XI. THE FISHING PARTY.

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CHAPTER XI

THE FISHING PARTY.

The stars were still shining in the sapphire heavens, and the birds

were sleeping on the branches of the trees, when a jolly little party,

by the light from the pitch torches, wandered through the streets of

the town toward the lake.

Five young maidens, clinging to each other's hands or belts, tripped

along briskly. Behind them came several elderly women and a number

of servants gracefully carrying on their heads baskets filled with

provisions and various dishes for the picnic. On seeing their joyful

faces, with their youthful smiles, their beautiful black hair as it

floated in the breeze, and the wide folds of their pretty dresses,

you would have taken them for goddesses of the night and would have

thought that they were fleeing from day--if perchance you had not

already known that it was Maria Clara and her four friends: jolly

Sinang; her cousin, the serious Victoria; beautiful Iday; and the

pensive Neneng, pretty, modest and timid.

They were talking with animation; they laughed; pinched each other;

whispered in each other's ears and then burst out in shouts of

merriment.

"You girls will wake up everybody in town. Don't you know that people

are still asleep?" said Aunt Isabel, reprimanding them. "When we were

young, we didn't make such a noise."

"But you didn't get up as early as we do, nor were the old men such

great sleepers in your day," replied little Sinang.

They were quiet for a moment and were trying to talk in a low voice,

but they quickly forgot themselves and were again filling the streets

with their youthful laughter and melodious voices.

Several young fellows were coming down the street, lighting their way

with large bamboo torches. They were marching along almost noiselessly

to the tune of a guitar.

"That guitar sounds as though some beggar were playing it," said

Sinang, laughing. But when the young fellows caught up with the rest of

the party, the girls suddenly became as quiet and as serious as though

they never had learned how to laugh. The young men, however, chatted

away, saluted the ladies, laughed and smiled and asked half a dozen

questions without giving the girls time to answer any one of them.

The two large bancas, [7] which had been secured to transport the

picnic party to the fishing grounds, were fastened together and

picturesquely adorned with wreaths and garlands of flowers and a

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