Behold the result!'

The girls could scarcely tell whether or no Laura was offended at
Aunt Truth's unexpected little lecture. She did not appear quite as
unrestrained as usual, but as everybody was engaged in the
preparations for Elsie's welcome there was a general atmosphere of
hilarity and confusion, so that no awkwardness was possible.

The tool-shop resounded with blows of hammer and steel. Dicky was
under everybody's feet, and his 'seven or ten frogs,' together with
his unrivalled collection of horned toads, were continually escaping
from their tin pails and boxes in the various tents, and everybody
was obliged to join in the search to recover and re-incarcerate them,
in order to keep the peace.

Hop Yet was making a gold and silver cake, with 'Elsie' in pink
letters on chocolate frosting. Philip had pitched the new tent so
that in one corner there was a slender manzanita-tree which had been
cropped for some purpose or other. He had nailed a cross-piece on
this, so that it resembled the letter T, and was now laboriously
boring holes and fitting in pegs, that Elsie might have a sort of
closet behind her bed.

As for the rustic furniture, the girls and boys declared it to be too
beautiful for words. They stood in circles about it and admired it
without reserve, each claiming that his own special piece of work was
the gem of the collection. The sunlight shining through the grey and
green tints of the tent was voted perfection, Philip's closet a
miracle of ingenuity, the green and white straw matting an
inspiration.