CHAPTER XXX 

FERN Mullins rushed into the house on a Saturday morning early in September and shrieked at Carol, "School starts next Tuesday. I've got to have one more spree before I'm arrested. Let's get up a picnic down the lake for this afternoon. Won't you come, Mrs. Kennicott, and the doctor? Cy Bogart wants to go--he's a brat but he's lively." 

"I don't think the doctor can go," sedately. "He said something about having to make a country call this afternoon. But I'd love to." 

"That's dandy! Who can we get?" 

"Mrs. Dyer might be chaperon. She's been so nice. And maybe Dave, if he could get away from the store." 

"How about Erik Valborg? I think he's got lots more style than these town boys. You like him all right, don't you?" 

So the picnic of Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers was not only moral but inevitable. 

They drove to the birch grove on the south shore of Lake Minniemashie. Dave Dyer was his most clownish self. He yelped, jigged, wore Carol's hat, dropped an ant down Fern's back, and when they went swimming (the women modestly changing in the car with the side curtains up, the men undressing behind the bushes, constantly repeating, "Gee, hope we don't run into poison ivy"), Dave splashed water on them and dived to clutch his wife's ankle. He infected the others. Erik gave an imitation of the Greek dancers he had seen in vaudeville, and when they sat down to picnic supper spread on a lap-robe on the grass, Cy climbed a tree to throw acorns at them. 
Who couldn't come with?
According to whom?
How many people ended up going?
Were there any couples?
Who?
What does Erik have more than other boys?
Where were they all going?
Why?
During what month?
And on what day of the week?
What time of day?
Where did the guys undress?
What were they afraid of?
Where did the women do the same?
What did Cy do when people were eating?
Who went there together?
What did Dave drop down someone's back?
What was the lake called?
What kind of trees were there?
Why couldn't one of the people come?
the doctor
the doctor
Carol
Carol
Six
 Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers 
Yes
the Dyers
the Dyers
the Dyers
style
style 
to the lake
the lake
to have a picnic
a picnic
September
September 
Saturday
Saturday
the afternoon
afternoon
behind the bushes
 behind the bushes
poison ivy
poison ivy
in the car
 in the car
climbed a tree to throw acorns at them
climbed a tree to throw acorns at them
Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers
Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers
an ant
an ant 
Lake Minniemashie
Lake Minniemashie
birch trees
birch 
he had to make a country call
make a country call this afternoon