The moon had now come up brilliantly, and the little party were in the
highest possible spirits. They had got safely away from the house, and
there was now, comparatively speaking, little fear of discovery. The
more timid ones, who ventured to confess that their hearts were in their
mouths while Annie was unlocking the side door, now became the most
excited, and perhaps the boldest, under the reaction, which set in.
Even the wood, which was comparatively dark, with only patches of
moonlight here and there, and queer weird shadows where the trees were
thinnest, could not affect their spirits.
The poor, sleepy rabbits must have been astonished that night at the
shouts of the revellers, as they hurried past them, and the birds must
have taken their sleepy heads from under their downy wings, and wondered
if the morning had come some hours before its usual time.
More than one solemn old owl blinked at them, and hooted as they passed,
and told them in owl language what silly, naughty young things they
were, and how they would repent of this dissipation by-and-by. But if
the girls were to have an hour of remorse, it did not visit them then;
their hearts were like feathers, and by the time they reached the fields
where the fairies were supposed to play their spirits had become almost
uncontrollable.
Luckily for them this small green field lay in a secluded hollow, and
more luckily for them no tramps were about to hear their merriment.
Rover, who constituted himself Annie's protector, now lay down by her
side, and as she was the real ringleader and queen of the occasion, she
ordered her subjects about pretty sharply.
"Now, girls, quick; open the basket. Yes, I'm going to rest. I have
organised the whole thing, and I'm fairly tired; so I'll just sit
quietly here, and Rover will take care of me while you set things
straight. Ah! good Betty; she did not even forget the white
table-cloth."
Here one of the girls remarked casually that the grass was wet with dew,
and that it was well they had all put on their waterproofs.