with a
shout that made their nearest neighbors turn and look at them curiously.

"I have it!" he cried. "Don't you remember, Allen, that you gave it to
me just before we left, while you ran back to get something for Betty?
Behold," and he dangled the precious list before their eyes.

"Oh," sighed Mollie in relief, "now if we girls had done anything like
that----"

"Hands up, don't shoot!" cried Roy. "We admit everything."

CHAPTER XII

"WHERE THERE IS SMOKE----"

The Outdoor Girls must have a fire. That they had decided at the supper
table. What was the use of having a big fire-place if they never used
it? Betty's theory was, that it was wicked to let anything go to waste.
All this being true, it stood to reason that a fire they must have.

"I wonder if the boys wouldn't come in and help us build it," Grace
suggested, seized with a brilliant idea. "There are already some logs in
the fire-place, but I feel that I would like to have somebody else work
for me to-night."

"Why, of course," said Mollie. "That's what we brought them with us
for--to help out when they were needed."

"They would be flattered if they could hear you," said Amy.

"I don't see why they insist on staying out in the woods and cooking
their own meals. Just think what fun we could have with them, if they
were here now," put in Mollie once again.

"Yes, but then think of all the trouble they would be making us," said
Betty. "Besides," she added, "your aunt didn't say anything about a
troop of noisy boys, Mollie, when she lent us her bungalow for the
summer."

"That's right, too," Mollie reluctantly conceded. "Just the same I hope
they haven't forgotten they are due here at six-thirty to wipe the
dishes. There is _such_ a pile of them!"

"Methinks," Grace announced solemnly, "that even at this moment I hear
the sound of approaching footsteps."

"How can you hear footsteps on the grass?" Mollie demanded rudely. "You
must have better ears than I have."

"Of course I have," Grace retorted calmly. "I knew that long ago."

Before Mollie could answer a head was poked in at the door and an
accompanying voice asked cheerily: "May we come in? Are we on time?"

"You're as welcome as a day in June, Frank," called Betty, as she arose
and started to take the dishes into the kitchen. "We want you to wipe
these for us, and make a fire."

"Anything else?" Frank inquired mildly, while the rest of him followed
his head into the room. "The fe