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Katherine sat up with a jerk, sending a loosened particle of stone bounding and clattering down the face of the cliff. "Of course not!" she said energetically. "I was just wondering, that's all. I haven't lost faith in Antha and I don't doubt but what she'll brace up before the summer is over. If we only knew a recipe for developing grit!"
Antha was paler and thinner than her brother and her mouth had a peevish droop to it. Both looked chilly and scared out of their wits. "Weren't you horribly frightened when the boat sprang a leak?" asked Hinpoha. Anthony immediately swelled out his chest. "No, I wasn't a bit afraid," he said grandly. "I'm not a fraidy cat. But she was," he said, pointing to his sister, "she yelled bloody murder."
She hid her head under the bed clothes and wanted them all to do likewise. Katherine snorted with disgust and delivered her mind about people who carried their fears to the verge of silliness. Antha cried some more and the atmosphere in the tent was becoming decidedly damp again when Hinpoha created a diversion by starting a pillow fight.
The boys and girls swarmed noisily out of the launch onto the beach, calling back and forth to one another. Slim and Katherine came hurriedly down the path with their fingers on their lips. "Sh-h!" said Katherine. "Don't make so much noise. Hello, Antha; hello, Anthony." She greeted them hurriedly and with a preoccupied air. "What's up?" asked Gladys. "Is mother's headache much worse?"
But the hearty appetites of the Tribe were never dismayed at anything, and the spaghetti and unsweetened, black coffee disappeared as if it had been nectar and ambrosia. Judge Dalrymple waved aside Aunt Clara's profuse apologies for the gaps in the menu and ate spaghetti heartily, but Antha picked at hers with a dissatisfied expression and hardly ate a mouthful.
"I was merely wondering about Antha," replied Katherine. "Now we've got Anthony where we understand him; but Antha is still the spiritless cry baby she was when she came. She hasn't a particle of backbone. I'm getting discouraged about her." She pulled a patch of moss from the rock beside her and tore it moodily into shreds. "Are you quite, quite sure you're not low in your mind?" asked Gladys.
The two camps were hidden from each other by the thick bushes that fringed both banks of the river, but were not too far away from each other to be handy in case of emergency. Sleeping sites were soon picked out and the ponchos and blankets spread out on the ground. Of course, Antha made a fuss when she discovered the mode of sleeping and it took considerable coaxing to get her to consent.
Spaghetti and black coffee again for dinner, which Antha would not eat even though the crackers were gone. But by supper time her hunger got the better of her and she ate spaghetti without a murmur. "That shows she could have eaten it right away if she wanted to," whispered Sahwah to Gladys. That night it thundered and lightninged, and Antha nearly went into hysterics.
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