e're ready to start eating first we can start clearing up
first, too, can't we?" asked Dolly.

"Certainly! That's the object of hurrying now. When we're ready to
sit down we're to make two smokes, and they are to do the same, and
again when we've finished, or when our hour is up, at least. We'll
keep tabs on one another that way, you see, and each side will know
just how much the other has done. There's got to be some such
arrangement as that to make it interesting."

"Yes," said Margery Burton. "It wouldn't really seem like a race
unless we knew a little something about what the other side was doing,
I think."

"Well," said Eleanor, "I see you've got a splendid fire. I'll appoint
you chief cook, Margery. You are to be here at the fire, and Zara
shall help you."

Zara sprang to attention at once, and she and Margery unwrapped the
ham, and got out the big boiler in which it was to be cooked.

"You go and get water, Dolly and Bessie," said Eleanor, then. "There
are the buckets. Hurry, now, so that the water can be boiling while
the others are fixing the ham."

And so dividing up the tasks that were to be done, she assigned one to
each girl. They were all as busy as bees in a moment, and the work
flew beneath their accustomed fingers. Miss Eleanor knew the girls
thoroughly, and while, as a rule, she saw to it that each girl had to
do a certain number of things that did not particularly appeal to her
since that made for good discipline, she managed matters differently
today.

It was a time to give each girl the sort of work she most enjoyed, and
which, therefore, she was likely to do better and more quickly than any
of the other girls.

Although a stranger, hearing the singing, and seeing the bustling group
of girls without understanding just what they were doing, might have
thought he was looking on at a scene of great confusion, order really
ruled. Each girl knew exactly what she was to do, and there was no
overlapping. Things were done once, and once only, whereas, at the
ordinary picnic there are half a dozen willing hands for one task, and
none at all for another.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth," says the proverb, and the same rule
applies doubly to such meals as the one the girls were so busily
preparing. But there was no spoiling here, and in a surprisingly short
time most of the girls were able to rest. Places were laid for the
meal; plenty of water had been provided for the cooks, and t