a small section of woodland lay before them. The shade was dense and the ground damp as the location was rather low at the foot of the slope. Fern grew to a great height and wild flowers of every kind blossomed profusely.
"Almost feels like the forests in Florida," said Jane, who had visited the southern part of Florida with her mother.
"Have you ever named these woods?" Elena asked Zan.
"No, we never come this way, much," replied Zan.
"Then let's call it 'Everglades' it's a lovely glade and the dampness and luxuriant vegetation will bear us out in the name," suggested Elena.
"Now, perhaps, as we have had lots of rain this season; but you'd find it a far different glade during July and August of a dry season," replied Zan.
When the travellers reached the bridge that spanned the creek, and looked up at the Bluff from a new point of view, they were surprised to see how high their camp seemed to be above the road.
"I didn't know the camp was visible from the road," said Nita.
"I had never noticed the road from the Bluff, did you, Miss Miller?" asked Hilda.
"No, I hadn't thought of looking for it, yet I knew it must be in plain sight, as it runs by Bill's cottage and that is in full view from our tents."
"Let's sit down on the bridge and rest a bit before taking that climb," suggested Nita.
"I never did see any one get as tired as you do, Nita. When it is anything that you don't particularly fancy, you are the most tiredest person!" said Zan, impatiently.