noon
So John Everett might certainly be expected as one of the surprise party and probably Jim Meade , Eleanor 's brother Frank Wharton , and Ralph and Hugh Bowles , who belonged to the same group of friends , besides , well , it was the entire uncertainty in regard to the actual number of their visitors which was keeping the Camp Fire girls so extraordinarily busy , their idea being to have everything prepared and hidden away and then produced as though they were in the habit of having just such a magnificent supply of rations always on hand . Eleanor and Meg had made an Irish stew of half their week 's supply of meat and vegetables ; Esther , assisted by Juliet Field , had baked enough beans for feeding half Beacon Street ; while Miss McMurtry herself had presided over the giant loaves of brown bread , which can be easily boiled in closed tins and make specially superior camp food . Upon Beatrice , Sylvia and the unwelcome newcomer , Nan Graham , had devolved the cleaning up of the camp grounds and their work had been most thoroughly done , but indeed no one could be accused , of anything approaching sloth this morning when so much of their future reputation was at stake . Only Edith Norton had been unable to help because of her work in town , but she hoped to be able to return to camp by noon so as not to miss the good times . At eleven o'clock every bit of the work , of preparation had been accomplished and Nan 's report had said that the Scouts expected to appear just about the noon luncheon hour . The food was hidden away in the kitchen tent and the girls rearranged their costumes , then after posting Nan , Beatrice and Sylvia as sentinels to give warning of the first approach of their guests , the other girls settled themselves to whatever occupations they considered might make the best impression . Eleanor got out the Camp Fire log book , whose cover she had previously decorated with a wonderful sunrise appearing above the summit of a purple hill , and now began to illustrate some of the inside pages with scenes recalling the events of the past ten days .