“Just a moment, girls, now that you are getting used to surprises,” said the judge. “I believe that I will ask the editor to tell you whose summer cottage this is,--Mr. Standish.”
Jean gasped again. Now she knew. This was not the Black Wizard shack. The tall judge stepped back and the wiry, slight, editor, Nan’s father, stepped forward from a group. “This should all be very informal,” said he, “as it is a picnic occasion. It seems to fall to me to announce to our girls that the S. P. Club owns this little cottage and that it is a gift from the S. P. fathers and mothers, who have fitted it up very simply. The boys helped build it and I assure you that we all had a time of it to keep it a secret, but I believe that it was done. We hope that it will be a happy surprise to you and that you may have a very good time of it this summer. The boys want me to announce to you that they, too, have a camp about a mile around the lake from here and that after you have looked at your new house, the picnic will be held there.”
As Mr. Standish closed, Jean looked at her father, who nodded encouragingly. She felt stunned as well as happy to know that this summer camp was theirs, but her mind had been working this time. “Oh,” she began impulsively, “you know how we must feel, Mr. Standish, more like crying for joy! I couldn’t say anything if I weren’t the president and have to. We’ll all be thanking our fathers and mothers separately, and every one of the boys for helping do this. So all I’m saying now is just thank you, everybody!”
Jean turned to her mother and put her head on that comfortable shoulder for a minute, but a sudden thought made her swallow the lump in her throat and she turned to Nan and the rest of the astonished, ecstatic girls. “Oh, say, girls, let me whisper something to you,” and she whispered to Nan, who nodded and passed the word on to the nearest girl, while Jean told someone else. That message no one but the S. P.’s were ever to know. “Let’s never tell the boys that we knew they were building,” said Jean. It was not much, to be sure, but no unpleasant note of rivalry could ever be struck between the S. P.’s and the Black Wizards!
The commotion now began. The girls were beckoned into the little house that was theirs by the parents, who wanted to see how they liked it. The boys scattered, some of them taking the baskets and wraps brought by the Dudleys and Gordons. These were carried to the other camp by boat, for a little fleet of row-boats, canoes and one small motor boat was waiting to take the picnickers to where the other “opening” was to be celebrated.