hat's seven," said Kate, "and ourselves, nine,--anyone else? I hope
so, for there's enough here for nineteen, and I hate waste."

"Oh, I sent wires over the road, of course."

"Half a dozen wires?" said Kate.

"Oh, no," said Hugh innocently, "there are only five of them."

"Five separate wires,--Hugh Kinross, you want a keeper!"

"Well," said Hugh, "I _was_ only going to send one to Miss Bibby, but
then it struck me how pleased a kid would be to get a telegram. I know I
never did or I'd have burst with pride in my promising youth."

"Twelve wires at--at? How many words, sir?"

"Well," said Hugh, "they wouldn't have cost so much only I took a fancy
to drop into poetry with them. And in spite of precedents the operator
declined to do it as a friend."

"Just a minute," said Kate, "half of those wires are doomed to be
wasted. Your executive ability is a thing to marvel at, I grant you, but
you overlooked the little fact that Lomax-_cum_-Whooping-Cough may not
foregather round a tablecloth with Gowan-_plus_-Perfect-Health."

Hugh certainly looked nonplussed at this.

"It would be a moral impossibility for one of the parties unaided by the
other to eat all this," pursued Kate.

"My good woman," said Hugh, "go and put the perishables in the
ice-chest. My master mind will soon deal with the difficulty."

So Kate moved backwards and forwards between the kitchen and the
verandah and Hugh tilted his chair and took out a cigar to help meet the
situation.

"Well?" said Kate when only a heap of fine ash remained.

"Quite well," said Hugh. "Both parties shall attend and not the ghost of
a whoop shall be exchanged. I ordered two large sociables,--the drivers
will have instructions not to approach nearer than thirty feet within
each other. A whoop microbe would hardly travel thirty feet."

"Well," said Kate, "as far as that is concerned I don't see that Edith
need have any anxiety. She might pass a wagonette with scarlet fever
convalescents herself any day. But what about the actual picnic? Muffie
defines this word as eating nice things down a gully. Could we
comfortably pass sandwiches to each other there at a distance of thirty
feet?"

"Knowing what a fidget Edith is I propose to make the distance several
hundred feet," said Hugh. "See here, it is plain I've got to have two
picnics now to-morrow. At the head of the Falls I disembark my first
contingent,--say the 'Greenways' one. I give them instructions to go
straig