GUESTS OF THE FORESTS 47 



ladies. They drew up with a flourish, slammed on brakes, slid a little, and 

 Jim, at the wheel, shouted: 



"Get a load of that! Jen's picked a nutsy place right by the water. 

 What ya cookin'?" He pushed an old slouch hat to the back of his head. 

 Then, "Hi ya, gals! How ya fixed?" he drawled. 



Jen looked up from the fire and grinned. 



"Lo," she replied dispassionately and pushed brown curls out of her 

 eyes. 



"Where's Bett?" the biggest man of the three asked mildly. This was 

 Harry. 



"Swimming," said Sue. "See you there," said Harry. The men chugged 

 the car over to the Boy Scout shack down the beach, to dress. 



"Let's go," said Jen, "We can cook after dark." Leaving the fire to 

 burn itself out on the open hearth and the half-cooked grub to cool, we 

 went down to the swimming pier. 



Bett was there. I was introduced. We sat and talked until the men came. 



The purr of a motorboat drifted across the lake. We lay in our bathing 

 suits on the dock. Bett complained: 



"Gee, those kids are taking a long time." 



Sue grunted and turned over. "These boards are gettin' into my bones. 

 Wish they'd hurry." 



Jen squinted her little nose and looked up at the sun. "Jim was cute 

 last night, wasn't he?" 



Sue cocked an eye up at her. "Thinkin' of marryin' him?" 



"Naw, I'm not that crazy about any of the kids in town." She care- 

 fully observed a long crimson fingernail. "After school this year ma says 

 I kin go to Salt Lake City an' learn to be a nurse. Then I dunno what'll 

 happen." She sat down on the edge of the dock and put on her bathing 

 cap. "I'm goin' in. Who's comin'?" 



But then the men arrived. "Hi ya, kid!" . . . "Hello, there you mer- 

 maids!" . . . "Hello, yerself, an' what time do you think it is, anyway?" 



"Well, here we are. Hold everything!" 



"What a bunch of palookas," said Jen, scornfully, and yelped as Jim 

 pinched her, then giggled and dove. He dove after her. 



