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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin, by
+Hildegard G. Frey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin
+
+Author: Hildegard G. Frey
+
+Release Date: January 11, 2004  [eBook #10688]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS AT CAMP
+KEEWAYDIN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Dave Morgan and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+The Camp Fire Girls At Camp Keewaydin
+
+Or, Down Paddles
+
+By Hildegard G. Frey
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ON THE WAY
+
+"All aboard!" The hoarse voice of Captain MacLaren boomed out like a fog
+horn, waking a clatter of echoes among the tall cliffs on the opposite
+shore of the river, and sending the seventy-five girls on the dock all
+skurrying for the _Carribou's_ gangplank at once.
+
+"Hurry up, Hinpoha! We're getting left behind." Agony strained forward
+on the suitcase she was helping Hinpoha to carry down the hill and
+endeavored to catch up with the crowd, a proceeding which she soon
+acknowledged to be impossible, for Hinpoha, rendered breathless by the
+hasty scramble from the train, lagged farther behind with every step.
+
+"I--can't--go--any--faster!" she panted, and abruptly let go of her end
+of the suitcase to fan herself with her hand. "What's the use of
+rushing so, anyway?" she demanded plaintively. "They won't go off
+without us; they can see us coming down the hill. It wasn't _my_ fault
+that my camera got wedged under the seat and made us be the last ones
+off the train," she continued, "and I'm not going to run down this hill
+and go sprawling, like I did in the elevator yesterday. Are the other
+girls on already?" she asked, searching the crowd below with her eyes
+for a sight of the other Winnebagos.
+
+"Sahwah and Oh-Pshaw are on the boat already," replied Agony, "and Gladys
+and Migwan are just getting on. I don't see Katherine anywhere, however.
+Oh, yes," she exclaimed, "there she is down there in the crowd. What are
+they all laughing at, I wonder? Oh, look, Katherine's suitcase has come
+open, and all her things are spilled out on the dock. I thought it would
+be strange if she made the trip without some kind of a mishap. Oh, dear,
+did you ever see anyone so funny as Katherine?"
+
+"Well," observed Hinpoha in a tone of relief, "we don't have to hurry
+now. It'll take them at least ten minutes to get that suitcase shut
+again. I know, because I helped Katherine pack. I had to sit on it with
+all my might to close it."
+
+"_All Aboard_!" came the second warning roar from Captain MacLaren,
+accompanied by a deafening blast of the _Carribou's_ whistle. Agony
+picked up Hinpoha's suitcase in one hand and her own in the other, and
+with an urgent "Come on!" made a dash down the remainder of the hill and
+landed breathless at the gangplank of the waiting steamer just as the
+engine began to quiver into motion. Hinpoha was just behind her, and
+Katherine trod closely upon Hinpoha's heels, carrying her still unclosed
+suitcase out before her like a tray, to keep its contents from spilling
+out.
+
+Migwan was waiting for them at the head of the gangplank. "We've saved a
+place for you up in the bow," she said. "Hurry up, we're having _such_ a
+time holding it for you. The boat is simply _packed_."
+
+The four girls picked their way through a litter of suitcases, paddles,
+cameras, tennis rackets and musical instruments that covered every inch
+of deck space between the chairs, and joined the other Winnebagos in
+their place in the bow. Hinpoha sank down gratefully upon a deck chair
+that Oh-Pshaw had obligingly been holding for her and Agony disposed
+herself upon a pile of suitcases, from which vantage point she could get
+a good look at the crowd.
+
+The _Carribou_ had turned her nose about and was gliding smoothly
+upstream, following the random curvings of the lazy Onawanda as it wound
+through the low-lying, wooded hills of the Shenandawah country, singing
+a carefree wanderer's song as it flowed. It was a glorious, balmy day in
+late June, dazzlingly blue and white, sparklingly golden. It was the
+_Carribou's_ big day of the year, that last day of June. On all other
+days she made her run demurely from Lower Falls Station to Upper Falls,
+carrying freight and a handful of passengers on each trip; but every
+year on that last day of June freight and ordinary passengers stood
+aside, for the _Carribou_ was chartered to carry the girls of Camp
+Keewaydin to their summer hunting grounds.
+
+The Winnebagos looked around with interest at the girls who were to be
+their companions for the summer, all as yet total strangers to them.
+Girls of every shape and size, of every shade of complexion, of every
+age between sixteen and twenty. A number were apparently "old girls,"
+who had been at Camp Keewaydin in former years; they flocked together in
+the bow right behind the Winnebagos, chattering animatedly, singing
+snatches of camp songs, and uttering conjectures in regard to such
+things as whether they would be in the Alley or the Avenue; and who was
+going to be councilor in All Saints this year.
+
+A number of these old girls were grouped in an adoring attitude around a
+pretty young woman who talked constantly in an animated tone, and at
+intervals strummed on a ukulele. Continual cries of "Pom-pom!" rose on
+the air from the circle surrounding her. It was "_Dear_ Pom-pom,"
+"Pom-pom, you angel," "O _darling_ Pom-pom! Can't you fix it so that I
+can be in your tent this year?" and much more in the same strain.
+
+"Pom-pom is holding her court again this year, I see," said a biting
+voice just behind Agony.
+
+Agony maneuvered herself around on her perch and glanced down at the
+speaker. She was a decidedly plain girl with a thick nose and a wide
+mouth set in a grim line above an extraordinarily heavy chin. Her face
+was turned partly away as she spoke to the girl next to her, but Agony
+caught a glimpse of the sarcastic expression which informed her
+features, and a little chill of dislike went through her. Agony was
+extremely susceptible to first impressions of people.
+
+The girl addressed made an inaudible reply and the first girl continued
+in low but emphatic tones, "Well, you won't catch me fetching and
+carrying for her and playing the part of the adoring slave, I can tell
+you. I think it's perfectly silly, the way the girls all get a crush on
+her."
+
+There was a pause, and then the other girl asked, somewhat hastily, "Who
+do you suppose will get the Buffalo Robe this year?"
+
+"Oh, Mary Sylvester will, of course," came the reply. "She nearly got it
+last year. Now that Peggy Atterbury isn't coming back Mary'll be the
+most popular girl in camp without a doubt. Look at her over there,
+trying to be sweet to Pom-pom."
+
+"Isn't she stunning in that coral silk sweater?" murmured the other
+girl.
+
+"She has too much color to wear that shade of pink," returned the
+sarcastic one.
+
+Agony's eyes traveled over to the group surrounding Pom-pom and rested
+upon the girl who, next to Pom-pom herself, was the center of the group.
+She was very much like Agony herself, with intensely black hair, snow
+white forehead and richly red lips, though a little slighter in build
+and somewhat taller. A frank friendliness beamed from her clear dark
+eyes and her smile was warm and sincere. Agony felt drawn to her and
+jealous of her at the same time. _The most popular girl in camp_. That
+was the title Agony coveted with all her soul. To be prominent; to be
+popular, was Agony's chief aim in life; and to be pointed out in a crowd
+as _the_ most popular girl seemed the one thing in the world most
+desirable to her. She, too, would be prominent and popular, she
+resolved; she, too, would be pointed out in the crowd.
+
+The sarcastic voice again broke in upon her reverie. "Have you seen the
+hippopotamus over there in the bow? I should think a girl would be
+ashamed to get that stout."
+
+Agony glanced apprehensively at Hinpoha, who was staring straight out
+over the water, but whose crimson face betrayed only too plainly that
+she had heard the remark. The rest of the Winnebagos had undoubtedly
+heard it also, as well as a number of others rubbing elbows with them,
+for a sudden embarrassed silence fell over that corner of the boat and a
+dozen pairs of eyes glanced from Hinpoha to the speaker, who, not one
+whit abashed, continued to stare scornfully at the object of her
+ridicule.
+
+"Of all the bad manners!" said Agony to Sahwah in an indignant
+undertone, which, with the characteristic penetrating quality of Agony's
+voice, carried perfectly to the ears of the girl behind her. A light,
+satirical laugh was the reply. Agony turned to bestow a withering glance
+upon this rude creature, and met a pair of greenish tan eyes bent upon
+her with an expression of cool mockery. In the instant that their eyes
+met there sprang up between them one of those sudden antagonisms that
+are characteristic of very positive natures; the two hated each other
+cordially at first sight, before they had ever spoken a word to each
+other. Like fencers' swords their glances crossed and fell apart, and
+each girl turned her back pointedly upon the other. Broken threads of
+conversation were picked up by the group around them, shouts of laughter
+came from the group surrounding Pom-pom, who was reciting a funny poem,
+and the tense moment passed.
+
+The other Winnebagos forgot the incident and gave themselves over to
+enjoyment of the beautiful scene which was unrolling before their eyes
+as the _Carribou_ bore them further and further into the wilds; great
+dark stretches of woodland brooding in silence on the hillsides; an
+occasional glimpse of a far distant mountain peak wreathed in mist, and
+near by many a merry little stream romping down a hillside into the
+mother arms of the Onawanda. Gradually the shores had drawn close
+together until the travelers could look into the cool depths of the
+forests past which they were gliding, and could hear the calling of the
+wild birds in their leafy sanctuary.
+
+Just past a long stretch of woods which Hinpoha thought might be
+enchanted, because the trees stood so stiffly straight, the _Carribou_
+rounded a bend, and there flashed into sight an irregular row of white
+tents scattered among the pines on a rise of ground some hundred or more
+feet back from the river.
+
+"There's camp," Sahwah tried to say to Hinpoha, but her voice was
+drowned in the shriek of ecstasy which rose from the old campers.
+Handkerchiefs waved wildly; paddles smote the deck with deafening
+thumps; cheer after cheer rolled up, accompanied by the loud tooting of
+the _Carribou's_ whistle. Captain MacLaren always joined in the racket
+of arrival as heartily as the girls themselves, taking delight in seeing
+how much noise he could coax from the throat of his steam siren.
+
+Amid the racket the little vessel nosed her way up alongside a wooden
+dock, and before she was fairly fast the younger members of last year's
+delegation had leapt over the rail and were scurrying up the path. The
+older ones followed more sedately, having stopped to pick up their
+luggage, and to greet the camp directors who stood on the dock with
+welcoming hands outstretched. Last of all came the new girls, looking
+about them inquiringly, and already beginning to fall in love with the
+place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GETTING SETTLED
+
+
+Along the bluff overlooking the river, and half buried in the pine
+trees, stretched a long, low, rustic building, the pillars of whose wide
+piazza were made of tree trunks with the bark left on. A huge chimney
+built of cobblestones almost covered the one end. The great pines
+hovered over it protectingly; their branches caressing its roof as they
+waved gently to and fro in the light breeze. On the peak of one of its
+gables a little song sparrow, head tilted back and body a-tremble,
+trilled forth an ecstasy of song.
+
+"Isn't it be-yoo-tiful?" sighed Hinpoha, her artistic soul delighting in
+the lovely scene before her. "I wonder what that house is for?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Sahwah, equally enchanted. "There's another
+house behind it, farther up on the hill."
+
+This second house was much larger than the bungalow overhanging the
+water's edge; it, too, was built in rustic fashion, with tree-trunks for
+porch posts; it was long and rambling, and had an additional story at
+the back, where the hill sloped away.
+
+It was into this latter house that the crowd of girls was pouring, and
+the Winnebagos, following the others, found themselves in a large dining
+room, open on three sides to the veranda, and screened all around the
+open space. On the fourth side was an enormous fireplace built of stones
+like those they had seen in the chimney of the other house. Over its
+wide stone shelf were the words CAMP KEEWAYDIN traced in small,
+glistening blue pebbles in a cement panel. Although the day was hot, a
+small fire of paper and pine knots blazed on the hearth, crackling a
+cheery welcome to the newcomers as they entered. In the center of the
+room two long tables and a smaller one were set for dinner, and from the
+regions below came the appetizing odor of meat cooking, accompanied by
+the portentous clatter of an egg beater.
+
+There was apparently an attic loft above the dining-room, for next to
+the chimney a square opening showed in the raftered ceiling, with a
+ladder leading up through it, fastened against the wall below. Up this
+ladder a dozen or more of the younger girls scrambled as soon as they
+entered the room; laughing, shrieking, tumbling over each other in their
+haste; and after a moment of thumping and bouncing about, down they all
+came dancing, clad in middies and bloomers, and raced, whooping like
+Indians, down the path which led to the tents.
+
+"Are we supposed to get into our bloomers right away?" Oh-Pshaw
+whispered to Agony. "Ours are in the trunk, and it hasn't been brought
+up yet."
+
+"I don't believe we are," Agony returned, watching Mary Sylvester, who
+stood talking to Pom-pom in the doorway of the Camp Director's office.
+"None of the older girls are doing it; just the youngsters."
+
+Just then Mrs. Grayson, the Camp Director's wife, came out of the office
+and announced that dinner would be served immediately, after which the
+tent assignments would be made. The Winnebagos found themselves seated
+in a row down the side of one of the long tables, being served by a
+jolly-looking, muscular-armed councilor, who turned out to be the Camp
+Director's daughter, and who had her section of the table feeling at
+home in no time.
+
+"Seven of you from one city!" she remarked to the Winnebagos, when she
+had called the roll of "native heaths," as she put it. "That's one of
+the largest delegations we have here. You all look like star campers,
+too," she added, sizing them up shrewdly. "Seven stars!" she repeated,
+evidently pleased with her simile. "We'll have to call you the Pleiades.
+We already have the Nine Muses from New York, the Twelve Apostles from
+Boston, the Heavenly Twins from Chicago and the Three Graces from
+Minneapolis, beside the Lone Wolf from Labrador, the Kangaroo from
+Australia, and the Elephant's Child from India."
+
+"Oh, how delicious!" cried Sahwah delightedly. "Do you really mean that
+there are girls here from Australia and India?" Sahwah set down her
+water glass and gazed incredulously at Miss Judith. Miss Judith nodded
+over the pudding she was dishing up.
+
+"The Kangaroo and the Lone Wolf are councilors," she replied, "but the
+Elephant's Child is a girl, the daughter of a missionary to India. She
+goes to boarding school here in America in the winter time, and always
+spends her summers at our camp. That is she, sitting at the end of the
+other table, next to mother."
+
+The Winnebagos glanced with quick interest to see what the girl from
+India might be like, and somewhat to their surprise saw that she was no
+different from the others. They recognized her as one of the younger
+girls who had been hanging over Pom-pom on the boat.
+
+"Oh--she!" breathed Agony.
+
+"What is her name?" asked Hinpoha, feeling immensely drawn to the girl,
+not because she came from India, but because she was even stouter than
+herself.
+
+"Her name is Bengal Virden," replied Miss Judith.
+
+"Bengal?" repeated Sahwah. "What an odd name. I suppose she was born in
+Bengal?"
+
+"Yes, she was born there," replied Miss Judith. "She is a rather odd
+child," she continued, "but an all round good sport. Her mother died
+when she was small and she was brought up by her father until she was
+old enough to be sent to America, and since then she has divided her
+time between boarding schools and summer camps. She has a very
+affectionate nature, and gets tremendous crushes on the people she
+likes. Last summer it was Pom-pom, and she nearly wore her out with her
+adoration, although Pom-pom likes that sort of thing."
+
+"Who is Pom-pom?" asked Agony curiously. "I have heard her name
+mentioned so many times."
+
+"Pom-pom is our dancing teacher," replied Miss Judith. "She is the
+pretty councilor over there at the lower end of mother's table. All the
+girls get violent crushes on her," she continued, looking the Winnebagos
+over with a quizzical eye, as if to say that it would only be a short
+time before they, too, would be lying at Pom-pom's feet, another band of
+adoring slaves. Without knowing why, Agony suddenly felt unaccountably
+foolish under Miss Judith's keen glance, and taking her eyes from
+Pom-pom, she let them rove leisurely over the long line of girls at her
+own table.
+
+"Who is the girl sitting third from the end on this side?" she asked,
+indicating the heavy-jawed individual who had made the impolite remark
+on the boat about Hinpoha, and who had just now pushed back her pudding
+dish with an emphatic movement after tasting one spoonful, and had
+turned to her neighbor with a remark which made the one addressed
+glance uncomfortably toward the councilor who was serving that section.
+
+Miss Judith followed Agony's glance. "That," she replied in a
+non-committal tone, "is Jane Pratt. Will anyone have any more pudding?"
+
+The pudding was delicious--chocolate with custard sauce--and Miss Judith
+was immediately busy refilling a half dozen dishes all proffered her at
+once. Agony made a mental note that Miss Judith had made no comment
+whatever upon Jane Pratt, although she had evidently been in camp the
+year before, and she drew her own conclusions about Jane's popularity.
+
+"Who is Mary Sylvester?" Agony asked presently.
+
+"Mary Sylvester," repeated Miss Judith in a tone which caught the
+attention of all the Winnebagos, it was so full of affection. "Mary
+Sylvester is the salt of the earth," Miss Judith continued warmly.
+"She's the brightest, loveliest, most kind-hearted girl I've ever met,
+and I've met a good many. She can't help being popular; she's as jolly
+as she is pretty, and as unassuming as she is talented. For an all
+around good camper 'we will never see her equal, though we search the
+whole world through,' as the camp song runs."
+
+Agony looked over to where Mary Sylvester sat, the center of an animated
+group, and yearned with all her heart to be so prominent and so much
+noticed.
+
+"I heard someone on the boat say that she would probably get the Buffalo
+Robe this year; that she had almost gotten it last year," continued
+Agony. "What is the Buffalo Robe, please?"
+
+"The Buffalo Robe," replied Miss Judith, "is a large leather skin upon
+which the chief events of each camping season are painted in colors, and
+at the end of the summer it goes to the girl who is voted the most
+popular. She keeps it through the winter and returns it to us when camp
+opens the next year."
+
+"Oh-h," breathed Agony, mightily interested. "And who got it last year?"
+
+"Peggy Atterbury," said Miss Judith. "You'll hear all about her before
+very long. All the old girls are going to tie black ribbons on their
+tent poles tomorrow morning because she isn't coming back this year. She
+was another rare spirit like Mary Sylvester, only a bit more prominent,
+because she saved a girl from drowning one day."
+
+Agony's heart swelled with ambition and desire as she listened to Miss
+Judith telling about the Buffalo Robe. A single consuming desire burned
+in her soul--to win that Buffalo Robe. Nothing else mattered now; no
+other laurel she might possibly win held out any attraction; she must
+carry off the great honor. She would show Nyoda what a great quality of
+leadership she possessed; there would be no question of Nyoda's making
+her a Torch Bearer when she came home with the Buffalo Robe. Thus her
+imagination soared until she pictured herself laying the significant
+trophy at Nyoda's feet and heard Nyoda's words of congratulation. A
+sudden doubt assailed her in the midst of her dream.
+
+"Do new girls ever win the Buffalo Robe?" she asked in a voice which she
+tried hard to make sound disinterested.
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied Miss Judith. "Peggy Atterbury was a new girl
+last year, and the girl who won it the year before last was a new girl
+also."
+
+Her doubt thus removed, Agony returned to her pleasant day dream with
+greater longing than ever. The conversation at their table was
+interrupted by shouts from the next group.
+
+"Oh, Miss Judy, please, please, can't we live in the Alley?"
+
+Another group farther down the table took up the cry, and the room
+echoed with clamorous requests to live either "in the Alley" or "on the
+Avenue." The Elephant's Child came in at the end with a fervent plea:
+"Please, can't I be in Pom-pom's tent _this_ year?"
+
+"Tent lists are all made out," replied Miss Judith blandly. "You'll all
+find out in a few moments where you're to be." She sat calmly amid the
+buzz of excited speculation.
+
+"What do they mean by living 'in the Alley'?" asked Sahwah curiously.
+
+"There are two rows of tents," replied Miss Judith. "The first one is
+called the Avenue and the second one the Alley. This end of camp, where
+the bungalows are, is known as the Heights, and the other end the Flats.
+There is always a great rivalry in camp between the dwellers in the
+Alley and the dwellers on the Avenue, and the two compete for the
+championship in sports."
+
+"Oh, how jolly!" cried Sahwah eagerly. "Where are we to be?" she
+continued, filled with a sudden burning desire to live in the Alley.
+
+"You'll know soon," said Miss Judith, with another one of her quizzical
+smiles, and with that the Winnebagos had to be content.
+
+In a few moments dinner was finished and Mrs. Grayson rose and read the
+tent assignments. The tents all had names, it appeared; there was Bedlam
+and Avernus, Jabberwocky, Hornets, Nevermore, Gibraltar, Tamaracks,
+Fairview, Woodpeckers, Ravens, All Saints, Aloha, and a number of others
+which the Winnebagos could not remember at one hearing. Three girls and
+one councilor were assigned to each tent. Sahwah and Agony and Hinpoha
+heard themselves called to go to Gitchee-Gummee; Gladys and Migwan were
+put with Bengal Virden, the Elephant's Child from India, into a tent
+called Ponemah; while Katherine and Oh-Pshaw were assigned, without any
+tentmate, to "Bedlam." The Winnebagos smiled involuntarily when this
+last assignment was read, knowing how well Katherine's erratic nature
+befitted the name of the place. Gitchee-Gummee, Sahwah found to her
+delight, was the tent nearest the woods; next to it, but on the other
+side of a small gully, spanned by a rustic bridge, came Aloha, Pom-pom's
+tent; on the other side of Aloha stood Ponemah, in the shadow of twin
+pines of immense height; while Bedlam was farther along in the same row,
+just beyond Avernus. Avernus, the Winnebagos noticed to their amusement,
+was a tent pitched in a deep hollow, the approach to which was a rocky
+passage down a steep hillside, strikingly suggestive of the classical
+entrance way to the nether regions. Only the ridgepole of Avernus was
+visible from the level upon which Bedlam stood, all the rest of it being
+hidden by the high rocks which surround it. Bedlam, on the other hand,
+was built on a height, and commanded a view of nearly all the other
+tents, being itself a conspicuous object in the landscape.
+
+To their secret joy, the Winnebagos saw that their tents were all in the
+back row, in the Alley. Agony, especially, was exultant, since she saw
+that Mary Sylvester was also in the Alley. Mary was in Aloha, Pom-pom's
+tent, right next door, and Agony had a feeling that wherever Mary
+Sylvester was, there would be the center of things, and being right next
+door might have its advantages.
+
+"We're going to have Miss Judith for a councilor," remarked Sahwah
+joyfully, as she dumped her armful of blankets down on one of the
+beds--the one on the side toward the woods.
+
+"I wonder which bed she would like," said Hinpoha, standing irresolutely
+in the center of the floor with her armful of bedding.
+
+"Here she comes now," announced Agony. "Let's wait and ask her."
+
+"Well, she wouldn't want _this_ one anyway," remarked Sahwah, as she
+straightened the mattress on her bed preparatory to spreading the
+sheets, "it sags in the middle like everything. I didn't take the best
+one if I did take first choice"--a fact which was apparent to all.
+
+Bedlam's councilor, who had been announced as Miss Armstrong, from
+Australia, had already staked her claim when Katherine and Oh-Pshaw
+arrived, although she herself was nowhere in sight. One of the beds was
+made up and covered with a blanket of such dazzling gorgeousness that
+the two girls were almost blinded, and after one look turned their eyes
+outdoors for relief. All colors of the rainbow ran riot in that blanket,
+each one trying to outdo the others in brilliancy and intensity, until
+the effect was a veritable Vesuvius eruption of infernal splendors.
+
+"Think of having to live with _that_!" exclaimed Oh-Pshaw tragically.
+"My eyesight will be ruined in one day. Imagine the effect after I get
+out my pink and gray one."
+
+"And my lavender one!" added Katherine.
+
+"We won't ever dare roll up the sides of our tent," continued Oh-Pshaw.
+"We'll look like a beacon fire, up here on this hill. Our tent is
+visible from the whole camp."
+
+"Cheer up," said Katherine philosophically, "maybe there are others just
+as bad. Anyway, let's not act as if we minded; it might make Miss
+Armstrong feel badly. She probably thinks it's handsome, or she wouldn't
+have it. Coming from Australia that way, she may have quite savage
+tastes."
+
+"I wonder what she'll be like," ruminated Oh-Pshaw, standing on one foot
+to tie the sneaker she had just substituted for her high traveling shoe.
+
+As if in answer to her wondering, a clear, far-carrying call came to the
+ears of both girls at that moment. "Coo-_ee_! Coo-_ee_! Coo-_ee_!"
+
+"What is that?" asked Oh-Pshaw, pausing in her shoe lacing with one foot
+poised airily in space.
+
+The call was repeated just outside their tent door, and then trailed off
+into silence.
+
+"Is that someone calling to us?" asked Katherine, hurriedly pulling her
+middy on over her head and throwing back the tent flap. No one was in
+sight outside.
+
+"Must have been for someone else," she reported, looking right and left
+along the pathway. "There's nobody out here."
+
+She came back into the tent and began arranging her small possessions on
+the shelf which swung overhead.
+
+"How I'm ever going to keep all my things on one-third of this shelf is
+more--" she began, but her speech ended in a startled gasp, for the
+floor of the tent suddenly heaved up in the center, sending bottles,
+brushes and boxes tumbling in all directions. The board which had thus
+heaved up so miraculously continued to rise at one end, and underneath
+it a pair of long, lean, powerful-looking arms came into view, followed
+by a head and a pair of shoulders. Katherine and Oh-Pshaw sat petrified
+at the apparition.
+
+"Did I scare you, girls?" asked a deep, strong voice, and the apparition
+looked gravely from one to the other. It was a dark-skinned face,
+bronzed by wind and weather to a coppery, Indian-like tinge, and the
+hair which framed it was coarse and black. Only the head and shoulders
+of the apparition were visible beside the arms, the rest being concealed
+in the depths underneath the tent, but the breadth of those shoulders
+indicated clearly what might be expected in the way of a body. After a
+moment of roving back and forth between the two girls, the dark eyes
+under the heavy eyebrows fastened themselves upon Katherine with a
+mournful intensity of gaze that held her spellbound, speechless. After a
+full moment's scrutiny the dark eyes dropped, and the apparition, using
+her arms as levers, raised herself to the level of the floor and stood
+up. She was taller even than they had expected from the breadth of her
+shoulders; in fact, she seemed taller than the tent itself. Katherine,
+who up until that moment had considered herself tall, felt like a pigmy
+beside her, or, as she expressed it, "like Carver Hill suddenly set down
+beside one of the Alps." Never had she seen such a monumental young
+woman; such suggestion of strength and vigor contained in a feminine
+frame.
+
+Oh-Pshaw looked timidly at the human Colossus standing in the middle of
+the tent, and inquired meekly, "Are you Miss Armstrong? Are you our
+Councilor?"
+
+"I am," replied the newcomer gravely, replacing the board in the floor
+with a nonchalance which conveyed the impression that coming up through
+floors was her usual manner of entering places.
+
+"Why did you come in that way?" burst out Katherine, unable to contain
+her curiosity any longer.
+
+"Oh, I just happened to be under the tent," replied Miss Armstrong,
+speaking in a drawling voice with a marked English accent, "looking for
+the broom, when I spied that loose board and thought I'd come in that
+way. It was less trouble than coming out and going around to the steps."
+
+"Less trouble," echoed Katherine. "I should think it would have been
+more trouble raising that heavy board with my suitcase standing on it."
+
+"Was your suitcase on it?" inquired Miss Armstrong casually. "I didn't
+notice."
+
+"Didn't notice!" repeated Katherine in astonishment. "It weighs thirty
+pounds."
+
+"I weigh two hundred and thirty," returned Miss Armstrong
+conversationally.
+
+"You do!" exclaimed Katherine in amazement. "You certainly don't look
+it." Indeed, it seemed incredible that Miss Armstrong, tall as she was,
+could possibly weigh so much, for she looked lean and gaunt as a wolf
+hound.
+
+"You must be awfully strong, to have raised that board," Katherine
+continued, squinting at the muscular brown arms, which seemed solid as
+iron.
+
+For answer Miss Armstrong took a step forward, picked Katherine up as if
+she had been a feather, threw her over her shoulder like a sack of
+potatoes, held her there for a moment head downward, and then swung her
+up and set her lightly on the hanging shelf, while Oh-Pshaw looked on
+round-eyed and open-mouthed with astonishment.
+
+Just then a shadow appeared in the doorway, and Katherine looked down
+to see a shrinking little figure with pipestem legs standing on the top
+step.
+
+"Hello!" Katherine called gaily, from her airy perch. "Are you our
+neighbor from Avernus? Do you want anything?" she added, for the girl
+was swallowing nervously, and seemed to be on the verge of making a
+request.
+
+"Will somebody please show me how to make a bed?" faltered the visitor
+in a thin, piping voice. "It isn't made, and I don't know how to do it."
+
+"Daggers and dirks!" exploded Katherine, nearly falling off the shelf
+under the stress of her emotion.
+
+"What's the matter with the rest of the folks in Avernus--can't they
+make beds either?" asked Miss Armstrong, surveying the wisp of a girl in
+the doorway with an intent, solemn gaze that sent her into a tremble of
+embarrassment.
+
+"My 'tenty' hasn't come yet," she faltered in reply.
+
+"Who's your councilor?"
+
+"I don't know; she isn't there." The voice broke on the last words, and
+the blue eyes overflowed with tears.
+
+Katherine leaped from the shelf to the bed and down to the floor. "I'll
+come over and help you make your bed," she said kindly.
+
+"All right," said Miss Armstrong, nodding gravely. "You go over with her
+and I'll find out who's councilor in Avernus and send her around."
+
+To herself she added, when the other two were out of earshot, "Baby's
+away from it's mother for the first time, and it's homesick."
+
+"Poor thing," said Oh-Pshaw, who had overheard Miss Armstrong's remark.
+
+"She'll get over it," replied Miss Armstrong prophetically.
+
+If Miss Armstrong was a novelty to the tenants of Bedlam, the councilor
+in Ponemah also seemed an odd character to the three girls she was to
+chaperon--only she was a much less agreeable surprise. She was a stout,
+fussy woman of about forty with thick eye-glasses which pinched the
+corners of her eyes into a strained expression. She greeted the girls
+briefly when they presented themselves to her, and in the next breath
+began giving orders about the arrangement of the tent. The beds must
+stand thus and so; the washstand must be on the other side from where it
+was; the mirror must stay on this side. And she must have half of the
+swinging shelf for her own; she could not possibly do with less; the
+others could get along as best they might with what was left.
+
+"We're supposed to divide the shelf up equally," announced Bengal
+Virden, who had begun to look upon Miss Peckham--that was her name--with
+extreme disapproval from the moment of their introduction. Bengal was a
+girl whose every feeling was written plainly upon her face; she could
+not mask her emotions under an inscrutable countenance. Her dislike of
+Miss Peckham was so evident that Migwan and Gladys had expected an
+outbreak before this; but Bengal had merely stood scowling while the
+beds were being moved about. With the episode of the swinging shelf,
+however, she flared into open defiance.
+
+"We're all to have an equal share of the shelf," she repeated.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Miss Peckham in an emphatic tone. "I'm a councilor
+and I need more space."
+
+Bengal promptly burst into tears. "I want to be in Pom-pom's tent!" she
+wailed, and fled from the scene, to throw herself upon Pom-pom in the
+next tent and pour out her tale of woe.
+
+Migwan and Gladys looked at each other rather soberly as they went out
+to fill their water pitcher.
+
+"What a strange person to have as councilor," ventured Gladys. "I
+thought councilors at camps were always as sweet as they could be. Miss
+Peckham looks as though she could be horrid without half trying."
+
+"Maybe it's just her way, though," replied Migwan good temperedly. "She
+may be very nice inside after we get to know her. She's probably never
+been a councilor before, and thinks she must show her authority."
+
+"Authority!" cried Gladys. "But we're not babies; we're grown up. I'm
+afraid she's not going to be a very agreeable proctor."
+
+"Oh, well," replied Migwan gently, "let's make the best of her and have
+a good time anyway. We mustn't let her spoil our fun for us. We'll
+probably find something to like in her before long."
+
+"I wish I had your angelic disposition," sighed Gladys, "but I just
+can't like people when they rub me the wrong way, and Miss Peckham does
+that to me."
+
+"There's going to be trouble with the Elephant's Child," remarked Migwan
+soberly. "She has already taken a strong dislike to Miss Peckham, and
+she is still childish enough to show it."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid there will be trouble between Bengal and Miss Peckham,"
+echoed Gladys, "and we'll be constantly called upon to make peace. It's
+a role I'm not anxious for."
+
+"Let's not worry about it beforehand," said Migwan, charmed into a
+blissful attitude of mind toward the whole world by the sheer beauty of
+the scene that unrolled before her. The river, tinged by the long rays
+of the late afternoon sun, gleamed like a river of living gold, blinding
+her eyes and setting her to dreaming of magic seas and far countries.
+She stood very still for many minutes, lost in golden fancies, until
+Gladys took her gently by the arm.
+
+"Come, Migwan, are you going to day-dream here forever? There is the
+spring we are looking for, just at the end of that little path."
+
+Migwan came slowly out of her reverie and followed Gladys down the hill
+to the spring.
+
+"It's all so beautiful," she sighed in ecstasy, turning to look back
+once more at the shimmering water, "it just makes me _ache_. It makes
+everything unworthy in me want to crawl away and lose itself, while
+everything good in me wants to sing. Don't you feel that way about it,
+too?"
+
+"Something like that," replied Gladys softly. "When Nature is so lovely,
+it makes me want to be lovely, too, to match. I don't see how anyone
+could ever be angry here, or selfish, or mean. It's just like being made
+over, with all the bad left out."
+
+"It does seem that way," replied Migwan.
+
+"Here is the spring!" cried both girls in unison, as they reached the
+end of the path and came upon a deep, rocky basin, filled with crystal
+clear water that gushed out from the rock above their heads, trickling
+down through ferns to be caught and held in the pool below, so still and
+shining that it reflected the faces of the two girls like a mirror.
+
+"Oh-h!" breathed Migwan in rapture, sinking down among the ferns and
+lilies that bordered the spring and dabbling her fingers in the limpid
+water, "I feel just like a wood-nymph, or a naiad, or whatever those
+folks were that lived by the springs and fountains in the Greek
+mythology."
+
+Withdrawing her fingers from the water and clasping her hands loosely
+around her knees, she began to recite idly:
+
+  "Dian white-armed has given me this cool shrine,
+  Deep in the bosom of a wood of pine;
+    The silver sparkling showers
+    That hive me in, the flowers
+  That prink my fountain's brim, are hers and mine;
+  And when the days are mild and fair,
+  And grass is springing, buds are blowing,
+    Sweet it is, 'mid waters flowing,
+    Here to sit and know no care,
+  'Mid the waters flowing, flowing, flowing,
+  Combing my yellow, yellow hair."
+
+"That poem must have been written about this very place," she added,
+dreamily gazing into the shadowy depths of the pool beside her.
+
+"Who wrote it?" inquired Gladys.
+
+"I've forgotten," replied Migwan. "I learned it once in Literature, a
+long time ago."
+
+Both girls were silent, gazing meditatively into the pool, like
+_ gazing into a future-revealing crystal, each absorbed in her
+own day dreams. They were startled by the sound of a clear, musical
+piping, coming apparently from the tangle of bushes behind them. Now
+faint, now louder, it swelled and died away on the breeze, now fairly
+startling in its joyousness, now plaintive as the wind sighing among
+the reeds in some lonely spot after nightfall; alluring, thrilling,
+mocking by turns; elusive as the strains of fairy pipers; utterly
+ravishing in its sweetness.
+
+Migwan and Gladys lifted their heads and looked at each other in wonder.
+
+"Pipes of Pan!" exclaimed Migwan, and both girls glanced around, half
+expecting to see the graceful form of a faun gliding toward them among
+the trees. Nothing was to be seen, but the piping went on, merrily as
+before, rising, falling, swelling, dying away in the distance, breaking
+out again at near hand.
+
+"Oh, what _is_ it?" cried Gladys. "Is it a bird?"
+
+"It can't be a bird," replied Migwan, "it's a _tune--sort_ of a tune.
+No, I wouldn't exactly call it a tune, either, but it's different from a
+bird call. It sounds like pipes--fairy pipes--Pipes of Pan. Oh-h-h! Just
+_listen_! What _can_ it be?"
+
+The clear tones had leaped a full octave, and with a mingled sound of
+pipes and flutes went trilling deliriously on a high note until the
+listeners held their breath with delight. Then abruptly the piping
+stopped, ending in a queer, unfinished way that tantalized their ears
+for many minutes afterward, and held them motionless, spellbound,
+waiting for the strain to be resumed. They listened in vain; the
+mysterious piper called no more. Soon afterward a bugle pealed forth,
+sounding the mess call, and coming to earth with a start, the two girls
+raced back to Ponemah with their water pitcher and then hastened on
+into the dining room, where the campers, now all clad in regulation blue
+bloomers and white middies, were already assembled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE GREAT MYSTERY SOUND
+
+After supper the camp was summoned to the smaller bungalow for first
+assembly and Sing-Out. Over the wide entrance doorway of this
+picturesque building among the trees was painted in large ornamental
+letters:
+
+            MATEKA
+
+THE HOUSE OF JOYOUS LEARNING
+
+This house, Dr. Grayson explained, was the place where all the craft
+work was to be done. The light from the lamps fell upon beautifully
+decorated board walls; wood-blocked curtains, quaint rustic benches and
+seats made from logs with the bark left on; flower-holders fashioned of
+birch bark; candlesticks of hammered brass, silver and copper; book
+covers of beaded leather; vases and bowls of glazed clay.
+
+At one end of the long room stood a piano; at the other end was the huge
+cobblestone fireplace whose chimney the Winnebagos had noticed from the
+outside; in it a fire was laid ready for lighting.
+
+The seventy-five girls filed in and seated themselves on the floor,
+looking expectantly at Dr. Grayson, who stood before the fireplace. He
+was an imposing figure as he stood there, a man over six feet tall, with
+a great head of white hair like a lion's mane, which, emphasizing the
+ruddy complexion and clear blue eyes, contrived to make him look
+youthful instead of old.
+
+In a beautiful speech, full of both wisdom and humor, he explained the
+ideals of camp life, and heartily welcomed the group before him into the
+family circle of Camp Keewaydin. He spoke of the girls who in past years
+had stood out from the others on account of their superior camp spirit,
+and led up to the subject of the Buffalo Robe, which at the end of the
+season would be awarded to the one who should be voted by her fellow
+campers as the most popular girl.
+
+A solemn hush fell over the assembly as he spoke, and all eyes were
+fastened upon the Buffalo Robe, hanging over the fireplace. Agony's
+heart gave a leap at the sight of the beautiful trophy, and then sank as
+she saw innumerable eyes turn to rest upon Mary Sylvester, sitting on a
+low stool at Dr. Grayson's feet, gazing up at him with a look of worship
+in her expressive eyes.
+
+When he had finished speaking of the Buffalo Robe Dr. Grayson announced
+that the first fire of the season was to be lighted in the House of
+Joyous Learning to dedicate it to this year's group of campers, and
+kneeling down on the hearth, he touched off the faggots laid ready in
+the fireplace, and the flames, leaping and snapping, rose up the
+chimney, sending a brilliant glow over the room, and causing the most
+homesick youngster to brighten up and feel immensely cheered.
+
+The fire lighted, and the House of Joyous Learning dedicated to its
+present occupants, Dr. Grayson proceeded to introduce the camp leaders
+and councilors. Mrs. Grayson came first, as Camp Mother and Chief
+Councilor. She was a large woman, and seemed capable of mothering the
+whole world as she sat before the hearth, beaming down upon the girls
+clustered around her on the floor, and there was already a note of
+genuine affection in the voices of the new girls as they joined in the
+cheer which the old girls started in honor of the Camp Mother.
+
+The cheer was not yet finished when there was a sound of footsteps on
+the porch outside and a new girl stood in the doorway. She carried a
+blanket over one arm and held a small traveling bag in her hand. Her
+face was flushed with exertion and her chest heaved as she stood there
+looking inquiringly about the room with merry eyes that seemed to be
+delighted with everything they looked upon. Her face was round; her
+little button mouth was round; the comical stub of a nose which perched
+above it gave the effect of being round, too, while the deep dimple that
+indented her chin was very, _very_ round. Two still deeper dimples
+lurked in her cheeks, each one a silent chuckle, and the freckles that
+clustered thickly over her features all seemed to twinkle with a
+separate and individual hilarity.
+
+An involuntary smile spread over the faces inside the bungalow as they
+looked at the newcomer, and one of the younger girls laughed aloud. That
+was the signal for a general laugh, and for a moment the room rang, and
+the strange girl in the doorway joined in heartily, and Dr. Grayson
+laughed, too, and everybody felt "wound up" and hilarious. Mrs. Grayson
+left her chair by the hearth and made her way through the group of girls
+on the floor to the newcomer, holding out her hand in welcome.
+
+"You must be Jean Lawrence," she said, drawing the girl into the room.
+"You were to arrive by automobile at Green's Landing this noon, were you
+not, and come across the river in the mail boat? I have been wondering
+why you did not arrive on that boat."
+
+"Our automobile broke down on that road that runs through the long woods
+beyond Green's Landing," replied Jean, "and when father found it could
+not be fixed on the road he decided to go back to the last town we had
+passed through and spend the night there; so I had to walk to Green's
+Landing. It was nearly nine miles and it took me all afternoon to get
+there. The mail boat had, of course, gone long ago, but a nice old
+grandpa man brought me over in a row boat."
+
+"You walked nine miles to Green's Landing!" exclaimed Mrs. Grayson in
+astonishment. "But, my dear, why didn't you wait and let your father
+drive you down in the morning?"
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't miss a single night in camp for anything in the world!"
+replied Jean. "I would have walked if it had been _twenty_-nine miles. I
+nearly died of impatience before I got here, as it was!"
+
+Mrs. Grayson beamed on the enthusiastic camper; the old girls sang a
+lusty cheer to the new girl who was such a good sport; and, twinkling
+and beaming in all directions, Jean sat down on the floor with the
+others to hear the camp councilors introduced.
+
+Dr. Grayson began by quoting humorously from the Proverbs: "Where no
+council is, the people fall, but in a multitude of councilors there is
+safety."
+
+One by one he called the councilors up and introduced them, beginning
+with his daughter Judith, who was to be gymnastic director at the camp.
+Miss Judy got up and made a bow, and then prepared to sit down again,
+but her father would not let her off so easily. He demanded a
+demonstration of her profession for the benefit of the campers. Miss
+Judy promptly lined all the other councilors up and put them through a
+series of ridiculous exercises, such as "Tongues forward thrust!" "Hand
+on pocket place!" "Handkerchief take!" "Noses blow!"--performance which
+was greeted with riotous applause by the campers.
+
+Miss Armstrong was called up next and introduced as "our little friend
+from Australia, the swimming teacher, who, on account of her diminutive
+size goes by the nickname of Tiny." Tiny was made to give her native
+Australian bush call of "Coo-ee! Coo-ee!" and was then told to rescue a
+drowning person in pantomime, which she did so realistically that the
+campers sat in shivering fascination. Tiny, still grave and unsmiling,
+sat down amid shouts for encore, and refused to repeat her performance,
+pretending to be overcome with bashfulness. Dr. Grayson then rose and
+said that since Tiny was too modest to appear in public herself, he
+would bring out her most cherished possession to respond to the encore,
+and held up the gaudy blanket that Katherine and Oh-Pshaw had already
+made merry over in the tent, explaining that Tiny always chose quiet,
+dull colors to match her retiring nature. With a teasing twinkle in his
+eyes he handed Tiny her blanket and then passed on to the next victim.
+
+This was Pom-pom, the dancing teacher, who was obliged to do a dance on
+the piano stool to illustrate her art. Pom-pom received a perfect
+ovation, especially from the younger girls, and was called out half a
+dozen times.
+
+"Oh, the sweet thing! The darling!" gushed Bengal Virden, going into a
+perfect ecstasy on the floor beside Gladys. "Don't you just _adore_
+her?"
+
+"She's very pretty," replied Gladys sincerely.
+
+"Pretty!" returned Bengal scornfully. "She's the most beautiful person
+on earth! Oh, I love her so, I don't know what to _do_!"
+
+Gladys smiled indulgently at Bengal's gush, and turned away to see Jane
+Pratt's dull, unpleasant eyes gazing contemptuously upon Pom-pom's
+performance, and heard her whisper to her neighbor, "She's too
+stiff-legged to be really graceful."
+
+The Lone Wolf from Labrador, summoned to stand up and show herself next,
+was a long, lean, mournful-looking young woman who, when introduced,
+explained in a lugubrious voice that she had no talents like the rest of
+the councilors and didn't know enough to be a teacher of anything; but
+she was very good and pious, and had been brought to camp solely for her
+moral effect upon the other councilors.
+
+For a moment the camp girls looked at the Lone Wolf in silence, not
+knowing what to make of her; then Sahwah noticed that Mrs. Grayson was
+biting her lips, while her eyes twinkled; Dr. Grayson was looking at the
+girls with a quizzical expression on his face; Miss Judy had her face
+buried in her handkerchief. Sahwah looked back at the Lone Wolf,
+standing there with her hands folded angelically and her eyes fixed
+solemnly upon the ceiling, and she suddenly snorted out with laughter.
+Then everyone caught on and laughed, too, but the Lone Wolf never
+smiled; she stood looking at them with an infinitely sad, pained
+expression that almost convinced them that she had been in earnest.
+
+The Lone Wolf, it appeared, was to be Tent Inspector, and when that
+announcement was made, the laughter of the old girls turned to groans of
+pretended aversion, which increased to a mighty chorus when Dr. Grayson
+added that her eye had never been known to miss a single detail of
+disorder in a tent.
+
+Thus councilor after councilor was introduced in a humorous speech by
+Dr. Grayson, and made to do her particular stunt, or was rallied about
+her pet hobby. The two Arts and Crafts teachers were given lumps of clay
+and a can of house paint and ordered to produce a statue and a landscape
+respectively; the Sing Leader had to play "Darling, I Am Growing Old" on
+a pitch pipe, and all the plain "tent councilors" were called upon for a
+"few remarks."
+
+All were cheered lustily, and all gave strong evidence of future
+popularity except Miss Peckham, who drew only a very scattered and
+perfunctory applause. Gladys and Migwan, who glanced at each other as
+Miss Peckham stepped forward, were surprised to hear that she was Dr.
+Grayson's cousin.
+
+"That accounts for her being here," Gladys whispered, and Migwan
+whispered in return, "We'll just have to make the best of her."
+
+Bengal glowered at Miss Peckham and made no pretense of applauding her,
+and Migwan saw her whispering to the group around her, and saw Bengal's
+expression of dislike swiftly reflected on the faces of her listeners.
+Thus, before Miss Peckham was fairly introduced, her unpopularity was
+already sealed. It takes very little to make a reputation at camp.
+Estimates are formed very swiftly, and great attachments and antipathies
+are formed at first sight. Young girls seem to scent, by some mysterious
+intuition, who is really in sympathy with them, and who is only
+pretending to be, and bestow or withhold their affections accordingly.
+In the code of the camp girl classifications are very simple; a camper
+is either a "peach" or a "prune." All the other councilors were
+"peaches"; that was the instantaneous verdict of the Keewaydin Campers
+during the introductions; Miss Peckham, regardless of the fact that she
+was Dr. Grayson's cousin, was a "prune."
+
+The last councilor to be introduced was a handsome, white-haired woman
+named Miss Amesbury, who was introduced as the patron saint of the camp,
+the designer of the beautiful Mateka, the House of Joyous Learning.
+Miss Amesbury was neither an instructor nor a tent councilor; she had
+just come to be a friend and helper to the whole camp, and lived on the
+second story balcony of Mateka. Word had traveled around among the girls
+that she was a famous author, and a ripple of expectation agitated the
+ranks of the campers as she rose in answer to Dr. Grayson's summons.
+Migwan gazed upon her in mingled awe and veneration. A famous
+author--one who had realized the ambition that was also her cherished
+own! She almost stopped breathing in her emotion.
+
+"Isn't she lovely?" breathed Hinpoha to Agony, her eye taking in the
+details of Miss Amesbury's camping suit, which, instead of being made of
+serge or khaki, like those of the other councilors, was of heavy
+Japanese silk, with a soft, flowered tie.
+
+Smiling a smile which included every girl in the room, she cordially
+invited them all to come and visit her balcony and share the beautiful
+view which she had of the river and the gorge. Then she added a few
+humorous comments upon camp life, and sat down amid tumultuous applause.
+
+Then Dr. Grayson asked her if she would play for the singing, and she
+rose graciously and took her place at the piano. The Sing leader stood
+up on a bench and directed with a wooden spoon from the craft table, and
+the first Sing-Out began. For half an hour the mingled voices were
+lifted in glee and round, in part song and ballad, until the roof rang.
+The new girls, spelling out the words in the song books by the rather
+pale lamplight, came out strongly in some parts and wobbly in others,
+producing some tone effects which caused the old girls to double up with
+merriment, but the new girls showed their good sportsmanship by singing
+on lustily no matter how many mistakes they made, a fact which caused
+Dr. Grayson to beam approvingly upon them. In the midst of a
+particularly hilarious song the bugle suddenly blew for going to bed,
+and the old girls, still singing, began to drift out of the house and
+make for the tents in groups of twos and threes, with their arms thrown
+around each other's shoulders. The new girls followed, some feeling shy
+and a bit homesick this first night away from home; others already
+perfectly at home, their arms around a new friend made in the short time
+since their arrival. One such was Jean Lawrence, who, upon being
+informed that she was to be "tenty" to Katherine and Oh-Pshaw in Bedlam,
+expressed herself as being unutterably delighted with her tent mates and
+walked off with them chattering as easily as though she had known them
+all her life.
+
+There was more or less confusion this first night before everyone got
+settled, for many of the girls had never camped before and were
+unskilled in the art of undressing rapidly in the close quarters of a
+tent, and "Taps" sounded before a number were even undressed. The Lone
+Wolf was lenient this first night, however, and did not insist upon
+prompt lights out, an act of grace which added greatly to her
+popularity.
+
+Sahwah's bed sagged somewhat in the middle and she was not able to
+adjust herself to its curves very well; consequently she did not fall
+asleep soon. Camp quieted down; the last rustle and whisper died away;
+silence enfolded the tents around. Sahwah, lying wide awake in the
+darkness, her senses alert, heard the sound of footsteps running at full
+speed along the top of the bluff and across the bare rocks at the edge.
+Here the footsteps seemed to come to a pause, and an instant later there
+came a sound like a loud splash in the water below. Filled both with
+curiosity and apprehension, Sahwah leaped from bed and raced for the
+edge of the bluff, where she stood peering down at the river. No unusual
+ripple appeared on the placid surface of the river; as far as she could
+see it lay calm and peaceful in the moonlight.
+
+A footstep behind her startled her, and she turned to see Miss Judy
+coming toward her from the tent.
+
+"What's the matter?" called Miss Judy, when she was within a few yards
+of Sahwah.
+
+"It sounded as though someone jumped off the cliff," replied Sahwah. "I
+heard footsteps along the edge of the bluff, and then a splash, and I
+ran out to see what was going on, but I can't see anything."
+
+To Sahwah's surprise, Miss Judith laughed aloud. "Oh," she said, "did
+you hear it?"
+
+"What was it?" asked Sahwah, curiously.
+
+"That," replied Miss Judy, "is what we call the Great Mystery Sound. We
+hear it off and on, but no one has ever been able to explain what causes
+it. Our 'diving ghost,' we call it. Father wore himself to a frazzle the
+first year we were here, trying to find out what it was. He used to sit
+up nights and watch, but although he often heard it he never could see
+anything that could produce the sound. Some people about here have told
+us that that sound has been heard for years and they say that there is
+an old legend connected with it to the effect that many years ago an
+Indian girl, pursued by an unwelcome suitor, jumped off this bluff and
+drowned herself to escape him, and that ever since that occurrence this
+strange sound has been noticeable. Of course, the people who tell the
+legend say that the ghost of the persecuted maiden haunts the scene of
+the tragedy at intervals and repeats the performance. Whatever it is, we
+have never been able to account for the sound naturally, and always
+refer to it as the Great Mystery Sound."
+
+"What a strange thing!" exclaimed Sahwah in wonder. "Those footsteps
+certainly sounded real; and as for that splash! It actually made my
+flesh creep. I had a panicky feeling that one of the new girls had
+wandered too near the edge of the bluff and had fallen into the water."
+
+"It used to have that effect upon us at first, too," replied Miss Judy.
+"We would all come racing down here with our hearts in our mouths,
+expecting we knew not what. It took a long time before we could believe
+it was a delusion.
+
+"And now, come back to bed, or you'll be taking cold, standing out here
+in your nightgown."
+
+Still looking back at the river and half expecting to see some agitation
+in its surface, Sahwah followed Miss Judy back to Gitchee-Gummee and
+returned to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE ALLEY INITIATION
+
+Folk-dancing hour had just drawn to a close, and the long bugle for
+swimming sounded through camp. The sets of eight which had been drawn up
+on the tennis court in the formation of "If All the World Were Paper,"
+broke and scattered as before a whirlwind as the girls raced for their
+tents to get into bathing suits. Sahwah, as might be expected, was first
+down on the dock, but close at her heels was another girl whom she
+recognized as living in one of the Avenue tents. This girl, while
+broader and heavier than Sahwah, moved with the same easy grace that
+characterized Sahwah's movements, and like Sahwah, she seemed consumed
+with impatience to get into the water.
+
+"Oh, I wish Miss Armstrong would hurry, hurry, hurry!" she exclaimed,
+jigging up and down on the dock. "I just can't wait until I get in."
+
+"Neither can I," replied Sahwah, scanning the path down the hillside for
+a sight of the swimming director.
+
+"Do you live in the Avenue or the Alley?" asked the girl beside her.
+
+"In the Alley," replied Sahwah.
+
+"Which tent?"
+
+"Gitchee-Gummee. Which one are you in?"
+
+"Jabberwocky."
+
+"That's way up near the bungalow, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, where are you?"
+
+"The very last tent in the Alley, that one there, buried in the trees."
+
+"Oh, how lovely! You're right near the path to the river, aren't you? I
+wish I were a little nearer this end. It would save time getting to the
+water."
+
+"But you're so near the bungalow that you only have to go a step when
+the breakfast bugle blows. You have the advantage there," replied
+Sahwah. "We down in Gitchee-Gummee have to run for all we're worth to
+get there before you're all assembled. We have hard work getting dressed
+in time. We put on our ties while we're running down the path, as it
+is."
+
+The other girl laughed, showing a row of very white, even teeth. "Did
+you see that girl who came running into the dining-room this morning
+with her middy halfway over her head?"
+
+Sahwah laughed, too, at the recollection. "That was Bengal Virden, the
+one they call the Elephant's Child," she replied. "She lives in Ponemah,
+with some friends of mine. She had loitered with her dressing and
+didn't have her middy on when the breakfast bugle blew, so she decided
+to put it on en route. But while she was pulling it on over her head she
+got stuck fast in it with her arms straight up in the air and had to
+come in that way and get somebody to pull her through. I never saw
+anything so funny," she finished.
+
+"Neither did I," replied the other.
+
+They looked at each other and laughed heartily at the remembrance of the
+ludicrous episode.
+
+All this while Sahwah was trying to recollect her companion's name, but
+was unable to do so. It was impossible to remember which girls had
+answered to which names at the general roll call on that first night in
+Mateka.
+
+Just then the other said, "I don't believe I recall your name--I'm very
+stupid about remembering things."
+
+"That's just what I was going to say to you!" exclaimed Sahwah, with a
+merry laugh. "It's impossible to remember so many new names at once. I
+think we all ought to be labeled for the first week or so. I'm Sarah Ann
+Brewster, only they call me Sahwah."
+
+"What a queer nickname! It's very interesting. Is it a contraction of
+Sarah Ann?"
+
+"No, it's my Camp Fire name."
+
+"Oh, are you a Camp Fire girl?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How splendid! I've always wished I could be one. What does the name
+mean?"
+
+"Sunfish!" replied Sahwah. "The sun part means that I like sunshine and
+the fish part means that I like the water."
+
+"Oh-h!" replied the other with an interested face. Then she began to
+introduce herself. "I haven't any nice symbolic name like yours," she
+said, "but mine is sort of queer, too."
+
+"What is it?" asked Sahwah.
+
+"Undine."
+
+"Undine!" repeated Sahwah. "How lovely! I've always been perfectly crazy
+about Undine since I got the book on my tenth birthday. Undine was fond
+of water, like I was. What's the rest of your name?"
+
+"Girelle," replied Undine.
+
+"Do you live in the east or in the west?" asked Sahwah. "You don't speak
+like the Easterners, and yet you don't speak like us Westerners, either.
+What part of the country are you from?"
+
+"No part at all," answered Undine. "My home is in Honolulu."
+
+"Not really?" said Sahwah in astonishment.
+
+"Really," replied Undine, smiling at Sahwah's look of surprise. "I was
+born in Hawaii, and I have lived there most of my life."
+
+"Oh," said Sahwah, "I thought only Hawaiians lived in Hawaii--I didn't
+know anyone else was ever _born_ there."
+
+"Lots of white people are born there," replied Undine, politely
+checking the smile that wreathed her lips at Sahwah's ingenuous remark.
+"But," she added, "most of the people in the States seem to think no one
+lives in Hawaii but natives, and that they wear wreaths of flowers
+around their necks all the time and do nothing but play on ukuleles."
+
+Sahwah laughed and made up her mind that she was going to like Undine
+very much. "I suppose you swim?" she asked, presently.
+
+Undine nodded emphatically. "It's the thing I like to do best of
+anything in the world. Do you like it? Oh, yes, of course you do. You
+call yourself the Sunfish on that account."
+
+Sahwah affirmed her love for the deep, and thrilled a little at
+discovering an enthusiasm to match hers in this girl from Honolulu. The
+rest of the Winnebagos, although good swimmers, did not possess in an
+equal degree Sahwah's inborn passion for the water. Sahwah and Undine
+both felt the call of the river as it flowed past the dock; to each of
+them it beckoned with an irresistible invitation, until they could
+hardly restrain themselves from leaping off the boards into the cool,
+glassy depths below.
+
+"Here comes Miss Armstrong!" shouted somebody at the other end of the
+dock, as the big Australian came into view down the path, and there was
+a scramble for the diving tower.
+
+The swimming place at Camp Keewaydin was divided into three parts. A
+shallow cove at the left of the dock, where the curve of the river
+formed a tiny bay, was the sporting ground of the Minnows, the girls who
+could not swim at all; the Perch, or those who could swim a little, but
+were not yet sure of themselves, were assigned to the other side of the
+dock, where the water was slightly deeper, but where they were protected
+by the dock from the full force of the current; while the Sharks, the
+expert swimmers, were given the freedom of the river beyond the end of
+the pier. The diving tower was on the end of the pier and belonged
+exclusively to the Sharks; it was fifteen feet high, and had seven
+different diving boards placed at various heights. Besides the diving
+tower, there was a floating dock anchored out in midstream, having a
+springboard at either end. There was also a low diving board at the side
+of the pier for the Perch to practice on.
+
+Miss Armstrong came down on the dock in a bright red bathing suit which
+shone brilliantly among the darker suits of the girls. She rapidly
+separated the Minnows from the other fish, and set them to learning
+their first strokes under the direction of one of the other councilors.
+Then she lined the remaining girls up for the test which would determine
+who were Sharks and who were Perch. The test consisted of a dive from
+any one of the diving boards of the tower and a demonstration of four
+standard strokes, ending up with a swim across the river and back.
+
+About a dozen dropped out at the mere reading of the test and accepted
+their rating as Perch without a trial; as many more failed either to
+execute their dives properly or to give satisfaction in their swimming
+strokes. Sahwah, burning with impatience to show her skill, climbed
+nimbly up to the very top of the tower and went off the highest
+springboard in a neat back dive that drew applause from the watchers,
+including Miss Armstrong. She also passed the rest of the test with a
+perfect rating.
+
+"You're the biggest Shark so far," remarked Miss Armstrong, as Sahwah
+clambered up on the dock after her swim across the river, during which
+she had almost outdistanced the boat which accompanied her over and
+back.
+
+Sahwah smiled modestly as one of the old campers started a cheer for
+her, and turned to watch Undine Girelle, who was mounting the diving
+tower. When Undine also went off the highest springboard backward, and
+in addition turned a complete somersault before she touched the water,
+Sahwah realized that she had met her match, if not her master.
+Heretofore, Sahwah's swimming prowess had been unrivalled in whatever
+group she found herself, and it was a matter of course with the
+Winnebagos that Sahwah should carry off all honors in aquatics. Now they
+had to admit that in Undine Girelle Sahwah had a formidable rival and
+would have to look sharply to her laurels.
+
+"Isn't she wonderful?" came in exclamations from all around, as Undine
+sported in the water like a dolphin. "But then," someone added, "she's
+used to bathing in the surf in Hawaii. No wonder."
+
+There were about fifteen put in the Shark class in the first try-out, of
+whom Sahwah and Undine were acknowledged to be the best. Hinpoha and
+Gladys and Migwan also qualified as Sharks; Katherine went voluntarily
+into the Perch class, and Agony failed to pass her diving test, although
+she accomplished her distance swim and the demonstration of the strokes.
+
+Agony felt somewhat humiliated at having to go into the second class;
+she would much rather have been in the more conspicuous Shark group.
+Sahwah had already made a reputation for herself; Hinpoha drew admiring
+attention when she let her glorious red curls down her back to dry them
+in the sun; but she herself had so far made no special impression upon
+the camp. Why hadn't she distinguished herself like Sahwah, or Undine
+Girelle, Agony thought enviously. Others were already fast on their way
+to becoming prominent, but so far she was still going unnoticed. Her
+spirit chafed within her at her obscurity.
+
+Oh-Pshaw, alas, was only a Minnow. The fear of water which had lurked in
+her ever since the accident in her early childhood had kept her from
+any attempt to learn to swim. It was only since she had become a
+Winnebago and had once conquered her fear on that memorable night beside
+the Devil's Punch Bowl that she began to entertain the idea that some
+day she, too, might be at home in the water like the others. It was
+still a decided ordeal for her to go in; to feel the water flowing over
+her feet and to hear it splash against the piles of the dock and gurgle
+over the stones along the shore; but she resolutely steeled her nerves
+against the sound and the feel of the water, forcing back the terror
+that gripped her like an icy hand, and courageously tried to follow the
+director's instructions to put her face down under the surface. It was
+no use; she could not quite bring herself to do it; the moment the water
+struck her chin wild panic seized her and she would straighten up with a
+choking cry. She looked with envy at the other novices around her who
+fearlessly threw themselves into the water face downward, learning "Dead
+Man's Float" inside of ten minutes. She would never be able to do
+_that_, she reflected sorrowfully, as she climbed up on the dock before
+the period was half over, utterly worn out and discouraged by her
+repeated failures to bring her head under water.
+
+Beside her on the dock sat a thin wisp of a girl whose bathing suit was
+not even wet.
+
+"Didn't you go in?" asked Oh-Pshaw.
+
+"No," replied the girl in a high, piping voice, and Oh-Pshaw recognized
+her as the dweller in Avernus who had come over that first day and asked
+them how to make her bed. Carmen Chadwick, they had found out her name
+was.
+
+"I'm afraid of the water," continued Carmen. "Mamma never let me go in
+at home. She doesn't think it's quite ladylike for girls to swim."
+
+Oh-Pshaw smiled in spite of herself. "Oh, I don't think it makes girls
+unladylike to learn how to swim," she defended. "It's considered to be a
+fine exercise; about the best there is to develop all the muscles."
+
+"Oh!" said Carmen primly. "That's what mamma doesn't like, to have my
+muscles all lumpy and developed. She wants to keep me soft and curved."
+
+Oh-Pshaw stifled a shriek with difficulty, and turning aside to hide her
+twinkling eyes she caught sight of the Lone Wolf standing on the dock
+not far away, gazing mournfully into the Minnow pond.
+
+"What do you think of _her_?" asked Oh-Pshaw hastily, steering the
+conversation away from muscles and kindred unladylike topics.
+
+"She's my Councy," replied Carmen.
+
+"Your what?"
+
+"My Councy--my Councilor. I'm frightened to death of her."
+
+"Why, what does she do?" asked Oh-Pshaw in consternation.
+
+"She doesn't do anything, in particular," replied Carmen. "She just
+stares at me solemn as an owl and every little while she puts her head
+down on her bed under the pillow. Do you know," she continued, sinking
+her voice to a whisper, "I believe there is something the matter with
+her mind."
+
+"Really!" said Oh-Pshaw, her voice shaking ever so slightly.
+
+"She doesn't seem to realize what she is saying, at all," said Carmen.
+"Do you remember when Dr. Grayson introduced her he said she was real
+good and pious, but she isn't a bit pious. She didn't bring any Bible
+with her and she didn't say any prayers before she went to bed."
+
+"Maybe she said them to herself after she was in bed," remarked
+Oh-Pshaw, when she could control her voice again. "Lots of people do,
+you know."
+
+"I don't believe she did," replied Carmen in a tone of conviction. "I
+watched her. She made shadow animals with her fingers on the tent wall
+in the moonlight the minute she got into bed, and she kept it up until
+she went to sleep."
+
+Out of the corner of her eye Oh-Pshaw saw the Lone Wolf moving toward
+them, and hastily changed the subject. "Why did you put your bathing
+suit on when you didn't have any intention of going into the water?" she
+asked, seizing upon the first thing that came into her mind.
+
+"It looks so well on me," replied Carmen. "Don't you think it does?"
+
+"Y-yes, it d-does," admitted Oh-Pshaw, her teeth suddenly beginning to
+chatter, and she realized that she was sitting out too long in her wet
+bathing suit. "I g-guess I'll g-go up and get dressed," she finished,
+between the shivers that shook her like a reed.
+
+The Lone Wolf came up to her and taking her own sweater off wrapped it
+around her and hustled her off toward her tent.
+
+Just then the cry of "All out!" sounded on the dock and the swimmers
+came flocking out of the water with many an exclamation of regret that
+the time was up.
+
+"Oh, please, Tiny, may I do this one dive?" coaxed Bengal from one of
+the boards on the tower. "I'm all in a position to do it--see?"
+
+"Time's up," replied Tiny inexorably, and Bengal reluctantly
+relinquished her dive and climbed down from the tower.
+
+"Next test for Sharks a week from today!" called Tiny in her megaphone
+voice to the Perches, as she mounted the diving tower in preparation for
+her own initial plunge. The swimming instructors had their own swimming
+time after the girls were out of the water.
+
+Gladys and Migwan were dripping their way back to Ponemah, one on either
+side of Bengal Virden, who was entertaining them with tales of former
+years at camp, when they were startled to see Miss Peckham standing on
+top of a high rock wildly waving them back.
+
+"Don't go near the tent!" she shrieked.
+
+"Why not?" called Migwan in alarm, as the three girls stood still in the
+path, the water which was dripping out of their bathing suits collecting
+in a puddle around their feet.
+
+"There's a snake underneath the tent, a great big snake," answered Miss
+Peckham in terrified tones.
+
+"Well, what of it?" demanded Bengal coolly. "I've seen lots of snakes.
+I'm not afraid of them. Come on, let's get a forked stick, and let's
+kill it."
+
+She stooped to wring out the water which had collected in the bottom of
+her bathing suit and then started forward toward Ponemah.
+
+Miss Peckham, high on her rock, raised a great outcry. "Stay where you
+are!" she commanded. "Don't you go near that tent."
+
+Bengal kept on going, looking about her for a forked stick.
+
+"Bengal _Virden_!" screamed Miss Peckham, in such a tone of terror that
+Bengal involuntarily stood still in her tracks, dropping the stick she
+was in the act of picking up. "It's a deadly poisonous snake," gasped
+Miss Peckham, beginning to get breathless from fright, "a monstrous
+black one with red rings on it. I saw it crawling among the leaves. It
+reared up and menaced me with its wicked head. Don't you stir another
+step!" she commanded as Bengal seemed on the point of going on.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked a voice behind them, and there was Miss Judy,
+just coming out of her tent with her wet bathing suit in her hand.
+
+"There's a terrible poisonous snake under our tent," replied Miss
+Peckham. "I was just coming out of the door after my nap when I saw it
+gliding underneath. It's down there now, under the bushes."
+
+"How queer!" replied Miss Judy, looking with concern at her wildly
+excited cousin. "We've never had large snakes around here. What color
+did you say it was?"
+
+"It had broad, alternate rings of red and black," replied Miss Peckham,
+with the air of one quoting from an authority, "the distinguishing marks
+of the coral snake, one of the seventeen poisonous reptiles out of the
+one hundred and eleven species of snakes found in the United States."
+
+"A coral snake!" gasped Miss Judy, in real alarm, while the other three,
+taking fright from the tone of her voice, began to back down the path.
+
+Other dwellers in the Alley came along to see what the commotion was
+about and were warned back in an important tone by Miss Peckham. The
+timid ones took to their heels and fled to the other end of camp, while
+the more courageous hung about as near as they dared come and stared
+fascinated at the miniature jungle of ferns and bushes that grew under
+Ponemah to a height of two or three feet. Sahwah, whose insatiable
+curiosity as usual got the better of her fears, climbed a tree quite
+close to Ponemah and peered down through the branches, all agog with
+desire to see the dread serpent show itself.
+
+"Come down from there--quick!" called someone in a nervously shaking
+voice. "Don't you know that snakes climb trees?"
+
+"Nonsense," retorted Sahwah. "Whoever heard of a snake climbing a tree?"
+
+An argument started below, several voices upholding each side, some
+maintaining emphatically that snakes did climb trees; others holding out
+quite as determinedly that they didn't.
+
+"Anyway, _this_ one might," concluded the one who had started the
+argument, in a triumphant tone.
+
+"What are we going to do?" someone asked Miss Judy.
+
+"I'll get father to come and shoot it," replied Miss Judy.
+
+Just then there came an excited shriek from Sahwah. "It's coming out! I
+see the bushes moving."
+
+The girls scattered in all directions; Miss Peckham, up on her rock,
+covered her ears with her hands, as though there was going to be an
+explosion.
+
+"Here it comes!"
+
+Sahwah, leaning low over her branch, nearly fell out of the tree in her
+excitement, as her eye caught the gleam of red and black among the
+bushes. Miss Judy scrambled up on the rock beside Miss Peckham.
+
+There was a violent agitation of the ferns and bushes underneath
+Ponemah, a sort of scrambling movement, accompanied by a muffled
+squeaking, and then a truly remarkable creature bounced into view--a
+creature whose body consisted of a long stocking, red and black in
+alternate stripes, in the toe of which some live animal frantically
+squeaked and struggled, leaping almost a foot from the ground in its
+efforts to escape from its prison, and dragging the gaudy striped length
+behind it through a series of thrillingly lifelike wriggles.
+
+"Hi!" called Sahwah with a great shout of laughter. "It's nothing but a
+stocking with something in it."
+
+In reaction from her former alarm Miss Judy laughed until she fell off
+the rock, and sat helplessly on the ground watching the frantic
+struggles of the creature in the stocking to free itself. Hearing the
+laughter, those who had fled at the first alarm came hastening back, and
+all promptly went into hysterics when they saw the stocking writhing on
+the ground, and all were equally as helpless as Miss Judy and Sahwah.
+
+"Only Tiny Armstrong's stocking!" gasped Miss Judy, wiping away her
+tears of merriment with her middy sleeve. "I told her they would cause
+a riot in camp!"
+
+Only Miss Peckham did not laugh; she looked crossly around at the
+desperately amused girls.
+
+"Oh, Miss Peckham," gurgled Bengal, "you said it reared up and menaced
+you with its great, wicked h-head! You said its hood was swelled up with
+ferocity and venom, and it hissed sibilantly at you."
+
+Bengal rolled over and over on the ground, shrieking with mirth.
+
+Miss Peckham, her face a dull red, moved off in the direction of the
+tent.
+
+Others came up, excitedly demanding to know what the joke was.
+
+"She thought it was a coral snake, and it was Tiny's stocking," giggled
+Bengal, going into a fresh spasm.
+
+"Well, what if I did?" remarked Miss Peckham, turning around and looking
+at her frigidly. "It's a mistake anybody could easily make, I'm sure."
+And she went stiffly up into the tent.
+
+Sahwah and Miss Judy had somewhat recovered their composure by this
+time, and having captured the wildly agitated stocking they released
+from it a half-grown chipmunk, who, beside himself with fright and
+bewilderment, dashed away into the woods like a flash.
+
+"How frightened he was, poor little fellow!" cried Migwan
+compassionately. "It wasn't any joke for _him_. He must have been
+nearly frantic in there. How do you suppose he ever got in?"
+
+"Walked in, or fell in, possibly," replied Miss Judy, "and then couldn't
+find his way out again. Tiny had those modest little stockings of hers
+hanging on the tent ropes this morning, and it was easy enough for a
+chipmunk to get in."
+
+Carrying the stocking between them, and followed by all the girls who
+had been standing around, Sahwah and Miss Judy started for Bedlam to
+tell Tiny about the panic her hosiery had caused, but halfway to Bedlam
+the trumpet sounded for dinner and the deputation broke up in a wild
+rush for the bungalow. Miss Peckham carefully avoided Miss Judy's eye
+all through dinner.
+
+When the Winnebagos sauntered back to their tents for rest hour they all
+found large, wafer-sealed envelopes lying in conspicuous places upon
+their respective tables. Sahwah pounced upon the one in Gitchee-Gummee
+and looked at it curiously. On it was written in large red letters:
+
+  TO THE DWELLERS IN GITCHEE-GUMMEE
+
+IMPORTANT!!!
+
+"Whatever can this be?" she asked in mystified tones. Miss Judy was not
+in the tent.
+
+"Open it," commanded Agony.
+
+Sahwah slit the envelope with the knife that she always kept hanging at
+her belt, and pulled out a sheet of rough, brown paper, on which was
+drawn the picture of a girl bound fast to a tree by ropes that went
+round and round her body, while a band of Indians danced a savage war
+dance around her. Underneath was printed in the same large red letters
+as those which adorned the outside of the envelope:
+
+   BE DOWN ON THE DOCK AT SUNDOWN
+  WITHOUT FAIL PREPARED TO UNDERGO
+        THE ORDEAL WHICH ALL
+     DWELLERS IN THE ALLEY MUST
+    SUFFER BEFORE BEING WELCOMED
+           INTO THE INNER
+          CIRCLE OF ALLEY
+              SPIRITS.
+
+  WARNING: MENTION NOT THIS SUMMONS
+      TO A LIVING SOUL OR AWFUL
+      WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES.
+
+    SIGNED: THE TERRIBLE TWELVE.
+   P.S. BRING YOUR BATHING SUITS.
+
+"What on earth?" cried Hinpoha in bewilderment.
+
+"It's the Alley Initiation!" exclaimed Sahwah. "I heard someone asking
+when it was going to be. Mary Sylvester and Jo Severance and several
+more of the old girls were talking about it while they were in the water
+today. It seems that the girls who have lived in the Alley before
+always hold an initiation for the new girls before they let them in on
+their larks."
+
+"I wonder what they're going to do to us," mused Hinpoha. "That advice
+to bring your bathing suit sounds suspicious to me."
+
+"Do you suppose they're going to throw us into the river?" asked Agony.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Sahwah. "Half the new girls in the Alley can't swim.
+Dr. Grayson wouldn't allow it, anyway. He made a girl come out of the
+water during swimming hour this morning for trying to duck another girl.
+They'll just make us ridiculous, that's all."
+
+"Well, whatever they ask us to do, let's not make a fuss," said Hinpoha.
+"Here comes Miss Judy. Put that letter out of sight and act perfectly
+unconcerned."
+
+Sahwah whipped the envelope into her suitcase and flung herself down on
+her bed; the others followed her example; and when a moment later Miss
+Judy stepped into the tent and looked quizzically at the trio she found
+them apparently wrapped in placid slumber.
+
+Shortly before seven that evening, when the Avenue girls were dancing in
+the bungalow, Sahwah and Hinpoha and Agony quietly detached themselves
+from the group and slipped down to the dock to find Katherine and
+Oh-Pshaw and Jean Lawrence already down there, swinging their feet over
+the end of the pier and waiting for something to happen. Down the
+hillside other forms were stealing; Migwan, and Gladys, and Bengal
+Virden, followed by Tiny Armstrong, until practically all the
+inhabitants of the Alley were gathered upon the dock. Miss Judy was
+leaning over the edge of the pier untying the launch.
+
+The neophytes watched intently every move that the old girls made, and
+were somewhat reassured when they saw that they had brought their
+bathing suits, too.
+
+"Are all assembled?" asked Miss Judy, straightening up and looking over
+her shoulder inquiringly.
+
+"Not yet," answered Mary Sylvester, taking an inventory of girls
+present.
+
+"Who isn't here yet?"
+
+"Carmen Chadwick and the Lone Wolf. Oh, they're coming now, so is Miss
+Amesbury."
+
+Migwan felt a little flustered as Miss Amesbury came smiling into their
+midst. She didn't in the least mind being initiated, but she did rather
+hate to have Miss Amesbury see her made ridiculous. She would much
+rather not have her looking on.
+
+Carmen Chadwick looked quite pale and scared as she joined the group on
+the dock, and took hold of Katherine's arm as if to seek her protection.
+
+"All ready now?" asked Miss Judy.
+
+"Ay, ay, skipper," replied Tiny Armstrong.
+
+"Man the boat!" commanded Miss Judy.
+
+The girls got into the launch and Miss Judy started the engine. They
+rode a short distance up the river to the Whaleback, a small island
+shaped, as its name indicated, like a whale's back. It was quite flat,
+only slightly elevated above the surface of the water. On one side it
+had rather a wide beach covered with stones and littered with driftwood;
+behind this beach rose a dense growth of pines that extended down to the
+very edge of the water on the other side of the island.
+
+The initiation party disembarked upon the beach. A huge fire was laid
+ready and Miss Judy lit it, then she requested the new girls to sit down
+in a place which she designated at one side of it, while the old girls
+seated themselves in a row opposite. Sahwah took note that the new girls
+were in the full glare of the firelight, while the old ones sat in the
+shadow.
+
+Miss Judy opened the ceremonies. Stepping into the light, she addressed
+the neophytes. "Since the dwellers in the Alley live together in such
+intimate companionship it is necessary that all be properly introduced
+to each other, so that we shall never mistake our own. We shall now
+proceed with the introductions. As soon as a new girl or councilor
+recognizes herself in the pictures we shall proceed to draw, let her
+come forward and bow to the ground three times in acknowledgment,
+uttering the words, 'Behold, it is I! who else _could_ it be?'"
+
+She poked up the fire to a brighter blaze and then sat down beside Tiny
+Armstrong on the end of a log. As she seated herself Jo Severance rose
+and came forward demurely. Jo was an accomplished elocutionist, and a
+born mimic. Assuming a timid, shrinking demeanor, and speaking in a
+high, shrill voice, she piped,
+
+  "Mother, may I go out to swim?"
+  "Yes, my darling daughter,
+  Put on your nice new bathing suit,
+  But don't go near the water!"
+
+"Don't you think it's unladylike to have your muscles all hard and
+developed?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Oh-Pshaw buried her face in her handkerchief with a convulsive giggle.
+The voice, the intonation, the expression, were Carmen Chadwick to a T.
+But how did the Alleys know about her attitude toward bathing? She had
+not told anyone. Then she recalled that the Lone Wolf had walked behind
+them on the pier that morning when Carmen had been talking to her. Had
+the Lone Wolf also heard them talking about her? Agony wondered in a
+sudden rush of embarrassment.
+
+There was no mistaking the first "portrait." All eyes were focused upon
+Carmen, and blushing and shrinking she went forward to make the required
+acknowledgment.
+
+"Beh-hold, it is I; w-who else could it be?" she faltered, and it
+sounded so irresistibly funny that the listeners went into spasms of
+mirth.
+
+Carmen crept back to her place and hid her face in Katherine's lap while
+Jo Severance passed on to the next "portrait." Climbing up an enormous
+tree stump, she flung out her arms and began to shriek wildly, waving
+back an imaginary group of girls. Then she proclaimed in important
+tones: "It had broad, alternating rings of black and red, the
+distinguishing marks of the coral snake, one of the seventeen poisonous
+reptiles out of the one hundred and eleven species of snakes found in
+the United States. It reared up and menaced me with its great, wicked--"
+
+The remainder of her speech was lost in the great roar of laughter that
+went up from old and new girls alike.
+
+Miss Peckham turned fiery red, and looked angrily from Jo Severance to
+Miss Judy, but there was no help for it; she had to go forward and claim
+the portrait.
+
+"Behold, it is I; who else _could_ it be?" she snapped, and the mirth
+broke out louder than before. The "who else _could_ it be?" was so like
+Miss Peckham.
+
+One by one the other candidates were shown their portraits, that is, as
+many as had displayed any conspicuous peculiarities.
+
+"O Pom-pom! O dear Pom-pom, O _darling_ Pom-pom!" gushed Jo, rolling
+her eyes in ecstasy, and Bengal Virden, laughing sheepishly, went
+forward.
+
+Miss Amesbury watched the performance with tears of merriment rolling
+down her cheeks. "I never saw anything so funny!" she exclaimed to Mary
+Sylvester. "That phrase, 'who else _could_ it be' is a perfect gem."
+
+Agony was somewhat disappointed that her portrait was not painted; it
+would have drawn her into more notice. So far she was only "among those
+present" at camp. None of the old girls had paid any attention to her.
+
+After all the portraits had been painted the rest of the girls were
+called upon to do individual stunts. Some sang, some made speeches, some
+danced, and the worse the performance the greater the applause from the
+initiators. One slender, dark-eyed girl with short hair whistled, with
+two fingers in her mouth. At the first note Migwan and Gladys started
+and clasped each other's hands. The mystery of the fairy piping they had
+heard in the woods that first afternoon was solved. The same clear,
+sweet notes came thrilling out between her fingers, alluring as the
+pipes of Pan. The whistler was a girl named Noel Carrington; she was one
+of the younger girls whom nobody had noticed particularly before. Her
+whistling brought wild applause which was perfectly sincere; her
+performance delighted the audience beyond measure. She was called back
+again and again until at last, quite out of breath, she begged for
+mercy, when she was allowed to retire on the condition that she would
+whistle some more as soon as she got her breath back.
+
+Noel's performance closed the stunts. When she had sat down Miss Judy
+rose and said that she guessed the Alley dwellers were pretty well
+acquainted with each other, and would now go for a swim in the
+moonlight. Soon all but Carmen Chadwick were splashing in the silvery
+water, playing hide and seek with the moonbeams on the ripples and
+feeling a thrill and a magic in the river which was never there in the
+daylight. After a glorious frolic they came out to stand around the fire
+and eat marshmallows until it was time to go back to camp.
+
+"Initiation wasn't so terrible after all," Carmen confided to Katherine
+in the launch.
+
+"Heaps of fun," replied Katherine, laughing reminiscently.
+
+"Isn't Miss Peckham a prune?" whispered Sybil's voice behind Katherine.
+"I'm glad she's not my councilor."
+
+"She's mine, worse luck," answered Bengal Virden's voice dolefully.
+
+"Too bad," whispered Sybil feelingly.
+
+The launch came up alongside the dock just as the first bugle was
+blowing, and the Alley, old girls arm in arm with the new, went straight
+up to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+ON THE ROAD FROM ATLANTIS
+
+"Would you like to come along?"
+
+Agony, sitting alone on the pier, idly watching the river as it flowed
+endlessly around its great curve, looked up to see Mary Sylvester
+standing beside her. It was just after quiet hour and the rest of the
+camp had gone on the regular Wednesday afternoon trip to the village to
+buy picture postcards and elastic and Kodak films and all the various
+small wares which girls in camp are in constant need of; and also to
+regale themselves on ice-cream cones and root beer, the latter a
+traditionally favorite refreshment of the Camp Keewaydin girls, being a
+special home product of Mrs. Bayne, who kept the "trading post."
+
+Agony had not joined the expedition this afternoon, because she needed
+nothing in the way of supplies, and for once had no craving for root
+beer, while she did want to finish a letter to her father that she had
+commenced during rest hour. But the hilarity of the others as they piled
+into the canoes to be towed up the river by the launch lured her down
+to the dock to see them off--Miss Judy standing at the wheel of the
+launch and Tiny Armstrong in the stern of the last canoe, as the head
+and tail of the procession respectively. Beside Miss Judy in the launch
+were all the Minnows, gazing longingly back at the ones who were allowed
+to tow in the canoes. Only those who had taken the swimming test might
+go into the canoes--towing or paddling or at any other time; this rule
+of the camp was as inviolable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians.
+And of those who could swim, only the Sharks might take out a canoe
+without a councilor, and this privilege was also denied the Sharks if
+they failed to demonstrate their ability to handle a canoe skilfully.
+
+Sahwah and Hinpoha were among the new girls who had qualified for the
+canoe privilege during the very first week; also Undine Girelle. The
+other Winnebagos had to content themselves thus far with the privilege
+of towing or paddling in a canoe that was in charge of a councilor or a
+qualified Water Witch; all except Oh-Pshaw, who had to ride in the
+launch.
+
+Agony looked at Oh-Pshaw standing beside Miss Judy at the wheel,
+laughing with her at some joke; at Sahwah and Undine sitting together in
+the canoe right behind the launch, leaning luxuriously back against
+their paddles, which they were using as back rests; heard Jean
+Lawrence's infectious laugh floating back on the breeze; and she began
+to regret that she had stayed at home. She found she was no longer in
+the mood to finish her letter; she lingered on the pier after the
+floating caravan had disappeared from view behind the trees on
+Whaleback.
+
+She looked up in surprise at the sound of Mary Sylvester's voice coming
+from behind her on the dock.
+
+"I thought you had gone to the village with the others," she said. "I
+was almost sure I saw you in the boat with Pom-pom."
+
+"No, I didn't go, you see," replied Mary. "I am going off on an
+expedition of my own this afternoon. The woman who took care of me as a
+child lives not far from here in a little village called
+Atlantis--classic name! Mother asked me to look her up, and Mrs. Grayson
+gave me permission to go over this afternoon. I'm going to row across
+the river to that landing place where we got out the other night, leave
+the boat in the bushes, and then follow the path through the woods. It's
+about six miles to Atlantis--would you care to walk that far? It would
+be twelve miles there and back, you know. I'm just ripe for a long hike
+today, it's so cool and clear, but it's not nearly so pleasant going
+alone as it would be to have someone along to talk to on the way.
+Wouldn't you like to come along and keep me company? I can easily get
+permission from Mrs. Grayson for you."
+
+Agony was a trifle daunted at the thought of walking twelve miles in
+one afternoon, but was so overwhelmed with secret gratification that the
+prominent Mary Sylvester had invited her that she never once thought of
+refusing.
+
+"I'd love to go," she exclaimed animatedly, jumping up with alacrity. "I
+was beginning to feel a wee bit bored sitting here doing nothing; I feel
+ripe for a long hike myself."
+
+"I'm so glad you do!" replied Mary Sylvester, with the utmost
+cordiality. "Come on with me until I tell Mrs. Grayson that you are
+coming with me."
+
+Mrs. Grayson readily gave her permission for Agony to go with Mary.
+There was very little that Mrs. Grayson would have refused Mary
+Sylvester, so high did this clear-eyed girl stand in the regard of all
+Camp directors, from the Doctor down. Mary was one of the few girls
+allowed to go away from camp without a councilor; in fact, she sometimes
+acted as councilor to the younger girls when a trip had to be made and
+no councilor was free. Mrs. Grayson would willingly have trusted any
+girl to Mary's care--or the whole camp, for that matter, should occasion
+arise, knowing that her good sense and judgment could be relied upon. So
+Agony, under Mary's wing, received the permission that otherwise would
+not have been given her.
+
+"Yes, it will be all right for you to go in your bloomers," said Mrs.
+Grayson, in answer to Agony's question on the subject. "Our girls
+always wear them to the villages about here; the people are accustomed
+to seeing them. That green bloomer suit of yours is very pretty, Agony,"
+she added, "even prettier than our regulation blue ones."
+
+"I spilled syrup on my regular blue ones," replied Agony, "and had to
+wash them out this morning; that's why I'm wearing these green ones. Do
+you mind if I break up the camp color scheme for one day?"
+
+"Not at all, under the circumstances," replied Mrs. Grayson, with a
+smile. "If it's going to be a choice of green bloomers or none at all--"
+She waved the laughing girls away and returned to the knotty problem in
+accounts she had been working on when interrupted.
+
+"Isn't she lovely?" exclaimed Mary enthusiastically, as they came out of
+the bungalow and walked along the Alley path toward Gitchee-Gummee to
+get Agony's hat. "She has such a way of trusting us girls that we just
+couldn't disappoint her."
+
+"She is lovely," echoed Agony, as they went up the steps of
+Gitchee-Gummee.
+
+"I think I'll leave a note for the girls telling them I won't be back at
+supper time," said Agony, hastily pulling out her tablet. "They will be
+wondering what has become of me."
+
+It gave her no small thrill of pleasure to write that note and tuck it
+under Hinpoha's hairbrush on the table: "Gone on a long hike with Mary
+Sylvester; won't be back until bed time." How delightfully important and
+prominent that sounded! The others admired Mary, too, but none of them
+had been invited to go on a long hike with her. She, Agony, was being
+drawn into that intimate inner circle of the Alley dwellers to which she
+had hitherto aspired in vain.
+
+They were soon across the river, with the boat fastened in the bushes,
+and, leaving the shore, struck straight into the woods, following a path
+that curved and twisted, but carried them ever toward the north, in the
+direction where Atlantis lay. The way was cool and shady, the whiff of
+the pines invigorating, and the distance uncoiled rapidly beneath the
+feet of the two girls as they fared on with vigorous, springy footsteps
+along the pleasant way. Ferns and wild flowers bordered the path; there
+were brilliant cardinal flowers, pale forget-me-nots, slender blossomed
+blue vervain, cheerful red lilies. In places where the woods were so
+thick that the sun never penetrated, great logs lay about completely
+covered with moss, looking like sofas upholstered in green, while the
+round stones scattered about everywhere looked like hassocks and
+footstools which belonged to the same set as the green sofas.
+
+Once Mary stopped and crushed something under her foot, something white
+that grew up beside the path.
+
+"What was that?" asked Agony curiously.
+
+"Deadly amanita," replied Mary. "It's a toadstool--a poisonous one."
+
+"How can you tell a poisonous toadstool from a harmless one?" asked
+Agony. "They all look alike to me."
+
+"A poisonous one has a ring around the stem, and it grows up out of a
+'poison cup,'" explained Mary. "See, here are some more."
+
+Agony drew back as Mary pointed out another clump of the pale spores,
+innocent enough looking in their resemblance to the edible mushroom, but
+base villians at heart; veritable Borgias of the woods.
+
+"Aren't you afraid to touch it?" asked Agony, as Mary tilted over a
+sickly looking head and indicated the identifying ring and the poison
+cup.
+
+"No danger," replied Mary. "They're only poisonous if you eat them."
+
+"You know a great deal about the woods, don't you?" Agony said
+respectfully.
+
+"I ought to," replied Mary. "I've camped in the woods for five summers.
+You can't help finding out a few things, you know, even if you're as
+stupid as I."
+
+"You're not stupid!" said Agony emphatically, glad of the opportunity to
+pay a compliment. "I'm the stupid one about things like that. I never
+could remember all those things you call woodcraft. I declare, I've
+forgotten already whether it's the poisonous ones that have the rings,
+or the other kind."
+
+Mary laughed and stood unconcernedly while a small snake ran over her
+foot. "It's a good thing Miss Peckham isn't here," she remarked. "Did
+you ever see anything so funny as that coral snake business of hers?"
+she added, laughing good naturedly. "Poor Miss Peckham won't be allowed
+to forget that episode all summer. It's too bad she resents it so. She
+could get no end of fun out of it if she could only see the funny side."
+
+"Yes, it's too bad," agreed Agony. "The more she resents it the more the
+girls will tease her about it."
+
+"I'm sorry for her," continued Mary. "She's never had any experience
+being a councilor and it's all new to her. She's never been teased
+before. She'll soon see that it happens to everybody else, too, and then
+she'll feel differently about it. Look at the way everybody makes fun of
+Tiny Armstrong's blanket, and her red bathing suit, and her gaudy
+stockings; but she never gets cross about it. Tiny's a wonder," she
+added enthusiastically. "Did you see her demonstrating the Australian
+Crawl yesterday in swimming hour? She has a stroke like the propeller of
+a boat. I never saw anything so powerful."
+
+"If Tiny ever assaulted anyone in earnest there wouldn't be anything
+left of them," said Agony. "She's a regular Amazon. They ought to call
+her Hypolita instead of Tiny."
+
+"And yet, she's just as gentle as she is powerful," replied Mary. "She
+wouldn't hurt a fly if she could help it. Neither would she do anything
+mean to anybody, or show partiality in the swimming tests. She's
+absolutely fair and square; that's why all the girls accept her
+decisions without a complaint, even when they're disappointed. Everybody
+says she is the best swimming teacher they've ever had here at camp.
+Once they had an instructor who had a special liking for a certain girl
+who couldn't manage to learn to swim, and because that girl was wild to
+go in a canoe on one of the trips the instructor pretended that she had
+given her an individual test on the afternoon before the trip, and told
+Mrs. Grayson the girl had passed it. The girl was allowed to go in a
+canoe and on the trip it upset and she was very nearly drowned before
+the others realized that she could not swim. Tiny isn't like that," she
+continued. "She would lose her best friend rather than tell a lie to get
+her a favor that she didn't deserve. I hate cheats!" she burst out
+vehemently, her fine eyes flashing. "If girls can't win honors fairly
+they ought to go without them."
+
+This random conversation upon one and another of the phases of camp
+life, illustrating as it did Mary's rigid code of honor, was destined to
+recur many times to Agony in the weeks that followed, with a poignant
+force that etched every one of Mary's speeches ineradicably upon her
+brain. Just now it was nothing more to her than small talk to which she
+replied in kind.
+
+They stopped after a bit to drink from a clear spring that bubbled up in
+the path, and sat down to rest awhile under a huge tree. Mary leaned her
+head back against the trunk and drawing a small book from her sweater
+pocket she opened it upon her knee.
+
+"What is the book?" asked Agony.
+
+"_The Desert Garden_, by Edwin Langham," replied Mary.
+
+"Oh, do you know _The Desert Garden_?" cried Agony in delighted wonder.
+"I've actually lived on that book for the last two years. I'm wild about
+Edwin Langham. I've read every word he's ever written. Have you read
+_The Silent Years_?"
+
+Mary nodded.
+
+"_The Lost Chord_? I think that's the most wonderful book I've ever
+read, that and _The Desert Garden._ If I could ever see and speak to
+Edwin Langham I should die from happiness. I've never felt that way
+about any other author. When I read his books I feel reverent somehow,
+as if I were in church, although there isn't a word of religion in them.
+The things he writes are so fine and true and noble; he must be that way
+himself. Do you remember that part about the bird in _The Desert Garden,
+_ the bird with the broken wing, that would never fly again, singing to
+the lame man who would never walk? And the flower that was so determined
+to blossom that it grew in the desert and bloomed there?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mary, "it was very beautiful."
+
+"It's the most beautiful thing that was ever written!" declared Agony
+enthusiastically. "It would be the greatest joy of my life to see the
+man who wrote those books."
+
+"Maybe you will, some day," said Mary, rising from her mossy seat and
+preparing to take the path again.
+
+It was not long after that that they came to the edge of the woods, and
+saw before them the scattered houses of the little village of Atlantis.
+Mary's old nurse was overjoyed to see her, and pressed the two girls to
+stay and eat big soft ginger cookies on the shady back porch, and quench
+their thirst with glasses of cool milk, while she inquired minutely
+after the health of Mary's "ma" and "pa."
+
+"Mrs. Simmons is the best old nurse that ever was," said Mary to Agony,
+as they took their way back to the woods an hour later. "I'm so glad to
+have had this opportunity of paying her a visit. I haven't seen her for
+nearly ten years. Wasn't she funny, though, when I told her that father
+might have to go to Japan in the interests of his firm? She thought
+there was nobody in Japan but heathens and missionaries."
+
+"Shall you go to Japan too, if your father goes?" asked Agony.
+
+"I most likely shall," replied Mary. "I finished my school this June and
+do not intend to go to college for another year anyway; so I might as
+well have the trip and the experience of living in a foreign country.
+Father would only have to remain there one year, or two at the most."
+
+"How soon are you going?" asked Agony, a little awed by Mary's casual
+tone as she spoke of the great journey. Evidently Mary had traveled
+much, for the prospect of going around the world did not seem to excite
+her in the least.
+
+They were sitting in Mrs. Simmons' little spring house when Mary told
+about the possibility of her going to Japan. This spring house stood at
+some distance from the house; down at the point where the lane ran off
+from the main road. It looked so utterly cool and inviting, with its
+vine covered walls, that with an exclamation of pleasure the two girls
+turned aside for one more drink before beginning the long walk through
+the woods.
+
+Seated upon the edge of the basin which held the water, Mary talked of
+Japan, and Agony wheeled around upon the narrow ledge to gaze at her in
+wonder and envy.
+
+"I wish _I_ could go to Japan!" she exclaimed vehemently, giving a
+vigorous kick with her foot to express her longing. The motion disturbed
+her balance and she careened over sidewise; Mary put out her hand to
+steady her, lost _her_ balance, and went with a splash into the basin.
+The water was not deep, but it was very, very wet, and Mary came out
+dripping.
+
+For a moment the two girls stood helpless with laughter; then Mary said:
+"I suppose I'll have to go back and get some dry things from Mrs.
+Simmons, but I wish I didn't; it will take us quite a while to go back,
+and it will delay us considerably. I promised Mrs. Grayson I'd be back
+in camp before dark, and we won't be able to make it if we go back to
+Mrs. Simmons's. I've a good mind to go on just as I am; it's so hot I
+can't possibly take cold."
+
+"I tell you what we can do," said Agony, getting a sudden inspiration.
+"We can divide these bloomers of mine in half. They're made on a
+foundation of thinner material that will do very well for me to wear
+home, and you can wear the green part. With your sweater on over them
+nobody will ever know whether you have on a middy or not. We can carry
+you wet suit on a pole through the woods and it'll be dry by the time we
+get home, and you won't have to lose any time by going back to Mrs.
+Simmons's."
+
+"Great idea!" said Mary, brightening. "Are you really willing to divide
+your bloomers? I'd be ever so much obliged."
+
+"It's no trouble," replied Agony. "All I have to do is cut the threads
+where the top is tacked on to the foundation. It's really two pairs of
+bloomers." She was already cutting the tacking threads with her pocket
+knife.
+
+Mary put on the green bloomers and Agony the brown foundation pair, and
+laughing over the mishap and the clever way of handling the problem, the
+two crossed the road and entered the woods.
+
+"What's that loud cheeping noise?" Agony asked almost as soon as they
+had entered into the deep shadow of the high pines.
+
+"Sounds like a bird in trouble," answered Mary, her practised ear
+recognizing the note of distress in the incessant twittering.
+
+A few steps farther they came upon a man sitting in a wheel chair under
+one of the tallest pines they had ever seen, a man whose right foot was
+so thickly wrapped in bandages that it was three times the size of the
+other one. He was peering intently up into the tree above him, and did
+not notice the approach of the two girls. Mary and Agony followed his
+gaze and saw, high up among the topmost swaying branches, a sight that
+thrilled them with pity and distress. Dangling by a string which was
+tangled about one of her feet, hung a mother robin, desperately
+struggling to get free, fluttering, fluttering, beating the air
+frantically with her wings and uttering piercing cries of anguish that
+drove the hearers almost to desperation. Nearby was her nest, and on
+the edge of it sat the mate, uttering cries as shrill with anguish as
+those of the helpless captive.
+
+"Oh, the poor, poor bird!" cried Mary, her eyes filling with tears of
+pity and grief. At the sound of her voice the man in the wheel chair
+lowered his eyes and became aware of the girls' presence. As he turned
+to look at them Mary caught in his eyes a look of infinite horror and
+pity at the plight of the wretched bird above him. That expression
+deepened Mary's emotion; the tears began to run down her cheeks. Agony
+stood beside her stricken and silent.
+
+"How did it happen?" Mary asked huskily, addressing the stranger
+unceremoniously.
+
+"I don't know exactly," replied the man. "I was sitting here reading
+when all of a sudden I heard the bird's shrill cry of distress and
+looked up to see her dangling there at the end of that string."
+
+"Can't we do something?" asked Mary, putting her hands over her ears to
+shut out the piercing cries. "She'll flutter herself to death before
+long."
+
+"I'm afraid she will," replied the man, "There doesn't seem to be any
+hope of her freeing herself."
+
+"She shan't flutter herself to death," said Mary, with sudden
+resolution. "I'm going to climb the tree and cut her loose."
+
+"That will be impossible," said the man. "She is up in the very top of
+the tree."
+
+"I'm going to try, anyway," replied Mary, with spirit. "Let me take
+your knife, will you please, Agony?"
+
+The lowest branches of the pine were far above her head, and in order to
+get a foothold in them Mary had to climb a neighboring tree and swing
+herself across. The ground seemed terrifying far away even from this
+lowest branch; but this was only the beginning. She resolutely refrained
+from looking down and kept on steadily, branch above branch, until she
+reached the one from which the robin hung. Then began the most perilous
+part of the undertaking. To reach the bird she must crawl out on this
+branch for a distance of at least six feet, there being no limb directly
+underneath for her to walk out on. Praying for a steady balance, she
+swung herself astride of the branch, and holding on tightly with her
+hands began hitching herself slowly outward. The bough bent sickeningly
+under her; Agony below shrieked and covered her eyes; then opened them
+again and continued to gaze in horrified fascination as inch by inch
+Mary neared the wildly fluttering bird, whose terror had increased a
+hundred-fold at the human presence so near it.
+
+There came an ominous cracking sound; Agony uttered another shriek and
+turned away; the next instant the shrill cries of the bird ceased; the
+man in the chair gave vent to a long drawn "Ah-h!" Agony looked up to
+see the exhausted bird fluttering to the ground beside her, a length of
+string still hanging to its foot, while Mary slowly and carefully
+worked her way back to the trunk of the tree. In a few minutes she slid
+to the ground and sat there, breathless and trembling, but triumphant.
+
+"I got it!" she panted. Then, turning to the man in the chair, she
+exclaimed, "There now, who said it was impossible?"
+
+The man applauded vigorously. "That was the bravest act I have ever seen
+performed," he said admiringly. "You're the right stuff, whoever you
+are, and I take my hat off to you."
+
+"Anybody would have done it," murmured Mary modestly, as she rose and
+prepared to depart.
+
+"How could you do it?" marveled Agony, as the two walked homeward
+through the woods. "Weren't you horribly scared?"
+
+"Yes, I was," admitted Mary frankly. "When I started to go out on that
+branch I was shaking so that I could hardly hold on. It seemed miles to
+the ground, and I got so dizzy I turned faint for a moment. But I tried
+to think of something else, and kept on going, and pretty soon I could
+reach the string to cut it."
+
+The boundless admiration with which Agony regarded Mary's act of bravery
+was gradually swallowed up in envy. Why hadn't she herself been the one
+to climb up and rescue that poor bird? She would give anything to have
+done such a spectacular thing. Deep in her heart, however, she knew she
+would never have had the courage to crawl out on that branch even if she
+had thought of it first.
+
+Silence fell upon the two girls as they walked along in the gradually
+failing light; all topics of conversation seemed to have been exhausted.
+Mary's clothes were dry before they were through the woods, and she put
+them on to save the trouble of carrying them, giving Agony back her
+green bloomers.
+
+"Thank you so much for letting me wear them," she said earnestly. "If it
+hadn't been for your doing that I wouldn't have been in time to save
+that robin. It was really that inspiration of yours that saved him, not
+my climbing the tree."
+
+Even in the hour of her triumph Mary was eager to give the credit to
+someone else, and Agony began to feel rather humble and small before
+such a generous spirit, even though her vanity strove to accept the
+measure of credit given as justly due.
+
+When they were crossing the river they saw Dr. Grayson standing on the
+dock, shading his eyes to look over the water.
+
+"There's the Doctor, looking for us!" exclaimed Mary. "It must be late
+and he's worried about us." She doubled her speed with the oars, hailing
+the Doctor across the water to reassure him. A few moments later the
+boat touched the dock.
+
+"Mary," said the Doctor, before she was fairly out, "a message has come
+from your father saying that he must sail for Japan one week from today
+and you must come home immediately. In order to catch the boat you will
+have to leave for San Francisco not later than the day after tomorrow.
+There is an early train for New York tomorrow morning from Green's
+Landing. I will take you down in the launch, for the river steamer will
+not get there in time. Be ready to leave camp at half past five tomorrow
+morning. You will have to pack tonight."
+
+Mary gasped and clutched Agony's hand convulsively.
+
+"I have--to--leave--camp!" she breathed faintly.
+"I'm--going--to--Japan!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+A CAMP HEROINE
+
+Mary Sylvester was gone. Sung to and wept over by her friends and
+admirers, who had risen at dawn to see her off, she had departed with
+Dr. Grayson in the camp launch just as the sun was beginning to gild the
+ripples on the surface of the river. She left behind her many grief
+stricken hearts.
+
+"Camp won't be camp without Mary!" Bengal Virden had sobbed, trickling
+tearfully back to Ponemah with a long tress of black hair clutched
+tightly in her hand--a souvenir which she had begged from Mary at the
+moment of parting. Next to Pom-pom, Mary Sylvester was Bengal's greatest
+crush. "I'm going to put it under my pillow and sleep on it every
+night," Bengal had sniffed tearfully, displaying the tress to her
+tentmates.
+
+"What utter nonsense!" Miss Peckham had remarked with a contemptuous
+sniff. Miss Peckham considered the fuss they were making over Mary's
+departure perfectly ridiculous, and was decidely cross because Bengal
+had awakened her with her lamenting before the bugle blew.
+
+Migwan and Gladys, on the other hand, remembering their own early
+"crushes," managed not to smile at Bengal's sentimental foolishness
+about the lock of hair, and Gladys gravely gave her a hand-painted
+envelope to keep the precious tress in.
+
+Completely tired out by the long tramp of the day before, Agony did not
+waken in time to see Mary off, and when the second bugle finally brought
+her to consciousness she discovered that she had a severe headache and
+did not want any breakfast. Miss Judy promptly bore her off to the
+"Infirmary," a tent set off by itself away from the noises of camp, and
+left her there to stay quietly by herself. In the quiet atmosphere of
+the "Infirmary" she soon fell asleep again, to waken at times, listen to
+the singing of the birds in the woods, feel the breezes stealing
+caressingly through her hair, and then to drop back once more into
+blissful drowsiness which erased from her mind all memory of yesterday's
+visit to Atlantis, and of Mary Sylvester's wonderful rescue of the
+robin. As yet no word of Mary's heroism had reached the ears of the
+camp; she had departed without the mead of praise that was due her.
+
+Councilors and all felt depressed over Mary's untimely departure,
+especially Miss Judy, Tiny Armstrong and the Lone Wolf, with whom she
+had been particularly intimate, and with these three leading spirits
+cast down gloom was thick everywhere. Morning Sing went flat--the high
+tenors couldn't keep in tune without Mary to lead them, and nobody else
+could make the gestures for The Lone Fish Ball. It seemed strange, too,
+to see Dr. Grayson's chair empty, and to do without his jolly morning
+talk. Everyone who had gotten up early was full of yawns and out of
+sorts.
+
+"What's the matter with everybody?" asked Katherine of Jean Lawrence, as
+they cleaned up Bedlam for tent inspection. "Camp looks like a funeral."
+
+Jean's dimples were nowhere in evidence and her face looked unnaturally
+solemn as she bent over her bed to straighten the blankets.
+
+"It feels like one, too," replied Jean, still grave. "With Bengal crying
+all over the place and Miss Judy looking so cut up it's enough to dampen
+everybody's spirits."
+
+Talk lapsed between the two and each went on cleaning up her side of the
+tent. A moment later, however, Jean's dimples came back again when she
+came upon Katherine's toothbrush in one of her tennis shoes. That
+toothbrush had disappeared two days before and the tent had been turned
+upside down in a vain search for it.
+
+Katherine pounced upon the truant toilet article gleefully. "Look in
+your other shoe," she begged Jean, "and see if you can find my fountain
+pen. That's missing too."
+
+Jean obligingly shook out her shoe, but no pen came to light.
+
+"There's something dark in the bottom of the water pitcher," announced
+Oh-Pshaw, who was setting the toilet table to rights. "Maybe that's it."
+
+She bared her arm to the elbow and plunged it into the water, but
+withdrew it immediately with a shriek that caused Katherine and Jean to
+drop their bed-making in alarm.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Katherine.
+
+"It's an animal, a horrid, dead animal!" Oh-Pshaw gasped shudderingly,
+backing precipitously away from the water pitcher. "It's furry, and
+soft, and--ugh! stiff!"
+
+"What is it?" demanded Katherine, peering curiously into the pitcher, in
+whose slightly turbid depths she could see a dark object lying.
+
+"Don't touch it!" begged Oh-Pshaw, as Katherine's hand went down into
+the water.
+
+"Nonsense," scoffed Katherine, "a dead creature can't hurt you. See,
+it's only a little mouse that fell into the pitcher and got drowned.
+Poor little mousy, it's a shame he had to meet such a sad fate when he
+came to visit us."
+
+"Katherine Adams, put that mouse away!" cried Oh-Pshaw, getting around
+behind the bed. "How can you bear to touch such a thing?"
+
+"Doesn't he look pathetic, with his little paws held out that way?"
+continued Katherine, unmoved by Oh-Pshaw's expression of terrified
+disgust. "I don't doubt but what he was the father of a large
+family--or maybe the mother--and there will be great sorrow in the nest
+out in the field when he doesn't come home to supper."
+
+"Throw it away!" commanded Oh-Pshaw.
+
+"Let's have a funeral," suggested Jean. "Here, we can lay him out in the
+lid of my writing paper box."
+
+"Grand idea," replied Katherine, carefully depositing the deceased on
+the floor beside her bed.
+
+A few minutes later the Lone Wolf, coming along to inspect the tent,
+found a black middy tie hanging from the tent post, surmounted by a
+wreath of field daisies, while inside the mouse was laid out in state in
+the lid of Jean's writing paper box, surrounded by flowers and leaves.
+
+Word of the tragedy that had taken place in Bedlam was all over camp in
+no time, and crowds came to gaze on the face of the departed one. A
+special edition of the camp paper was gotten out, with monstrous
+headlines, giving the details of the accident, and announcing the
+funeral for three o'clock.
+
+Dr. Grayson returned to camp early in the afternoon, bringing with him a
+professor friend whom he had invited to spend the week-end at camp. As
+the two men stepped from the launch to the landing a sound of wailing
+greeted their ears; long drawn out moans, heartbroken sobs, despairing
+shrieks, blood-curdling cries.
+
+"What can be the matter?" gasped the Doctor in consternation.
+
+He raced up the path to the bungalow and stood frozen to the spot by the
+sight that greeted his eyes. Down the Alley came a procession headed by
+a wheelbarrow filled with field daisies and wild red lilies, all
+arranged around a pasteboard box in the center; behind the wheelbarrow
+came two girls with black middy ties around their heads, carrying spades
+in their hands; behind them marched, two and two, all the girls who
+lived in the Alley, each with a black square over her face and all
+wailing and sobbing and shrieking at the top of their voices. The
+procession came to a halt in front of the bungalow porch and Katherine
+Adams detached herself from the ranks. Mounting a rock, she broke out
+into an impassioned funeral oration that put Mark Anthony's considerably
+in the shade. She was waving her hands in an extravagant gesture to
+accompany an especially eloquent passage, when she suddenly caught sight
+of Dr. Grayson standing watching the proceedings.
+
+The mourners saw her suddenly stand as if petrified, the gesture frozen
+in mid air, the word on her lips chopped off in the middle as with a
+knife. Following her startled glance the others also saw Dr. Grayson and
+the visitor. An indescribable sound rose from the funeral train; the
+transition noise of anguished wailing turning into uncontrollable
+laughter; then such a shout went up that the birds dozing in the trees
+overhead flew out in startled circles and went darting away with loud
+squawks of alarm.
+
+"Go on, go on," urged Dr. Grayson, with twinkling eyes, "don't let me
+interrupt the flow of eloquence."
+
+But Katherine, abashed and tongue-tied in his presence always, could not
+utter another word, and, blushing furiously, slid down off the rock and
+took refuge behind the daisy-covered bier. The procession, agitated by
+great waves of laughter, moved on toward the woods, where the mouse was
+duly interred with solemn ceremonies.
+
+"Will your father think I'm dreadfully silly?" Katherine inquired
+anxiously of Miss Judy later in the afternoon.
+
+"Not a bit," replied Miss Judy emphatically. "He thought that mouse
+funeral was the best impromptu stunt we've pulled off yet. That kind of
+thing was just what camp needed today. The novelty of it got everybody
+stirred up and made them hilarious. That funeral oration of yours was
+the funniest thing I ever heard. Miss Amesbury thought so too. She took
+it all down while you were delivering it."
+
+"Daggers and dirks!" exclaimed Katherine, more abashed than ever.
+
+"That made the first coup for the Alley," continued Miss Judy, exulting.
+"The Avenue is green with envy. They'll rack their brains now to get up
+something as clever."
+
+"Jane Pratt didn't think it was clever," replied Katherine, trying not
+to look proud at Miss Judy's compliment. "She said it was the silliest
+thing she had ever seen."
+
+"Oh,--Jane Pratt!" sniffed Miss Judy, with an expressive shrug of her
+shoulders. "Jane Pratt would have something sarcastic to say about an
+archangel. Don't you mind what Jane Pratt says."
+
+From Avernus to Gitchee-Gummee the Alley rang with praises of
+Katharine's cleverness.
+
+"What's the excitement?" asked Agony wonderingly as she returned to the
+bungalow in time for supper after resting quietly by herself all day.
+
+"The best thing the Alley ever did!" replied Bengal Virden
+enthusiastically, and recounted the details for Agony's benefit.
+
+At the same moment someone started a cheer for Katherine down at the
+other end of the table, and the response was actually deafening:
+
+  You're the B-E-S-T, best,
+  Of all the R-E-S-T, rest,
+  O, I love you, I love you all the T-I-M-E, time!
+  If you'll be M-I-N-E, mine,
+  I'll be T-H-I-N-E, thine,
+  O, I love you, I love you all the T-I-M-E, time!
+
+Agony cheered with the others, but a little stab of envy went through
+her breast, a longing to have a cheer thundered at her by the assembled
+campers, to become prominent, and looked at, and sought after. Sewah had
+"arrived," and now also Katherine, while she herself was still merely
+"among those present."
+
+Rather pensively she followed the Winnebagos into Mateka after supper
+for evening assembly, which had been called by Dr. Grayson. Usually
+there was no evening assembly; Morning Sing was the only time the whole
+camp came together in Mateka with the leaders, when all the
+announcements for the day were made. When there was something special to
+be announced, however, the bugle sometimes sounded another assembly call
+at sunset.
+
+"I wonder what the special announcement is tonight?" Hinpoha asked,
+coming up with Sewah and Agony.
+
+"I don't think it's an announcement at all," replied Sahwah. "I think
+the professor friend of Dr. Grayson's is going to make a speech. Miss
+Judy said he always did when he came to camp. He's a naturalist, or
+something like that."
+
+Agony wrinkled her forehead into a slight frown. "I hope he doesn't,"
+she sighed. "My head still aches and I don't feel like listening to a
+speech. I'd rather go canoeing up the river, as we had first planned."
+
+She sat down in an inconspicuous corner where she could rest her head
+upon her drawn up knees, if she wished, without the professor's seeing
+her, and hoped that the speech would be a short one, and that there
+would still be time to go canoeing on the river after he had finished.
+
+The professor, however, seemed to have no intention of making a speech.
+He took a chair beside the fireplace and settled himself in it with the
+air of one who intended to remain there for some time. It was Dr.
+Grayson himself who stood up to talk.
+
+"I have called you together," he began, "to tell you about one of the
+finest actions that has ever been performed by a girl in this camp. I
+heard about it from the storekeeper at Green's Landing, who was told of
+it by a man who departed on one of the steamers this morning. This man,
+who was staying on a farm on the Atlantis Road, and who is suffering
+from blood-poison in his foot, was taken into the woods in a wheel chair
+yesterday afternoon and left by himself under a great pine tree at least
+a hundred feet high. In the topmost branches of this tree a mother robin
+became tangled up in a string which was caught in a twig, and she hung
+there by one foot, unable to free herself, fluttering herself to death.
+At this time two girls came through the path in the woods, took in the
+situation, and quick as thought one of them climbed the tree, swung
+herself out on the high branch, and cut the robin loose.
+
+"The man who witnessed the act did not find out the names of the two
+girls, but the one who climbed the tree wore a Camp Keewaydin hat and a
+dark green bloomer suit. The other was dressed in brown. I don't think
+there is anyone who fails to recognize the girl who has done this heroic
+thing. There is only one green bloomer suit here in camp. Mrs. Grayson
+tells me that she gave Agnes Wing permission to go to Atlantis with Mary
+Sylvester yesterday afternoon. Where is she? Agnes Wing, stand up."
+
+Agony stood up in her corner of the room, her lips opened to tell Dr.
+Grayson that it was Mary who happened to have on the green bloomer suit
+and had climbed the tree, but her words were drowned in a cheer that
+nearly raised the roof off the Craft House. Before she knew it Miss Judy
+and Tiny Armstrong had seized her, set her up on their shoulders, and
+were carrying her around the room, while the building fairly rocked with
+applause. Thrilled and intoxicated by the cheering, Agony began to
+listen to the voice of the tempter in her bosom. No one would ever know
+that it had not really been she who had done the brave deed; not a soul
+knew of her lending her suit to Mary because of the mishap in the
+springhouse. Mary Sylvester was gone; was on her way to Japan; she would
+never hear about it; and the only person who had witnessed the deed did
+not know their names; he had only remembered the green bloomer suit. The
+man himself was unknown, nobody at camp could ever ask him about the
+affair. He had gone from the neighborhood and would never come face to
+face with her and discover his mistake; the secret was safe in her
+heart.
+
+In one bound she could become the most popular girl in camp; gain the
+favor of the Doctor and the councilors--especially of Miss Amesbury,
+whom she was most desirous of impressing. The sight of Miss Amesbury
+leaning forward with shining eyes decided the question for her. The
+words trembling on her lips were choked back; she hung her head and
+looked the picture of modest embarrassment, the ideal heroine.
+
+Set down on the floor again by Tiny and Miss Judy, she hid her face on
+Miss Judy's shoulder and blushed at Dr. Grayson's long speech of praise,
+in which he spoke touchingly of the beauty of a nature which loved the
+wild dumb creatures of the woods and sought to protect them from harm;
+of the cool courage and splendid will power that had sent her out on the
+shaking branch when her very heart was in her mouth from fear; of the
+modesty which had kept her silent about the glorious act after she
+returned to camp. When he took both her hands in his and looked into her
+face with an expression of admiring regard in his fine, true eyes, she
+all but told the truth of the matter then and there; but cowardice held
+her silent and the moment passed.
+
+"Let's have a canoe procession in her honor!" called Miss Judy, and
+there was a rush for the dock.
+
+Agony was borne down in triumph upon the shoulders of Miss Judy and
+Tiny, with all the camp marching after, and was set down in the barge of
+honor, the first canoe behind the towing launch, while all the Alley
+drew straws for the privilege of riding with her. Still cheering Agony
+enthusiastically the procession started down the river in a wild,
+hilarious ride, and Agony thrilled with the joy of being the center of
+attraction.
+
+"I have arrived at last," she whispered triumphantly to herself as she
+went to bed that night, and lay awake a long time in the darkness,
+thinking of the cheers that had rocked the Craft House and of the
+flattering attention with which Miss Amesbury had regarded her all
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE BUSINESS OF BEING A HEROINE
+
+Agony awoke the next morning to find herself famous beyond her fondest
+dreams. Before she was dressed she saw two of the younger girls peeping
+into the tent for a glimpse of her; when she stood in line for flag
+raising she was conscious of eyes turned toward her from all directions
+while girls who had never noticed her before stopped to say good morning
+effusively, and seemed inclined to linger in her company; and at
+breakfast each table in turn sang a cheer for her. Jo Severance, who was
+one of the acknowledged camp leaders, and whose friendships were not
+lightly bestowed, ostensibly stopped and waited for Agony to catch up
+with her on the way over to Morning Sing and walked into Mateka with her
+arm around Agony's waist.
+
+"Will you be my sleeping partner for the first overnight trip that we
+take?" she asked cordially.
+
+"Certainly," Agony replied a little breathlessly, already well enough
+versed in camp customs to realize the extent of the tribute that was
+being paid her.
+
+At Camp Keewaydin a girl never asked anyone but her dearest friend to be
+her sleeping partner on an overnight trip, to creep into her poncho
+sleeping bag with her and share the intimate experience of a night on
+the ground, heads together on the same pillow, warm bodies touching each
+other in the crowded nest inside the blankets. And Jo Severance had
+chosen her to take the place of Mary Sylvester, Jo's own adored Mary,
+who was to have been Jo's partner on all occasions!
+
+Before Morning Sing was over Agony had received a dozen pressing
+invitations to share beds on that first camping trip, and the date of
+the trip was not even announced yet!
+
+And to all this fuss and favor Agony responded like a prism placed in
+the sunlight. She sparkled, she glowed, she radiated, she brought to the
+surface with a rush all the wit and charm and talent that lay in her
+being. She beamed upon everyone right and left; she threw herself with
+ardor and enthusiasm into every plan that was suggested; she had a dozen
+brilliant ideas in as many minutes; she seemed absolutely inspired. Her
+deep voice came out so strongly that she was able to carry the alto in
+the singing against the whole camp; she improvised delightful harmonies
+that put a thrill into the commonest tune. She got up of her own accord
+and performed the gestures to "The Lone Fish Ball" better even than
+Mary Sylvester had done them, and on the spur of the moment she worked
+out another set to accompany "The Bulldog and the Bullfrog" that brought
+down the house. It took only the stimulating influence of the limelight
+to bring out and intensify every talent she had ever possessed. It
+worked upon her like a drug, quickening her faculties, spurring her on
+to one brilliant performance after the other, while the camp looked upon
+her in wonder as one gifted by the gods.
+
+The same exalted mood possessed her during swimming hour, and she passed
+the test for Sharks with flying colors. Immediately afterward she
+completed the canoe test and joined that envied class who were allowed
+to take out a canoe on their own responsibility.
+
+A dozen new admirers flocked around her as she walked back to
+Gitchee-Gummee at the close of the Swimming hour, all begging to be
+allowed to sew up the tear in her bathing suit, or offering to lend her
+the prettiest of their bathing caps. What touched Agony most, however,
+was the pride which the Winnebagos took in her exploit.
+
+"We knew you would do something splendid sometime and bring honor to
+us," they told her exultingly, with shining faces.
+
+"I'm going to write Nyoda about it this minute," said Migwan, after she
+had finished her words of praise. "What's the mater, Agony, have you a
+headache again?" she finished.
+
+"No," replied Agony in a tone of forced carelessness.
+
+"I thought maybe you had," continued Migwan solicitously. "Your forehead
+was all puckered up."
+
+"The light is so bright on the river," murmured Agony, and walked
+thoughtfully away.
+
+Days passed in pleasant succession; Mary Sylvester's name gradually
+ceased to be heard on all sides from her mourning cronies, who at first
+accompanied every camp activity with a plaintive chorus of, "Remember
+the way Mary used to do this," or "Oh, I wish Mary were here to enjoy
+this," or "Mary had planned to do this the first chance she got," and so
+on. Life in camp was so packed full of enjoyment for those who remained
+behind that it was impossible to go on missing the departed one
+indefinitely.
+
+The first camping trip was a thing of the past. It had been a
+twenty-mile hike along the river to a curious group of rocks known as
+"Hercules' Library," from the resemblance which the granite blocks bore
+to shelves of books. Here, among these fantastic formations, the camp
+had spread its blankets and literally snored, if not actually upon, at
+least at the base of, the flint.
+
+When bedtime came Katherine had found herself without a sleeping
+partner, for she had forgotten to ask someone herself, and it just
+happened that no one had asked her. She was philosophically trying to
+make her bed up for a single, by doubling the poncho over lengthwise
+into a cocoon effect, when she heard a sniffle coming out of the bushes
+beside her. Investigating, she found Carmen Chadwick sitting
+disconsolately upon a very much wrinkled poncho, her chin in her hands,
+the picture of woe.
+
+"What's the matter, can't you make your bed?" asked Katherine,
+remembering Carmen's helplessness in that line upon a former occasion.
+
+"I haven't any partner!" answered Carmen, with another sniffle. "I had
+one, but she's run away from me."
+
+"Who was it?" asked Katherine.
+
+"Jane Pratt," replied Carmen. "I asked her a long time ago if I might
+sleep with her on the first trip, and she said, certainly I might, and
+she would bring along enough blankets for the two of us, and I wouldn't
+need to bother bringing any. So I didn't bring any blankets; but when I
+asked her just now where we were going to sleep, she said she hadn't the
+faintest notion where _I_ was going to sleep, but _she_ was going to
+sleep alone in the woods, away from the rest of us. She laughed at me,
+and said she never intended to bring along enough blankets for the two
+of us, and that I should have known better than to believe her. What
+shall I do?" she wailed, beginning to weep in earnest.
+
+Katherine gave vent to an exclamation that sent a nearby chipmunk
+scampering away in a panic. She looked around for Miss Judy, but Miss
+Judy was deep in the woods with the other councilors getting up a stunt
+to entertain the girls after supper. "Where's Jane Pratt?" asked
+Katherine.
+
+"I don't know," sniffled Carmen.
+
+"Didn't you bring any blankets at all?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Carmen, didn't it ever occur to you that Jane was making fun of you
+when she said she would bring blankets for two? Nobody ever does that,
+you know, they'd make too heavy a load to carry."
+
+Carmen shook her head, and gulped afresh.
+
+"No, I never thought of that. I wanted a sleeping partner so badly, and
+everyone I asked was already engaged, and when she said yes I was _so_
+happy."
+
+"Of all the mean, contemptible tricks to play on a poor little creature
+like that!" Katherine exclaimed aloud.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Agony, appearing beside her.
+
+Katherine told her.
+
+Agony's eyes flashed. "I'm going to find Jane Pratt," she said in the
+calm tone which always indicated smouldering anger, "and make her share
+her blankets with Carmen."
+
+Jane, who, with the practised eye of the old camper, had selected a
+smooth bit of ground thickly covered with pine needles and sloping
+gently upward toward the end for her head, and had arranged her two
+double blankets and her extra large sized poncho into an extremely
+comfortable bed for one, looked up from her labors to find Agony
+standing before her with flushed face and blazing eyes.
+
+"Jane Pratt," Agony began without preliminary, "did you promise to sleep
+with Carmen Chadwick, and lead her to think she did not need to bring
+any blankets along on this trip?"
+
+Jane returned Agony's gaze coolly, and gave a slight, disagreeable
+laugh. "Carmen's the biggest goose in camp," she said scornfully.
+"Anybody'd know I didn't mean--"
+
+"_Carmen_ didn't know you didn't mean it," Agony interrupted. "She
+thought you were sincere, and believed you, and now she's dreadfully
+hurt about it. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, hurting a poor
+little girl's feelings like that."
+
+"If anybody's green enough to come on an overnight trip without any
+blankets and actually think someone else is going to bring them for
+her--"
+
+"Well, as it happens, Carmen _was_ green enough, and that's just the
+point. She's never been away from home and because she's so desperately
+homesick she's having a hard time making friends. If one person treats
+her like this it'll be hard for her ever to believe what people tell
+her and it'll be harder for her to get acquainted than ever."
+
+Jane shrugged her shoulders. "What she believes or doesn't believe
+doesn't concern me."
+
+"Why, Jane Pratt!"
+
+Jane smiled amusedly at Agony's reproachful exclamation. "My dear," she
+said patronizingly, "I never sleep with anyone. There's no one I like
+well enough. I thought everyone in camp knew that."
+
+"Then why did you tell Carmen you would sleep with her?"
+
+"Because she's such a goose it was no end of fun taking her in."
+
+"Then you deliberately deceived her?" asked Agony witheringly.
+
+"Well, and what if I did?" retorted Jane.
+
+"You have absolutely no sense of honor," Agony remarked contemptuously.
+"Deceiving people is just as bad as lying, or cheating."
+
+Stung by Agony's tone, Jane flushed a little. "Well, what do you expect
+me to do about it?" she demanded. "What business is it of yours,
+anyway?"
+
+"You're going to let Carmen take one of your blankets," replied Agony.
+
+"I'll do no such thing," returned Jane flatly. "It's going to be cold
+here tonight and I'll need them both."
+
+"And what about Carmen?"
+
+"Bother Carmen! If she's such a goose to think that I meant what I said
+she deserves to be cold."
+
+"Why, Jane Pratt!"
+
+"Why don't you share your own blankets with her, if you're so concerned
+about her?"
+
+"I'm perfectly willing to, and so are the rest of the girls, but we're
+giving you the _opportunity_ to do it, to help right the mistake."
+
+"I suppose you've told all the girls in camp about it and will run and
+tell Mrs. Grayson to come and make me give up my blankets."
+
+"I'll do no such thing. If you aren't kind hearted enough yourself to
+want to make Carmen feel better it wouldn't mend matters any to have
+Mrs. Grayson make you do it. But I shall certainly let the girls know
+about it. I think they ought to know what an amiable disposition you
+have. I don't think you'll be bothered with any more overtures of
+friendship."
+
+Jane yawned. "For goodness' sake, are you going to preach all night?
+That voice of yours sets my nerves on edge. Take a blanket and present
+it to Carmen with my love--and let me alone." She stripped the top
+blanket from her bed and threw it at Agony's feet; then walked off,
+calling over her shoulder as she went, "Good bye, Miss Champion of
+simple camp infants. Most courageous, most honorable!"
+
+She did not see the sudden spasm that contorted Agony's face at the
+word "honorable." It suddenly came over Agony that she had no right to
+be calling other people cheats and liars and taking them to task about
+their sense of honor, she, who was enjoying honors that did not belong
+to her. The light of victory faded from her eyes; the angry flush died
+away on her cheek. Very quietly she stole back to Carmen and held the
+blanket out to her.
+
+"Jane's sorry she can't sleep with you, because she never sleeps well
+and is apt to disturb people, but she's willing to let you take one of
+her blankets," she said gently.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" said Carmen, much comforted. "I'm going to sleep with
+Katherine. With this blanket there'll be enough bedding to make a
+double. I'm glad I'm not going to sleep with Jane," she confided to
+Katherine. "I'm afraid of her. I would lots rather have had you for my
+partner from the beginning, but I was afraid to ask you because I was
+sure you were promised to somebody else."
+
+"Motto," said Katherine, laughing. "Faint heart never won lanky lady.
+Don't ever hesitate to ask me anything again. Come on, let's get this
+bed made up in a hurry. I see the councilors coming back. That means
+their show is going to commence."
+
+Of course, it was not long before Agony's little passage of arms with
+Jane Pratt in behalf of timid little Carmen was known all over camp, and
+Agony went up another point in popular favor as Jane Pratt went down.
+The councilors heard about it, too, for whatever Bengal Virden knew was
+promptly confided to Pom-pom. Miss Judy told it to Dr. Grayson, and he
+nodded his head approvingly.
+
+"It's no more than you would expect from the girl who rescued that
+robin," he said warmly. "The champion of all weaker creatures.
+Diplomatic, too. Tried to save Carmen's feelings in the matter by not
+telling her the exact spirit in which Jane gave up the blanket. A good
+leader; another Mary Sylvester."
+
+Then, turning to Mrs. Grayson, he asked plaintively: "Mother, _why_ do
+we have to be afflicted with Jane Pratt year after year? She's been a
+thorn in our flesh for the past three summers."
+
+"I have told you before," replied Mrs. Grayson resignedly, "that I only
+accept her because she is the daughter of my old friend Anne Dudley. I
+cannot offend Mrs. Pratt because I am under various obligations to her,
+so for the sake of her mother we must continue to be afflicted with Jane
+Pratt."
+
+Dr. Grayson heaved a long sigh, and muttered something about "the fell
+clutch of circumstance."
+
+"We seem rather plentifully saddled with 'obligations,'" he remarked a
+moment later.
+
+"Meaning?" inquired Mrs. Grayson.
+
+"Claudia Peckham," rejoined the Doctor. "Sweet Claudia Peckham: How she
+used to scrap with my little brothers when she came to visit us! She
+had a disposition like the bubonic plague when she was little, and by
+all the signs she doesn't seem to have mellowed any with age."
+
+"Doctor!" exclaimed Mrs. Grayson reprovingly.
+
+"Sad, but true," continued the Doctor, his eyes twinkling reminiscently.
+"When she came to visit us the cat used to hide her kittens under the
+porch, and the whole household went into a regular state of siege. By
+the way, how is she getting on? I've lived in fear of the explosion
+every minute. I never thought she'd last this long. Who has she in the
+tent with her?"
+
+"That brown haired madonna you think is so sweet, and the pretty, golden
+haired girl who is her intimate friend," replied Mrs. Grayson. "Those
+two, and--Bengal Virden."
+
+The Doctor gave vent to a long whistle. "Bengal Virden in the same tent
+with Claudia Peckham? And the tent is still standing?"
+
+"Bengal doesn't sleep in the tent," admitted Mrs. Grayson. "She has
+moved underneath it, into a couch hammock. She thinks I don't know it,
+but under the circumstances I shall not interfere. We have to keep
+Cousin Claudia _somewhere_, and as long as they'll put up with her in
+Ponemah I don't care how they manage it. She _would_ be a tent
+councilor."
+
+"How do the other two get along with her?" asked the Doctor, "the two
+that have not moved underneath, as yet?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Mrs. Grayson in a frankly puzzled tone. "They
+must be angels unaware, that's all I can say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+THE SHOE BEGINS TO PINCH
+
+  "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the bugs are marching,
+  Up and down the tents they go,
+  Some are brown and some are black,
+  But of each there is no lack,
+  And the Daddy-long-legs they go marching too!"
+
+So sang Sahwah as she tidied up her tent after Morning Sing. It was war
+on bugs and spiders this morning; war to the knife, or rather, to the
+broom. Usually there was no time between Morning Sing and tent
+inspection to do more than give the place a swift tidying up; to sweep
+the floor and straighten up the beds and set the table in order. Bugs
+and spiders did not count against one in tent inspection, being looked
+upon as circumstances over which one had no control; hence no one ever
+bothered about them. But that morning Sahwah, lying awake waiting for
+the rising bugle to blow, saw a round-bellied, jolly-looking little bug
+crawling leisurely along the floor, dragging a tiny seed of grain with
+him, and looking for all the world like the father of a family bringing
+a loaf of bread home for breakfast. As she watched it traveling along a
+crack in the board floor, a very large, fierce-looking bug appeared on
+the scene, fell upon the smaller one, killed and half devoured it, and
+then made off triumphantly with the seed the other had been carrying.
+
+"No you don't!" shouted Sahwah aloud, waking Agony out of a sound sleep.
+
+"What's the matter?" yawned Agony.
+
+Sahwah laughed a little foolishly. "It was nothing; only a bug," she
+explained. "I'm sorry I wakened you, Agony. You see, I was watching a
+cute little bug carrying a seed across the floor, and a bigger bug came
+along and took it away from him. I won't stand for anything like that
+here in Gitchee-Gummee. We all play fair here, and nobody takes any
+plums that belong to someone else."
+
+She rose in her wrath, reached for her shoe, and made short work of the
+unethical despoiler.
+
+Agony made no comment. The words, _we all play fair here, and nobody
+takes any plums that belong to someone else_, pierced her bosom like
+barbed arrows. She lay so still that Sahwah thought she had dropped off
+to sleep again, and crept quietly back to bed so as not to disturb her a
+second time. Like the tiger, however, who, once having tasted blood, is
+consumed with the lust of killing, Sahwah, having squashed one bug,
+itched to do the same with all the others in the tent, and when
+tidying-up time came there began a ruthless campaign of extermination.
+
+Agony, having made her bed and swept out underneath it, departed
+abruptly from the scene. Somehow the sight of bugs being killed was
+upsetting to her just now. She wandered down toward the river, listening
+pensively to the sweet piping notes of Noel Sanderson's whistle, coming
+from somewhere along the shore; then she turned and walked toward
+Mateka, planning to put in some time working on the design for her
+paddle before Craft Hour began and the place became filled to
+overflowing with other designers, all wanting the design books and the
+rulers and compasses at once.
+
+As she passed under the balcony which was Miss Amesbury's sanctum, a
+cordial hail floated down from above. "Good morning, Agony, whither
+bound so early, and what means that portentous frown?"
+
+Agony looked up to see Miss Amesbury, wreathed in smiles, peering down
+over the rustic railing at her. Agony flushed with pleasure at the
+cordiality of the tone, and the use of her nickname. It was only the
+girls for which she had a special liking that Miss Amesbury ever
+addressed by a nickname, no matter how universally in use that nickname
+might be with the rest of the camp. Agony's blood tingled with a sense
+of triumph; her eyes sparkled and her face took on that look of being
+lighted up from within that characterized her in moments of great
+animation.
+
+"I was coming down to Mateka to put in some extra work on the design for
+my paddle," she replied, in her rich, vibrating voice, "and I was
+frowning because I was a little puzzled how I was going to work it out."
+
+"Industrious child!" replied Miss Amesbury. "Come up and visit me and
+I'll show you some good designs for paddles."
+
+The next half hour was so filled with delight for Agony that she did not
+know whether she was sleeping or waking. Sitting opposite her adored
+Miss Amesbury on a rustic bench covered with a bright Indian blanket and
+listening to the fascinating conversation of this much traveled, older
+woman, the voice of conscience grew fainter and nearly ceased tormenting
+Agony altogether, and she gave herself up wholly to the enjoyment of the
+moment. In answer to Miss Amesbury's questioning, she told of her home
+and school life; her great admiration for Edwin Langham; and about the
+Winnebagos and their good times; and Miss Amesbury laughed heartily at
+her tales and in turn related her own school-girl pranks and enthusiasm
+in a flattering confidential way.
+
+Agony rushed up to the Winnebagos after Craft Hour, radiant with pride
+and happiness. "Miss Amesbury invited me up to her balcony," she
+announced, trying hard to speak casually, "and she lent me one of her
+own books to read, and she helped me work out the design for my paddle.
+She's the most wonderful woman I've ever met. She wants me to come again
+often, she says, and she invited me to go walking with her in the woods
+this afternoon to get some balsam."
+
+"O Agony, how splendid!" cried Migwan, with a hint of wistfulness in her
+voice. Migwan did not envy Agony her sudden popularity with the campers
+one bit; that was her just due after the splendid deed she had
+performed; but where Miss Amesbury was concerned Migwan could not help
+feeling a few pangs of jealousy. She admired Miss Amesbury with all the
+passion that was in her, looking up to her as one of the nameless,
+insignificant stars of heaven might look up to the Evening Star; she
+prayed that Miss Amesbury might single her out for intimate friendship
+such as was enjoyed by Mary Sylvester and some of the other older girls.
+Migwan never breathed this desire to anyone, but if Miss Amesbury had
+only known it, a certain pair of soft brown eyes rested eagerly upon her
+all through Morning Sing, as she sat at the piano playing hymns and
+choruses, even as they were fixed upon her during meals and other
+assemblies. And now the thing that Migwan coveted so much had come to
+Agony, and Agony basked in the light of Miss Amesbury's twinkling smile
+and enjoyed all the privileges of friendship which Migwan would have
+given her right hand to possess. But, being Migwan, she bravely brushed
+aside her momentary feeling of envy, told herself sternly that if she
+was worth it Miss Amesbury would notice her sooner or later, and
+cheerfully lent Agony her best pencil to transfer the new paddle design
+with.
+
+"Supper on the water tonight!" announced Miss Judy, going the rounds
+late in the afternoon. "Everybody go down on the dock when the supper
+bugle blows, instead of coming into the dining room."
+
+There was a mad rush for canoe partners, and a hasty gathering together
+of guitars and mandolins, which would certainly be in demand for the
+evening sing-out which would follow supper. Agony, being in an exalted
+mood, had an inspiration, which she confided to Gladys in a whisper, and
+Gladys, nodding, moved off in the direction of the Bungalow and paid a
+visit to her trunk up in the loft, after which she and Agony disappeared
+into the woods.
+
+The river was bathed in living fire from the rays of the setting sun
+when the little fleet of boats pushed out from the shore and began
+circling around the floating dock where Miss Judy and Tiny Armstrong,
+with the help of three or four other councilors, were passing out plates
+of salad, sandwiches and cups of milk. Having received their supplies,
+the canoes backed away and went moving up or down the river as the
+paddlers desired, sometimes two or three canoes close together,
+sometimes one alone, but all, whether alone or in groups, filling the
+occupants of the launch with desperate envy. A dozen or more girls these
+were, still in the Minnow class, still denied the privilege of going out
+in a canoe because they had not yet passed the swimming test.
+
+Oh-Pshaw, alas, was still one of them. She looked wistfully at Agony, a
+Shark, in charge of a canoe with Hinpoha and Gladys and Jo Severance as
+companions, gliding alongside of Sahwah and Undine Cirelle on the one
+side and Katherine and Jean Lawrence on the other. She heard their
+voices floating across the water as they laughingly called to each other
+and sang snatches of songs aimed at Miss Judy and Tiny Armstrong on the
+floating dock; heard Tiny Armstrong remark to Miss Judy, "There's the
+best group of canoeists we've ever had in camp. Won't they make a
+showing on Regatta Day, though!"
+
+Oh-Pshaw longed with all her heart on floating supper nights to belong
+to that illustrious company and go gliding up and down the river like a
+swan instead of chugging around in the launch, sitting cramped up to
+make room for the supper supplies that covered the floor on the trip
+out, and baskets of used forks and spoons and cups on the trip back. It
+was not a brilliant company that went in the launch. Jacob, Dr.
+Grayson's helper about camp, ran the engine. Being desperately shy, he
+attended strictly to business, and never so much as glanced at the girls
+packed in behind him. Half a dozen of the younger camp girls, who never
+did anything but whisper together, carve stones for their favorite
+councilors, and giggle continually; three or four of the older girls who
+sat silent as clams for the most part, and never betrayed any particular
+enthusiasm, no matter what went on; Carmen Chadwick, who clung to
+Oh-Pshaw and squeaked with alarm every time the launch changed her
+course; and Miss Peckham, who from her seat in the stern kept shouting
+nervous admonitions at the unheeding Jacob; these constituted the
+company who were doomed to travel together on all excursions.
+
+Oh-Pshaw labored heroically to infuse a spark of life into the company;
+she wrote a really clever little song about "the Exclusive Crew of the
+Irish Stew," but she could not induce the exclusive crew to sing it, so
+her first poetic effort was love's labor lost. So she looked enviously
+upon the canoes and resolved more firmly than ever to overcome her fear
+of the water and learn to swim, and thus have done with the launch and
+its uninspiring company for all time.
+
+Migwan's eyes, as usual, went roving in search of Miss Amesbury, but
+tonight, to her sorrow, they did not find her anywhere in the canoes.
+
+"Where is Miss Amesbury?" she asked of Miss Judy, as her canoe came up
+alongside of the "lunch counter."
+
+"She didn't come out with us tonight," replied Miss Judy, tipping the
+milk can far over to pour out the last drop. "She wanted to do some
+writing, she said."
+
+Migwan sighed quietly and gave herself over to being agreeable to her
+canoe mates, but the occasion had lost its savor for her.
+
+Supper finished, the canoes began to drift westward toward the setting
+sun, following the broad streak of light that lay like a magic highway
+upon the water, while guitars and mandolins began to tinkle, and from
+all around clear girlish voices, blended together in exquisite harmony,
+took up song after song.
+
+"Oh, I could float along like this and sing forever!" breathed Hinpoha,
+picking out soft chords on her guitar, and looking dreamily at the
+evening star glowing like a jewelled lamp in the western sky.
+
+"So could I," replied Migwan, leaning back in the canoe with her hands
+clasped behind her head, and letting the light breeze ruffle the soft
+tendrils of hair around her temples. "It is going to be full moon
+tonight," she added. "See, there it is, rising above the treetops. How
+big and bright it is! Can it be possible that it is only a mass of dead
+chalk and not a ball of burnished silver? Gladys will enjoy that moon,
+she always loves it so when it is so big and round and bright. By the
+way, where _is_ Gladys? I saw her in a canoe not long ago, but I don't
+see her anywhere now."
+
+"I don't know where she is," replied Hinpoha, glancing idly around at
+the various craft and then letting her eyes rest upon the moon again.
+
+The little fleet had rounded an island and turned back upstream, now
+traveling in the silver moon-path, now gliding through velvety black
+shadows, and was approaching a long, low ledge of rock that jutted out
+into the water just beyond the big bend in the river. A sudden
+exclamation of "Ah-h!" drew everybody's attention to the rock, and there
+a wondrous spectacle presented itself--a white robed figure dancing in
+the moonlight as lighty as a bit of seafoam, her filmy draperies
+fluttering in the wind, her long yellow hair twined with lillies.
+
+"Who is it?" several voices cried in wonder, and the paddlers stopped
+spellbound with their paddles poised in air.
+
+"Gladys!" exclaimed Migwan. "I thought she was planning a surprise, she
+and Agony were whispering together this afternoon. Isn't she wonderful,
+though!" Migwan's voice rang with pride in her beloved friend's
+accomplishment. "Too bad Miss Amesbury isn't here to see it."
+
+The dancer on the rock dipped and swayed and whirled in a mad measure,
+finally disappearing into the shadow of a towering cliff, from whence
+she emerged a few moments later, once more in the canoe with Agony, and
+changed back from a water nymph into a Camp Keewaydin girl in middy and
+bloomers.
+
+"It was Agony's idea," she explained simply, in response to the storm of
+applause that greeted her reappearance among the girls. "She thought of
+it this afternoon when the word went around that we were going to have
+supper on the water."
+
+Then Agony came in for her share of the applause also, until the woods
+echoed to the sound of cheering.
+
+"Too bad Miss Amesbury had to miss it." Thus Agony echoed Migwan's
+earlier expression of regret as she walked down the Alley arm in arm
+with Migwan and Hinpoha after the first bugle. "She's been working up
+there on her balcony all evening, and didn't hear a bit of the singing.
+We were too far up the river."
+
+"Couldn't we sing a bit for her?" suggested Migwan. "Serenade her, I
+mean; just a few of us who are used to singing together?"
+
+"Good idea," replied Agony enthusiastically. "Get all the Winnebagos
+together and let's sing her some of our own songs, the ones we've
+practicsed so much together at home. You bring your mandolin, Migs, and
+tell Hinpoha to bring her guitar. Hurry, we'll have to do it fast to get
+back for lights out."
+
+Miss Amesbury, wearily finishing her evening's work, was suddenly
+greeted by a burst of song from beneath her balcony; a surpassing deep,
+rich alto, beautifully blended with a number of clear, pure sopranos,
+accompanied by mandolin and guitar. It was a song she had not heard in
+years, one which held a beautiful, tender association for her:
+
+  "I would that my love could silently
+  Flow in a single word--"
+
+A mist came over her eyes as she listened, and the gates of memory swung
+back on their golden hinges, revealing another scene, when she had
+listened to that song sung by a voice now long since hushed. She put her
+hand over her eyes as if in pain, then dropped it slowly into her lap
+and sat leaning back in her chair listening with hungry ears to the
+familiar strains. When the last note had echoed itself quite away she
+leaned over the balcony and called down softly, "Thanks, many thanks,
+girls. You do not know what a treat you have given me. Who are you? I
+know one of you must be Agony, I recognize her alto, but who are the
+rest of you? The Winnebagos? I might have guessed it. You are dear girls
+to think of me up here by myself and to put yourselves out to give me
+pleasure. Come and visit me in the daytime, every one of you. There goes
+the last bugle. Goodnight, girls. Thank you a thousand times!"
+
+The Winnebagos scurried off toward the Alley, in high spirits at the
+success of their little plan. Migwan actually trembled with joy. At last
+she had been invited up on Miss Amesbury's fascinating little balcony.
+True, the invitation had been a general one to all the Winnebagos, but
+nevertheless, it was a beginning.
+
+"Miss Amesbury must have been very tired tonight," she confided to
+Hinpoha. "Her voice actually shook when she thanked us for singing."
+
+"I noticed it, too," replied Hinpoha, beginning to pull her middy off
+over her head as she walked along.
+
+When Agony reached the door of Gitchee-Gummee she remembered that she
+had left her camp hat lying in the path below Mateka, where they had
+stood to serenade Miss Amesbury, and fearing that the wind, which was
+increasing in velocity, might blow it into the river before morning, she
+hastened back to rescue it. She moved quietly, for it was after lights
+out and she did not wish to disturb the camp. Miss Amesbury's lamp was
+extinguished and her balcony was shrouded in darkness by the shadow of
+the tall pine which grew against it.
+
+"She must be very tired," thought Agony, remembering Migwan's words,
+"and is already in bed."
+
+Agony felt carefully over the shadowy ground for her hat, found it and
+started back up the path. But the beauty of the moonlight on the river
+tempted her to loiter and dream along the bluff before returning to her
+tent. Enchanted by the magic scene beneath her, she stood still and
+gazed for many minutes at the gleaming river of water which seemed to
+her like pure molten silver.
+
+As she stood gazing, half lost in dreams, she saw a canoe shoot out from
+the opposite shore some distance up the river and come toward Keewaydin,
+keeping in the shadows along the shore. Just before it reached camp it
+drew in and discharged a passenger, which Agony could see was a girl.
+Then the canoe put off again, and as it crossed a moonlit place Agony
+saw that it was painted bright red, the color of the canoes belonging to
+the Boy's Camp located about a half mile down the river. Agony realized
+what the presence of that canoe meant. One of the girls of Keewaydin had
+been out canoeing on the sly with some boy from Camp Alamont--a thing
+forbidden in the Keewaydin code--and was being brought back in this
+surreptitious manner. Who could the girl be? Agony grimaced with
+disgust. She waited quietly there in the path where the girl, whoever
+she was, must pass in order to go up to her tent. In a few moments the
+girl came along and nearly stumbled over her in the darkness, crying out
+in alarm at the unexpected encounter. Agony's swiftly adjusted
+flashlight fell upon the heavy features and unpleasant eyes of Jane
+Pratt.
+
+"O Jane," cried Agony, "you haven't been over at that boys' camp, have
+you? You surely know it's forbidden--Dr. Grayson said so distinctly when
+he read the camp rules."
+
+"Well, what if I have?" Jane demanded in a tone of asperity. "Dr.
+Grayson makes a lot of rules that are too silly for words. I have a
+friend over at Camp Altamont that I've known for years and if I choose
+to go canoeing with him on such a gorgeous night instead of going to bed
+at nine o'clock like a baby it's nobody's business. By the way, what are
+_you_ doing here?" she demanded suspiciously. "Why aren't you in bed
+with the rest of the infants?"
+
+"I came out to get my hat," replied Agony simply.
+
+"Strange thing that your hat should get lost just in the spot where I
+happen to come ashore," remarked Jane sarcastically. "How long have you
+been spying upon my movements, Miss Virtue?"
+
+"I haven't been spying on you," declared Agony hotly. "I hadn't any idea
+you were out. To tell the truth, I never missed you this evening when we
+were on the river."
+
+"Well, I suppose you'll pull Mrs. Grayson out of her bed now to tell her
+the scandal about Jane Pratt," continued Jane bitingly, "and tomorrow
+morning at five o'clock there'll be another departure from camp."
+
+"O Jane!" cried Agony, in distress. "Will she really send you home?"
+
+"She really will," mocked Jane. "She sent a girl home last year who did
+the same thing."
+
+"O Jane, how dreadful that would be," said Agony.
+
+"And how sorry you would be to have me go--not," returned Jane
+derisively.
+
+"Jane," said Agony seriously, "if I promise not to tell Mrs. Grayson
+this time will you promise never to do this sort of thing again? It
+would be awful to be sent home from camp in disgrace. If you think it
+over you'll surely see what a much better time you'll have if you don't
+break rules--if you work and play honorably. Won't you please try?"
+
+The derisive tone deepened in Jane's voice as she answered, "No I will
+_not_. I'll make no such babyish promise--to you of all people--because
+I wouldn't keep it if I did make it."
+
+"Then," said Agony firmly, "I'll do just as we do in school with the
+honor system. I'll give you three days to tell Mrs. Grayson yourself,
+and if you haven't done it by the end of that time I'll tell her myself.
+What you are doing is a bad example for the younger girls, and Mrs.
+Grayson ought to know about it."
+
+Jane's only reply was a mocking laugh as she brushed past Agony and went
+in the direction of her tent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+AN EXPLORING TRIP
+
+"Miss Amesbury wants us to go off on a canoe trip with her," announced
+Agony, rushing up to the Winnebagos after Craft Hour the next morning.
+
+"Wants who to go on a canoe trip with her?" demanded Sahwah in
+excitement.
+
+"Why, us, the Winnebagos," replied Agony. "Just us, and Jo Severance.
+She wants to take a canoe trip up the river, but she doesn't want to go
+with the whole camp when they go because there will be too much noise
+and excitement. She wants a quieter trip, but she doesn't want to go all
+alone, so she has asked Dr. Grayson if she may take us girls. He said
+she might. We're to start this afternoon, right after dinner, and be
+gone over night; maybe two nights."
+
+"O Agony!" breathed Migwan in ecstacy, falling upon Agony's neck and
+hugging her rapturously. "It's all due to you. If you hadn't done that
+splendid thing we wouldn't be half as popular as we are. We're sharing
+your glory with you." She smiled fondly into Agony's eyes and squeezed
+her hand heartily. "Good old Agony," she murmured.
+
+Agony smiled back mechanically and returned the squeeze with only a
+slight pressure. "Nonsense," she replied with emphasis. "It isn't on
+account of what--I--did at all that she has asked you. It's because you
+serenaded her the other evening. That was _your_ doing, Migwan."
+
+"But we wouldn't have ventured to serenade her if she hadn't been so
+friendly with you," replied Migwan, "so it amounts to the same thing in
+the end. That's the way it has always been with us Winnebagos, hasn't
+it? What one does always helps the rest of us. Sahwah's swimming has
+made us all famous; and so has Gladys's dancing and Katherine's
+speechifying."
+
+"And your writing," put in Hinpoha. "Don't forget that Indian legend of
+yours that brought the spotlight down upon us in our freshman year. That
+was really the making of us. No matter what one of us does, the others
+all share in the glory."
+
+A tiny shiver went down Agony's back. "And I suppose," she added
+casually, "if one of us were to disgrace herself the others would share
+the disgrace."
+
+"We certainly would," said Sahwah with conviction.
+
+Agony turned away with a dry feeling in her throat and walked soberly
+to her tent to prepare for the canoe trip.
+
+"Have you noticed that there is something queer about Agony lately?"
+Migwan remarked to Gladys as she laid out her poncho on the tent floor
+preparatory to rolling it.
+
+"I haven't noticed it," replied Gladys, getting out needle and thread to
+sew up a small rent in her bloomers. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I can't explain it exactly," continued Migwan, pausing in the act
+of doubling back her blanket to fit the shape of the poncho, "but she's
+different, somehow. She sits and stares out over the river sometimes for
+half an hour at a stretch, and sometimes when you speak to her she gives
+you an answer that shows she hasn't heard what you said."
+
+"I _have_ noticed it, now that you speak of it," replied Gladys,
+straightening up from her mending job to give Migwan a hand with the
+poncho rolling. Then she added, "Maybe she's in love. Those are supposed
+to be the symptoms, aren't they?"
+
+"Gracious!" exclaimed Migwan in a startled tone. "Do you suppose that
+can be what's the matter with her. I hadn't thought of that."
+
+"It must be," said Gladys with a quaint air of wordly wisdom, and then
+the two girls proceeded to forget Agony in the labor of rolling the
+poncho up neatly and making it fast with a piece of rope tied in a
+square knot.
+
+When Agony reached Gitchee-Gummee on her errand of packing, there was
+Jo Severance waiting for her with a letter.
+
+"Letter from Mary Sylvester," she called gaily, waving it over her head.
+"It just came in the morning's mail and I haven't opened it yet. Thought
+I'd bring it down and let you read it with me."
+
+An icy hand seemed to clutch at Agony's heart, and she gazed at the
+little white linen paper envelope as though it might contain a bomb.
+Here was a danger she had not foreseen. Mary Sylvester, even though she
+had left camp, corresponded with her bosom friend, Jo Severance, and
+very naturally she might make some reference to the robin incident.
+Agony gazed in fascinated silence as Jo opened the envelope with a nail
+file in lieu of a paper cutter and spread out the pages. Little black
+specks began to float before her eyes and she leaned against the bed to
+steady herself for the blow which she felt in her prophetic soul was
+coming. Jo, in her eagerness to read the letter, noticed nothing out of
+the way in Agony's expression. Dropping down on the bed beside her she
+began to read aloud:
+
+    "Dearest Jo:
+
+    "When I think of you and all the other dear people I
+    left behind me in camp it seems that I must fly right
+    back to Keewaydin. It still seems a dream, my coming
+    away so soon after arriving. I have done nothing but
+    rush around since, getting my things together. We are in
+    San Francisco now, and sail tonight." ...
+
+So the letter ran for several pages--descriptions of things she had seen
+on the trip west, and loving messages for her friends at Camp, and
+closing with a hasty "Goodbye, Jo dear." Not a word about the robin. The
+choking sensation in Agony's throat left her. Weak-kneed, she sank down
+on the bed and lay back on the pillow, closing her eyes wearily.
+Unnoticing, Jo departed to show the letter to the girls to whom Mary had
+sent messages.
+
+Agony lay very still, thinking. Even if Mary had not mentioned the robin
+incident in this letter, she might in a later one; the danger was never
+really over. And on the other hand, Jo Severance, dear Jo, who had
+become so fond of Agony in the last few weeks, would certainly tell Mary
+about the robin when she answered her letter. Jo had already written it
+to her mother and to several friends, she had told her. Jo never grew
+tired of talking about it, and displayed a touching pride in having
+Agony for an intimate friend. Yes, without doubt Jo would write it to
+Mary, and then Mary would write back and tell the truth. Agony grew hot
+and cold by turns as she lay there thinking of the certainty of
+exposure. What a blind fool she had been. If only she had told the story
+the minute she got home that day, instead of keeping it to herself,
+then the moment of temptation would never have come to her. If only Mary
+hadn't been called away just then!
+
+Could she still take the story back, she wondered, and tell it as it
+really had been? Her heart sank at the thought and her pride cried out
+against it. No, she could never stand the disgrace. But what if the
+truth were to leak out through Mary--that would be infinitely worse. Her
+thoughts went around in a torturing circle and brought her to no
+decision. Should she make a clean breast of it now and have nothing more
+to fear, or should she take a chance on Jo's never mentioning it to
+Mary?
+
+While she was debating the question back and forth in her mind Bengal
+Virden came running into the tent. Bengal was beginning to tag after
+Agony as she had formerly tagged after Mary Sylvester. Agony often
+caught the younger girl's eyes fastened upon her with an expression of
+worship that fairly embarrassed her. It was the first real crush that a
+younger girl had ever had on Agony, and although Agony laughed about it
+to her friends, she still derived no small amount of satisfaction from
+it, and had resolved to be a real influence for good to stout, fly-away
+Bengal.
+
+The girl came running in now with a leaf cup full of red, ripe
+raspberries in her hand, and laid it in Agony's lap. "I picked them all
+for you," she remarked, looking at Agony with an adoring gaze.
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Agony, sitting up and fingering the tempting gift.
+She selected a large ripe berry and put it into her mouth, giving an
+involuntary exclamation of pleasure at the fine, rich flavor of the
+fruit. This, she reflected, was the reward of popularity--the cream of
+all good things from the hands of her admirers. Could she give it
+up--could she bear to see their admiration turn to scorn?
+
+"And Agony," begged Bengal, "may I have a lock of your hair to keep?"
+The depths of adoration expressed in that request sent an odd thrill
+through Agony. She knew then that she could not bear it to have Bengal
+be disappointed in her; could not let her know that she was only posing
+as a heroine. The die was cast. She would take her chance on no one's
+ever finding it out.
+
+Right after dinner the little voyaging party pushed out from the dock
+and headed upstream; three canoes side by side with ponchos and
+provisions stowed away under the seats, and the Winnebago banner
+trailing from the stern of the "flagship," the one in which Miss
+Amesbury rode, with Sahwah and Migwan as paddlers. Migwan and Hinpoha
+had constructed the banner in record time that morning, giving up their
+swimming hour to finish it. No Winnebago expedition should ever start
+out without a banner flying; they would just as soon have gone without
+their shoes. Oh-Pshaw waved them a brave farewell from the dock,
+philosophically accepting the fact that she could not go in a canoe and
+making no fuss about it.
+
+Jo Severance, who had paddled up the river before, and knew its course
+thoroughly, acted as guide and pilot. For the first night's camping
+ground they were going to a place where Jo had camped on a former trip,
+a place which she enthusiastically described as "just made for four beds
+to be spread in." It had all the conveniences of home, she assured them;
+a nearby spring for drinking water and a good place to swim, and what
+more could anyone want!
+
+By common consent they paddled slowly at the outset, wisely refraining
+from exhausting their strength in the first mile or so, as is so apt to
+be the case with inexperienced paddlers. The Winnebagos had paddled
+together so often that it was unnecessary for them to count aloud to
+keep together; the six paddles flashed and dipped as one in time to some
+mysterious inner rhythm, sending the three canoes forward with a smooth,
+even motion, and keeping their noses almost in a straight line across
+the river.
+
+"How beautifully you pull together!" exclaimed Miss Amesbury in
+admiration, leaning back and watching the six brown arms rising and
+falling in unison.
+
+"We're used to pulling together," said Sahwah simply.
+
+The boys from Camp Altamont were at their swimming hour when they
+passed, and hailed them with great shouting, which they returned with a
+camp cheer and a salute with the paddles. The red canoes were drawn up
+in a line on the dock and Agony wondered which one it was that had made
+the stealthy voyage to Camp Keewaydin the night before. This brought
+back to her mind the subject of Jane Pratt, and she wondered if Jane had
+really taken her seriously when she had demanded that she confess her
+breaking of the camp rule; if Jane would really tell Mrs. Grayson
+herself, or force her to inform upon her. It came over her rather
+forcefully that she was not exactly in a position to be telling tales
+about other deceivers--that she was in their class herself.
+
+"Why so pensive?" inquired Miss Amesbury brightly, as Agony paddled
+along in silence, looking straight ahead of her and paying no attention
+to the gay conversation going on all about her.
+
+Agony collected herself and smiled brightly at Miss Amesbury. "I was
+just thinking," she replied composedly. "Did I look glum? I was
+wondering if I had put my toothbrush in my poncho, I forgot it on our
+last trip."
+
+Miss Amesbury laughed and said, "You funny child," and thought her more
+entertaining than ever.
+
+Up beyond Camp Altamont lay a number of small islands and beyond these
+the river began to bend and twist in numerous eccentric curves; the
+woods that bordered it grew denser, the banks swampy. Signs of human
+occupation disappeared; there were no more camps; no more cottages.
+Great willow trees grew close to the water's edge, five and six trunks
+coming out of a single root, the drooping branches sweeping the surface
+of the river. In places rotting logs lay half submerged in the water,
+looking oddly like alligators in the distance. Usually there would be a
+turtle sunning himself on the dry end of the log, who craned his neck
+inquisitively at them as they swept by, as if wondering what strange
+variety of fish they were. Hinpoha tried to catch one for a mascot,
+"because he would look so epic tied to the back of our canoe, swimming
+along behind us," but finally gave it up as a bad job, for none of the
+turtles seemed to share her enthusiasm over the idea, sinking out of
+sight at the first preliminaries of adoption. In places the banks, where
+they were not low and swampy, were perforated like honeycombs with holes
+some three inches in diameter.
+
+"Oh, what are they?" asked Agony in surprise. "All snake holes?"
+
+"Bank swallows," replied Sahwah. "They make their nests in the mud along
+river banks that way, until the banks are perfect honeycombs. I don't
+see how each one knows his own nest; they all look alike to me."
+
+"Maybe they're all numbered in bird language," remarked Miss Amesbury,
+in her delightfully humorous way.
+
+The scenery grew wilder and wilder as they glided forward and the talk
+gradually became hushed into a half awed contemplation of the wilderness
+which closed about them.
+
+"I feel as if I were on some great exploring expedition," exclaimed
+Sahwah. "Everything looks so new and undiscovered. I wish there was
+something left to discover," she continued plaintively. "It's so
+discouraging to think that there's nothing more for explorers to do in
+this country. What fun it must have been for La Salle and Pere Marquette
+and Lewis and Clark to find those big rivers that no white man had ever
+seen before, and go poking about in the wilderness. That was the great
+and only sport; everything else is tame and flat beside it. I'll never
+get done envying those early explorers; how I wish I could have been
+with them!"
+
+"But Sahwah, girls didn't go on long exploring journeys," Gladys
+interrupted quietly. "They couldn't have borne the hardships."
+
+"Couldn't they?" Sahwah flashed out quickly. "How about Sacajawea, I'd
+like to know?"
+
+"Goodness, who was she?" asked Gladys.
+
+"The Indian woman who went with Lewis and Clark on their expedition to
+the Columbia River," replied Sahwah with that tone of animation in her
+voice which was always present when she spoke of someone whom she
+admired greatly. "Her husband was the interpreter whom Lewis and Clark
+took along to talk to the Indians for them, and Sacajawea went with the
+expedition too, to act as guide, because she knew the Shoshone country.
+She traveled the whole five thousand miles with them and carried her
+baby on her back all the while. Lewis and Clark both said afterwards
+that if it hadn't been for her they wouldn't have been able to make the
+journey. When there wasn't any meat to eat she knew enough to dig in the
+prairie dogs' holes for the artichokes which they'd stored up for the
+winter; and she knew which herbs and berries were fit for food. And on
+one occasion she saved the most valuable part of the supplies they were
+carrying, when her stupid husband had managed to upset the boat they
+were being carried in. While he stood wringing his hands and calling on
+heaven for help she set to work fishing out the papers and instruments
+and medicines that had gone overboard, and without which the expedition
+could not have proceeded. She tramped for hundreds of miles, over hills
+and through valleys, finding the narrow trails that only the Indians
+knew, undergoing all the hardships that the men did and never
+complaining or growing discouraged. On the contrary, she cheered up the
+men when _they_ got discouraged. Now, do you say that a woman can't go
+exploring as well as a man?"
+
+Sahwah's eyes were sparkling, her cheeks glowed red under their coat of
+tan, and she was all excitement. The blood of the explorer flowed in her
+veins; her inheritance from hardy ancestors who had hewn their way
+through trackless forests to found a new home in the wilderness; and the
+very mention of exploring set her pulses to leaping wildly. Far back in
+Sahwah's ancestry there was a strain of Indian blood, which, although it
+had not been apparent in many of the descendents, had seemed to come
+into its own in this twentieth century daughter of the Brewsters. Not in
+looks especially, for Sahwah's hair was brown and not black, and fine
+and soft as silk, and her features were delicately modeled; yet there
+was something about her different from the other girls of her
+acquaintance, something elusive and puzzling, which, for a better name
+her intimates had called her "Laughing Water" expression. Then, too,
+there was her passionate love for the woods and for all wild creatures,
+and the almost uncanny way in which birds and chipmunks would come to
+her even though they fled in terror at the approach of the other
+Winnebagos. Was it any wonder that Robert Allison, seeing her for the
+first time, should have exclaimed involuntarily, "Minnehaha, Laughing
+Water"?
+
+Thus Sahwah was in her element paddling up this lonely river winding
+through unfamiliar forests, and in her vivid imagination she was
+Sacajawea, accompanying Lewis and Clark on their famous exploring
+expedition; and the gentle Onawanda turned into the mighty rolling
+Columbia, and the friendly pine woods with its border of willows became
+the trackless forest of the unknown northwest.
+
+Late in the afternoon Jo Severance suddenly cried out, "Here we are!"
+and called out to the paddlers to head the canoes toward the shore.
+
+Glad to stretch their limbs after the long afternoon of sitting in the
+canoes, the Winnebagos sprang out on to the rocks which lined the
+water's edge, and drew the boats up after them. The place was, as Jo had
+promised, seemingly made for them to camp in. High and dry above the
+stream, sheltered by great towering pine trees, covered with a thick
+carpet of pine needles, this little woodland chamber opened in the dense
+tangle of underbrush which everywhere else grew up between the trees in
+a heavy tangle. Down near the shore a clear little spring went tinkling
+down into the river.
+
+"Oh, what a cozy, cozy place!" exclaimed Migwan. "I never thought of
+being cozy in the woods before--it's always been so wide and airy. This
+is like your own bedroom, screened in this way with the bushes."
+
+"We'd better get the ponchos unrolled and the beds made up before we
+start supper," said Sahwah briskly, getting down to business
+immediately, as usual. The others agreed with alacrity, for they were
+ravenously hungry from the long paddle and anxious to get at supper as
+soon as possible.
+
+When they came to lay the ponchos down, however, there was something in
+the way. The whole narrow plot of smooth ground where they had expected
+to lay them was covered with evening primroses in full blossom, the
+fragile yellow blooms standing there so trustfully that they aroused the
+sympathy of the Winnebagos.
+
+"It's such a pity to crush them under the beds," said tender hearted
+Migwan. "I'm sure I couldn't sleep if I knew I was killing such brave
+little things."
+
+The other Winnebagos stood around with their ponchos in their arms,
+uncertain what to do, loath to be the death of these cheery little wild
+things, yet unable to see how they could help it.
+
+"Isn't there some other place where we can camp, Jo," asked Migwan, "and
+let these blossoms live? It seems such a pity to crush them."
+
+Miss Amesbury turned and looked at Migwan with a keen searching glance
+which caused her to drop her eyes in sudden embarrassment.
+
+Jo took up Migwan's suggestion readily, though disappointed that they
+were not to stay in her favorite place. "I think we can find another
+spot," she said, and moved toward the canoes.
+
+Tired and hungry, but perfectly willing to give up the desired spot to
+save the flowers, the Winnebagos launched out once more, and after
+paddling for half a mile found another camping ground equally desirable,
+though not as cozy as the first had been. There was more room here, and
+the ponchos were laid down without having to sacrifice any flowers.
+
+The sun had set prematurely behind a high bank of gray clouds during the
+last paddle up the river and there were no rosy sunset glows to reflect
+on the water and diffuse light into the woods, where a grey twilight had
+already fallen. There was enough driftwood along the shore to build the
+fires, and these were soon shining out cheerily through the gathering
+gloom, while an appetizing odor of coffee and frying bacon filled the
+air.
+
+The girls lingered long around the fire after supper listening to Miss
+Amesbury telling tales of her various travels until one by one the logs
+fell apart and glimmered out into blackness. "And now," said Miss
+Amesbury, "let's sing one good night song and then roll into bed. We
+want to be up early in the morning and continue our voyage. There's a
+heap of 'exploraging' for us to do."
+
+Some time during the night Sahwah was aroused by a gentle pattering
+noise on her rubber poncho. "It's raining!" she exclaimed to Hinpoha,
+her sleeping partner.
+
+Hinpoha stirred and murmured drowsily and immediately lay still again.
+
+"It's raining _hard_!" cried Sahwah, now wide awake.
+
+One by one the others began to realize what was happening, and burrowed
+down under their ponchos, only to emerge a few moments later half
+smothered.
+
+"Everybody lie still," called Sahwah, "and keep your blankets covered.
+Hinpoha and I will go out and bring up canoes for shelters."
+
+As she spoke she reached for her bathing suit, which was down under the
+poncho, and wriggled into it. Hinpoha, still half asleep, but
+mechanically obeying Sahwah's energetic directions, got into her bathing
+suit and wriggled out of the bed, drawing the poncho up over her pillow
+and blankets.
+
+The two sped down to the shore, where the canoes were drawn up on the
+rocks, and hastily turning one over sideways and packing all their
+provisions under it, they carried the other two back to the camping
+ground and inverted them over the head-ends of the beds, their ends
+propped up on stones, where, tilted back at an angle which shed the
+water off backward, they made an admirable shelter. Underneath these
+solid umbrellas the pillows of the girls were as dry as though indoors,
+and the ponchos protected the blankets. Let the rain come down as hard
+as it liked, these babes in the wood were snug and warm. As though
+accepting their challenge to get them wet, the drops came thicker and
+faster, until they pounded down in a perfect torrent, making a merry din
+on the canoes as they fell.
+
+"It sounds as if they were saying, 'We'll get you yet, we'll get you
+yet, we'll get you yet,'" exclaimed Migwan.
+
+Sahwah and Hinpoha, snugly rolled in once more, began to sing "How dry I
+am." The others took it up, and soon the woods rang with the taunting
+song of the Winnebagos to the Rain Bird, who replied with a heavier gush
+than ever. Thunder began to crash overhead, lightning flashed all about
+them, the great pines tossed and roared like the sea. But the
+Winnebagos, undismayed, made merry over the storm, and gradually dropped
+off to sleep again, lulled by the pattering of the raindrops.
+
+In the morning the rain was still falling, rather to their dismay, for
+they had expected that the storm would soon pass over. The thunder and
+lightning had ceased, the wind had subsided, and the rain had turned
+into a steady downpour that looked as if it meant to last all day.
+
+"We'll have to find or build a shelter," remarked Sahwah, thrusting her
+head, turtle like, from under the edge of the canoe and scanning the
+heavens with a calculating eye. "This is a regular three days' rain. Who
+wants to come with me and see if we can find a cave? I have an idea
+there must be one among the rocks on the hillside just farther on. Who
+wants to come with me?"
+
+"I'll come!" cried Hinpoha and Jo and Agony and Katherine all in a
+breath. Cramped from lying still so long, they welcomed the prospect of
+exercise, even in the early morning rain.
+
+Leaving Migwan and Gladys to keep Miss Amesbury company, the five set
+out into the streaming woods, and Katherine and Hinpoha and Sahwah came
+back half an hour later to report that they had found a cave and Jo and
+Agony had stayed there to build a fire.
+
+"Fire, that sounds good to me," remarked Gladys, shivering a little as
+she got into her damp bathing suit and drew her heavy sweater over it.
+
+Carrying the beds, still wrapped up in the ponchos, the little
+procession wound through the woods under the guidance of the returned
+scouts. The guides were not needed long, however, for soon a heart
+warming odor of frying bacon came to meet them, and with a world-old
+instinct each one followed her nose toward it.
+
+"Did anything ever smell so good?" exclaimed Hinpoha, breathing in the
+fragrant air in long drawn sniffs.
+
+"Those blessed angels!" was all Miss Amesbury could say.
+
+A moment later they stepped out of the wet woods into the cheeriest
+scene imaginable. In the side of a steep hill which rose not far from
+the river there opened a good sized cave, and just inside its doorway
+burned a bright fire, lighting up the interior with its ruddy glow. On a
+smaller fire beside it a pan of bacon was sizzling merrily, and over
+another hung a pot of steaming coffee. To the eyes of the wet, chilly
+campers, it was the most beautiful scene they had ever looked upon. They
+sprang to the large fire and toasted themselves in its grateful warmth
+while they held up their clothes to dry before putting them on.
+
+"Thoughtful people, to build us an extra fire," said Miss Amesbury,
+stretching out luxuriously on the blanket Migwan had spread for her.
+
+"We knew you'd want to warm up a bit," replied Agony, removing the
+coffee pot from the blaze and beginning to pour the steaming liquid into
+the cups.
+
+"How did you ever make a fire at all?" inquired Miss Amesbury. "Every
+bit of wood must be soaked through."
+
+"We dug down into a big pine stump," replied Agony, "or rather, Sahwah
+did, for I didn't know enough to, and got us some dry chips to start the
+fire with, and then we kept drying other pieces until they could burn.
+Once we got that big log started we were all right. It's as hot as a
+furnace."
+
+"What a difference fire does make!" said Miss Amesbury. "What dreary,
+dispirited people we'd be by this time if it were not for this cheering
+blaze. I'd be perfectly content to stay here all day if I had to."
+
+Miss Amesbury had ample opportunity to test the depth of her content,
+for the rain showed no sign of abating. Hour after hour it poured down
+steadily as though it had forgotten how to stop. A dense mist rose on
+the river which gradually spread through the woods until the trees
+loomed up like dim spectres standing in menacing attitudes before the
+door of their little rocky chamber. Warm and dry inside, the Winnebagos
+made the best of their unexpected situation and whiled away the hours
+with games, stories, and "improving conversation," as Jo Severance
+recounted later.
+
+"I've just invented a new game," announced Migwan, when the talk had run
+for some time on famous women of various times.
+
+"What is it?" asked Hinpoha, pausing with a half washed potato in her
+hand. Hinpoha and Gladys were putting the potatoes into the hot ashes to
+bake them for dinner.
+
+"Why, it's this," said Migwan. "Let each one of us in turn tell some
+incident that took place in the girlhood of a famous woman, the one we
+admire the most, and see if the others can guess who she is."
+
+"All right, you begin, Migwan," said Sahwah.
+
+"No, you begin, Sahwah. It's my game, so I'll be last."
+
+Sahwah sat chin in hand for a moment, and then she began: "I see a
+long, low house built of bark and branches, thickly covered with snow.
+It is one of the 'long houses', or winter quarters of the Algonquins,
+and none other than the Chief's own house. Inside is a council chamber
+and in it a pow-wow of chiefs is going on. The other half of the house,
+which is not used as a council chamber, is used as the living room by
+the family, and here a number of children are playing a lively game. In
+the midst of the racket the door opens and in comes one of the chief's
+runners. As he advances toward the council chamber a young girl comes
+whirling down the room turning handsprings. Her feet strike him full in
+the chest, and send him flat on his back on the floor. A great roar of
+laughter goes up from the braves and squaws sitting around the room, for
+the girl who has knocked the runner down is none other than the chief's
+own daughter. But the old chief says sadly, 'Why will you be such a
+tomboy, my child?'"
+
+"Tomboy, tomboy!" cry all the others, using the Algonquin word for that
+nickname. "Who is my girl, and what is her nickname?"
+
+"That's easy," laughed Migwan, "Who but Pocahontas?"
+
+"Was 'Pocahantas' just a nickname?" asked Hinpoha curiously.
+
+"Yes," replied Migwan. "'Pocahontas', or 'pocahuntas', is the Algonquin
+word for 'tomboy'. The real name of Powhatan's daughter was Ma-ta-oka,
+but she was known ever after the incident Sahwah just related as
+'Pocahontas.'"
+
+"I never heard of that incident," said Hinpoha, "but I might have
+guessed that Sahwah would take Pocahontas for hers."
+
+"Now you, Agony," said Migwan.
+
+"I see a young girl," began Agony, "tending her flocks in the valley of
+the Meuse. She is sitting under a large beech, which the children of the
+village have named the 'Fairy Tree.' As she sits there her face takes on
+a rapt look; she sits very still, like one in a trance, for her eyes are
+looking upon a remarkable sight. She seems to see a shining figure
+standing before her; an angel with a flaming sword. She falls upon her
+knees and covers her face with her hands, and when she looks up again
+the vision is gone and only the tree is left, with the church beyond
+it."
+
+"Joan of Arc!" cried three or four voices at once.
+
+"O, _how_ I wish I were she!" finished Agony fervently. "What a life of
+excitement she must have led! Think of the stirring times she must have
+had in the army!"
+
+"I envy her all but the stake; I couldn't have borne that," said Sahwah.
+"Now you, Gladys."
+
+"I see a young English girl, fourteen years old, dressed in the costume
+of Tudor England, stealing out of Westminster Palace with the boy king
+of England, Edward the Sixth. Free from the tiresome lords and
+ladies-in-waiting who were always at their heels in the palace, they
+have a gorgeous time wandering about the streets of London until by
+chance they meet one of the royal household, and are hustled back to the
+palace in short order."
+
+"Poor Lady Jane Grey!" said Migwan. "I'm glad I wasn't in her shoes. I'm
+glad I'm not in any royalty's shoes. With all their pomp and splendor
+they never have half the fun we're having at this minute," she continued
+vehemently. "They never went off on a hike by themselves and slept on
+the ground with their heads under a canoe. It's lots nicer to be free,
+even if you _are_ a nobody."
+
+"I think so too," Sahwah agreed with her emphatically.
+
+"My girl," said Jo, in her turn, "was crowned queen at the age of nine
+months and betrothed to the King of France when she was five years old.
+That's all I know about her early days, except that she had four
+intimate friends all named Mary."
+
+"Mary, Queen of Scots," guessed Gladys, who was taking a history course
+in college. "Somehow I never could get up much sympathy for her; she
+seemed such a spineless sort of creature. I always preferred Queen
+Elizabeth, even if she did cut off Mary's head."
+
+"Every single one of the heroines so far has died a violent death,"
+remarked Miss Amesbury. "Is that the only kind of women you admire?"
+
+"It seems so," replied Migwan, laughing. "We're a bloodthirsty lot. Go
+on, Katherine."
+
+Katherine dropped the log she was carrying upon the fire and kept her
+eye upon it as she spoke. "I see a brilliant assemblage, gathered in the
+palace of the Empress of Austria to hear a wonderful boy musician play
+on the piano. As the young lad, who is none other than the great Mozart,
+enters the room, he first approaches the Empress to make his bow to her.
+The polished floor is extremely slippery, and he slips and falls flat.
+The courtiers, who consider him very clumsy, do nothing but laugh at
+him, but the young daughter of the Empress runs forward, helps him to
+his feet and comforts him with soothing words."
+
+"I always did think that was the most charming anecdote ever related
+about Marie Antoinete," observed Migwan. "She must have been a very
+sweet and lovable young girl; it doesn't seem possible that she grew up
+to be the kind of woman she did."
+
+"Another one who lost her head!" remarked Miss Amesbury, laughing.
+"Aren't there going to be any who live to grow old? Let's see who
+Hinpoha's favorite heroine is."
+
+Hinpoha moved back a foot or so from the fire, which had blazed up to an
+uncomfortable heat at the addition of Katherine's log. "I see a Puritan
+maiden, seated at a spinning wheel," she commenced. "The door opens and
+a young man comes in. He apparently has something on his mind, and
+stands around first on one foot and then on the other, until the girl
+asks him what seems to be the trouble, whereupon he gravely informs her
+that a friend of his, a most worthy man indeed, who can write, and
+fight, and--ah, do several more things all at once, wants her for his
+wife. Then the girl smiles demurely at him, and says coyly--"
+
+"Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" shouted the other six girls,
+with one voice.
+
+"You don't need to ask Hinpoha who her favorite heroine is," said Migwan
+laughing. "Ever since I've known her she's read the story of Priscilla
+and John Alden at least once a week."
+
+"Well, you must admit that she _was_ pretty clever," said Hinpoha,
+blushing a little at the exposure of her fondness for love stories. "And
+sensible, too. She wasn't afraid of speaking up and helping her bashful
+lover along a little bit, instead of meekly accepting Standish's offer
+and then spending the rest of her life sighing because John Alden hadn't
+asked her."
+
+"That's right," chimed in Sahwah. "I admire a girl with spirit. If Lady
+Jane Gray had had a little more spirit she wouldn't have lost her head.
+I'll warrant Priscilla Mullins would have found a way out of it if she
+had been in the same scrape as Lady Jane. Now, your turn, Migwan."
+
+"I see a girl living in a bleak house on the edge of a wild, lonely
+moor," began Migwan. "All winter long the storms howl around the house
+like angry spirits of the air. To amuse themselves in these long winter
+evenings this girl and her sisters make up stories about the people that
+live on the moors and tell them to each other around the fire, or after
+they have crept into bed, and lie shivering under the blankets in the
+icy cold room. The stories that my girl made up were so fascinating that
+the others forgot the cold and the raw winds whistling about the house
+and listened spellbound until she had finished."
+
+"I know who that is," said Gladys, when Migwan paused. "Mig is forever
+raving about Charlotte Bronte."
+
+"The more I think about her the more wonderful she seems," said Migwan
+warmly. "How a girl brought up in such a dead, cheerless place as
+Haworth Churchyard, and knowing nothing at all about the world of
+people, could have written such a book as _Jane Eyre_, seems a miracle.
+She was a genius," she finished with an envious sigh.
+
+Miss Amesbury looked keenly at Migwan. "I think," she observed shrewdly,
+"that you like to write also. Is it not so?"
+
+Migwan blushed furiously and sat silent. To have this successful, widely
+known writer know her heart's ambition filled her with an agony of
+embarrassment.
+
+"Migwan does write, wonderful things," said Hinpoha loyally. "She's had
+things printed in papers and in the college magazine." Then she told
+about the Indian legend that had caused such a stir in college,
+whereupon Miss Amesbury laughed heartily, and patted Migwan on the head,
+and said she would very much like to see some of the things she had
+written. Migwan, thrilled and happy, but still very much embarrassed,
+shyly promised that she would let her see some of her work, and in the
+middle of her speech a potato blew up with a bang, showering them all
+with mealy fragments and hot ashes, and sending them flying away from
+the fire with startled shrieks.
+
+Since the potatoes were so very evidently done, the rest of the meal was
+hurriedly prepared, and eaten with keen appetites. During the clearing
+away process somebody discovered that the rain had stopped falling, a
+fact which they had all been too busy to notice before, and that the
+mist was being rapidly blown away by a strong northwest wind. When they
+woke in the morning, after sleeping in the cave around the fire, the sun
+was shining brightly into the entrance and the birds outside were
+singing joyously of a fair day to come.
+
+Overflowing with energy the late cave dwellers raced through the sweet
+smelling woods, indescribably fresh and fragrant after the cleansing,
+purifying rain, and launched the canoes upon a river Sparkling like a
+sheet of diamonds in the clear morning sunlight. How wonderfully new and
+bright the rain-washed earth looked everywhere, and how exhilarating the
+fresh rushing wind was to their senses, after the smoky, misty
+atmosphere of the cave!
+
+Exulting in their strength the Winnebagos bent low over their paddles,
+and the canoes leaped forward like hounds set free from the leash, and
+went racing along with the current, shooting past islands, whirling
+around bends, whisking through tiny rapids, wildly, deliriously,
+rejoicing in the thrill of the morning and the call of a world running
+over with joy. Soon they came to the place where they had first planned
+to camp, and there were the primroses, a-riot with bloom, nodding them a
+friendly greeting.
+
+"Aren't you glad we didn't stay here?" said Sahwah. "We'd have been
+soaked if we did, because we probably wouldn't have found the cave. The
+primroses saved the day for us by growing where we wanted to lay our
+beds."
+
+They sang a cheer to the primroses and swept on until they came to the
+place in the woods where the balsam grew. Dusk was falling when, with
+canoes piled high with the fragrant boughs, they rounded the great bend
+above Keewaydin and a few minutes later ran in alongside the Camp
+Keewaydin dock.
+
+"I feel as though I had been gone for weeks," said Migwan, as they
+climbed out of the canoes.
+
+"So do I," said Sahwah, dancing up and down on the dock to take the
+stiffness out of her muscles. "Doesn't it look civilized, though, after
+what we've just experienced? I wish," she continued longingly, "that I
+could live in the wilds all the time."
+
+"I don't," replied Migwan, patting the diving tower as if it were an old
+friend. "Camp is plenty wild enough for me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+TOPSY-TURVY DAY
+
+"Why, where _is_ camp?" asked Sahwah in perplexity, noticing that the
+whole place was dark and still. It was half past six, the usual
+after-supper frolic hour, when camp was wont to ring to the echo with
+fun and merriment of all kinds. Now no sound came from Mateka, nor from
+the bungalow, nor from any of the tents, no sound and no movement.
+Before their astonished eyes the camp lay like an enchanted city,
+changed in their absence from a place of racket and bustle and
+resounding laughter, to a silent ghost of its former lively self.
+
+"What's happened?" exclaimed the Winnebagos to each other. "Is everybody
+gone on a trip?"
+
+Mystified, they climbed up the hill, and at the top they found Miss Judy
+going from tent to tent with her flashlight, as if making the nightly
+rounds after lights out.
+
+"O Miss Judy," they called to her, "what's happened?"
+
+"Shh-h-h!" replied Miss Judy, holding up her hand for silence and
+coming toward them. "Everybody's in bed," she whispered when she was
+near enough for them to hear her."
+
+"In bed!" exclaimed the Winnebagos in astonishment. "At half past six in
+the evening? What for?"
+
+"It's Topsy-Turvy Day," replied Miss Judy, laughing at their amazed
+faces. "We're turning everything upside down tonight. Hurry and get into
+bed. The rising bugle will blow in half an hour."
+
+Giggling with amusement the Winnebagos sped to their tents, unrolled
+their ponchos, made up their beds in a hurry, undressed quickly and
+popped into bed. Not long afterward they heard the dipping of paddles
+and the monotonous "one, two, one two," of the boatswain as the crew of
+the Turtle started out for practice. The Turtle's regular practice hour
+was the half hour before rising bugle in the morning.
+
+Tired with her long paddle that day Hinpoha fell asleep as soon as she
+touched the pillow, and was much startled to hear the loud blast of a
+bugle in the midst of a delightful dream. "What's the matter?" she asked
+sleepily, sitting up and looking around her in bewilderment. "What are
+they blowing the bugle in the middle of the night for?"
+
+"They aren't blowing the bugle in the middle of the night," said Sahwah
+with a shriek of laughter at Hinpoha's puzzled face. "This is
+Topsy-Turvy Day, don't you remember? We're going to have our regular
+day's program at night time. It's ten minutes to seven, and that's the
+bugle for morning dip. Are you coming?"
+
+Sahwah was already inside her bathing suit, and Agony had hers half on.
+Hinpoha replied with an unintelligible sound, one-eighth grunt and
+seven-eights yawn, and rising tipsily from her bed she looked around for
+her bathing suit with eyes still half sealed by sleep. Sahwah helped her
+into the suit and seizing her hand led her down to the water, where half
+the camp, shaking with convulsive merriment at the absurdity of the
+thing, were scrupulously taking their "morning dip," with toothbrush
+drill and all the other regular morning ablutions.
+
+The rising bugle blew while they were still at it and they sped back to
+the tents to get dressed, making three times as much racket about this
+process as they ever did in the morning. Most of the tents had no
+lights, because ordinarily no one needed a light to undress by and so
+the lanterns which had been given out at the beginning of the season
+were scattered everywhere about camp as especial need for them had
+arisen upon various occasions. But getting dressed in the dark is harder
+than getting undressed, and most of the tents were in an uproar.
+
+"I can only find one stocking," wailed Oh-Pshaw, after vainly feeling
+around for several minutes. "Where's my flashlight, Katherine?"
+
+"I'm sorry, but I just dropped it into the water jar," replied
+Katherine, "and it won't work any more." Katherine herself was
+hopelessly involved in her bloomers, having put both feet through the
+same leg, and was lying flat on the floor trying to extricate herself.
+
+"Can I go with only one stocking on?" Oh-Pshaw persisted plaintively. "I
+haven't another pair here in the tent."
+
+"_I_ can't find my middy," Jean Lawrence was lamenting, paying no heed
+to Oh-Pshaw's troubles in regard to hosiery.
+
+Tiny Armstrong, reaching down behind her bed for some missing article of
+her costume, gave the bed such a shove that it went flying out of the
+tent carrying the rustic railing with it, and they heard it go bumping
+down the hillside.
+
+"Strike one!" called Tiny ruefully. "That's what comes of being so
+strong. I'll knock the tent down next."
+
+"Will somebody please tell me where my middy is?" Jean cried tragically.
+"I can't find it anywhere."
+
+"Will someone tell _me_ where the other leg of my bloomers is?"
+exclaimed Katherine. "I've shoved both feet through the same leg three
+times, now. There goes the breakfast bugle!"
+
+"Oh, where is my other stocking?"
+
+"Where is my middy?"
+
+"Who's gone south with my shoes?"
+
+The threefold wail floated down on the breeze as footsteps began to run
+down the Alley in the direction of the bungalow. A few minutes later the
+occupants of Bedlam slid as unobtrusively as possible into the lighted
+bungalow; Oh-Pshaw with her bloomers down around her ankles in a Turkish
+effect, to hide the fact that she had on only one stocking; Jean with
+her sweater buttoned tightly around her, Katherine with her red silk tie
+bound around one knee to gather up the fullness of her bloomer leg, for
+the elastic band had burst from the strain of accommodating two feet at
+once; and Tiny had one white sneaker and one red Pullman slipper on.
+Glancing around at the rest they saw many others in the same
+plight--middies on hindside before, odd shoes and stockings, sweaters
+instead of middies, and various other parodies on the regular camp
+uniform--and immediately they ceased to feel conspicuous. Taking their
+places around the table the campers proceeded to sing one of the morning
+greetings:
+
+  "Good morning to you,
+  Good morning to you,
+  Good morning, dear comrades,
+  Good morning to you!"
+
+"Did you have a good night's sleep?" was a question that made the
+rounds of the table, with many droll replies, as the cereal was being
+passed. Hilarity increased during the meal, as the absurdity of eating
+cereal and fruit and toast at eight o'clock in the evening overcame the
+girls one after the other, and the room rang with witty songs made up on
+the spur of the moment.
+
+At "Morning Sing" which followed breakfast, they solemnly sang "When
+Morning Gilds the Skies," "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," "Kathleen
+Mavourneen, the grey dawn is breaking," and other morning songs; the
+program for the day was read, and Dr. Grayson gave a fatherly lecture on
+the harmfulness of staying up after dark. Getting the tents ready for
+tent inspection without lights was a proceeding which defies
+description. Tiny Armstrong was still on the hillside searching for her
+runaway bed when the Lone Wolf reached Bedlam in her tour of inspection,
+and was given a large and black zero in consequence. She finally gave up
+the search and wandered into Mateka, where, with lanterns hanging above
+the long tables, Craft Hour was in full swing, the girls busily working
+at clay modeling, wood-blocking and paddle decorating, while the moon,
+round-eyed with astonishment, peeped through the doorway at the singular
+sight. Still more astonished, the same moon looked down on the tennis
+court an hour later, where a lively folk dance was going on to the
+music of a graphaphone; couples spinning around in wild figures,
+stepping on each other's feet and every now and then dropping down at
+the outer edge of the court and shrieking with laughter, while the dance
+continued faster and more furiously than before, till the sound of the
+bugle sent the dancers flying swiftly to their tents to wriggle into
+clammy, wet bathing suits that seemed in the dark to be an altogether
+different shape from what they were in the daylight.
+
+Standing on top of the diving tower when Tiny's cry of "All in!" rang
+out, Sahwah leaped down into the darkness and had a queer, thrilling
+moment in mid air when she wondered if she would ever strike the water,
+or would go on indefinitely falling through the blackness. Laughing,
+shouting, splashing, the campers sported in the water until all of a
+sudden a red canoe shot into their midst and the director of Camp
+Altamont, accompanied by two assistants, came in an advanced stage of
+breathlessness to find out what the matter was. They heard the noise and
+the splashing of water and thought some accident had occurred.
+
+"No accident, thanks, only Camp Keewaydin stealing a march on old Father
+Time and turning night into day," Dr. Grayson called from the dock, and
+amid shouts of laughter from all around the messengers paddled back to
+their camp to assure the wakened and excited boys that nothing had
+happened, and that it was only another wild inspiration of the people
+at Camp Keewaydin.
+
+At midnight, when the bugle blew for dinner, everyone was as hungry as
+at noon, and the kettle of cocoa and the trays of sandwiches were
+emptied in a jiffy.
+
+"Now what?" asked Dr. Grayson, looking around the table with twinkling
+eyes, when the last crumb and the last drop of cocoa had disappeared.
+
+"Rest hour," replied Mrs. Grayson emphatically. "Rest hour to last until
+morning. Blow the bugle, Judy."
+
+"Wasn't this the wildest evening we ever put in?" said Katherine,
+fishing her hairbrush out of the water pail. "Where's Tiny?" she asked,
+becoming aware that their Councilor was not in the tent,
+
+"Down on the hill looking for her bed." replied Oh-Pshaw.
+
+"Goodness, let's go down and help her," said Katherine, and Oh-Pshaw and
+Jean streamed after her down the path. They stumbled over the bed before
+they came to Tiny. It had turned over sidewise and fallen into a tiny
+ravine, and as she had gone straight down the hill searching for it she
+had missed it. Katherine stepped into the ravine, dragging the two
+others with her, and at the bottom they landed on top of the bed.
+
+Getting an iron cot up a steep hill is not the easiest thing in the
+world, and when they had it up at the top of the hill they all sat down
+on it and panted awhile before they could make it up. Then they
+discovered that the pillow was missing and Katherine obligingly went
+down the hill again to find it.
+
+"I shan't get up again for a week," she sighed wearily as she stretched
+between the sheets.
+
+"Neither will I," echoed Tiny.
+
+Jean and Oh-Pshaw did not echo. They were already asleep.
+
+Katherine had just sunk into a deep slumber when she started at the
+touch of a cold hand laid against her face. "What is it?" she cried out
+sharply.
+
+A face was bending over her, a pale little face framed in a lace boudoir
+cap. Katherine recognized Carmen Chadwick. "What's the matter?" she
+asked.
+
+"My Councy's awful sick, and none of the other girls will wake up and I
+don't know what to do," said Carmen in a scared voice.
+
+"What's the matter with her?" asked Katherine.
+
+"She ate too many blueberries, I guess; she's got an awful pain in her
+stomach, and chills."
+
+Katherine hugged her warm pillow. "Take the hot water bottle out of the
+washstand," she directed, without moving. "There--it's on the top shelf.
+There's hot water in the tank in the kitchen. And have you some Jamaica
+ginger? No? Take ours--it's the only bottle on the top shelf. Now you'll
+be all right."
+
+Katherine sank back into slumber. A few minutes more and she was
+awakened again by the same cold hand on her face.
+
+"What is it now?"
+
+"The Jamaica ginger," asked Carmen's thin voice in a bewildered tone,
+"what shall I do with it? Shall I put it in the hot water bottle?"
+
+Katherine's feet suddenly struck the floor together, and with an
+explosive exclamation under her breath she sped over to Avernus and took
+matters in hand herself. She had tucked Carmen into her own bed in
+Bedlam, and she spent the remainder of the night over in Avernus, taking
+care of the Lone Wolf, snatching a few moments' sleep in Carmen's bed
+now and then when her patient felt easier. It was broad daylight before
+she finally settled into uninterrupted slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+EDWIN LANGHAM
+
+Camp was more or less demoralized the next day. Miss Judy overslept and
+did not blow the rising bugle until nearly noon, so dinner took the
+place of breakfast and swimming hour came in the middle of the afternoon
+instead of in the morning.
+
+After swimming hour Agony went up to Miss Amesbury's balcony to return a
+book she had borrowed. Miss Amesbury was not there, so Agony, as she
+often did when she found her friend out, sat down to wait for her,
+passing the time by looking at some sketches tying on the table. Turing
+these over, Agony came upon a letter thrust in between the drawing
+sheets, at the sight of which her heart began to flutter wildly. The
+address on the envelope was in Mary Sylvester's handwriting--there was
+no mistaking that firm, round hand; it was indelibly impressed upon
+Agony's mind from seeing it on that other occasion. In a panic she
+realized that the danger of being discovered was even greater than she
+had thought, since Mary also wrote to Miss Amesbury. Was it not possible
+that Mary had mentioned the robin incident in this letter? It now seemed
+to Agony that Miss Amesbury's manner had been different toward her in
+the last few days, on the trip. She seemed less friendly, less cordial.
+Several times Agony had looked up lately to find Miss Amesbury regarding
+her with a keen, grave scrutiny and a baffling expression on her face.
+To Agony's tortured fancy these instances became magnified out of all
+proportion, and the disquieting conviction seized her that Miss Amesbury
+knew the truth. The thought nearly drove her mad. It tormented her until
+she realized that there was only one way in which she could still the
+tumult raging in her bosom, and that was by finding out for certain if
+Mary had really told.
+
+With shaking fingers she slipped the letter out of the open envelope,
+and with cheeks aflame with shame at the thing she was doing, she
+deliberately read Miss Amesbury's letter. It was much like the one Mary
+had written to Jo Severance, full of clever descriptions of the places
+she was seeing, and it made no mention either of the robin or of her.
+With fingers shaking still more at the relief she felt, she put the
+letter back into the envelope and replaced it between the sketches.
+Then, trembling from head to foot at the reaction from her panic, she
+turned her back upon the table and sat up against the railing, holding
+her head in her hands and looking down at the fair sunlit river with
+eyes that saw it not.
+
+Miss Amesbury returned by and by and was so evidently pleased to see her
+that Agony concluded she must have been mistaken in fancying any
+coldness on her part during the last few days.
+
+"I've a letter from Mary Sylvester," Miss Amesbury said almost at once,
+"and because you are following so closely in Mary's footsteps I'm going
+to read it to you." She smiled brightly into Agony's sober face and
+paused to pat her on the shoulder before she fluttered over the pile of
+sketches to find the letter.
+
+Agony sat limply, listening to the words she had read a few minutes
+before, despising herself thoroughly and wishing with all her heart that
+she had never come to camp. Yet she forced herself to make appreciative
+comments on the interesting things in the letter and to utter sincere
+sounding exclamations of surprise at certain points.
+
+"I've something to tell you that will please you," said Miss Amesbury,
+after the letter had been put away.
+
+"What is it?" asked Agony, looking up inquiringly.
+
+"Someone you admire very much is going to visit Camp," replied Miss
+Amesbury.
+
+"Who?" Agony's eyes opened up very wide with surprise.
+
+"Edwin Langham. He has been camping not very far from here and he is
+going to run down on his way home and pay Dr. Grayson a flying visit.
+They are old friends."
+
+"Edwin Langham?" Agony gasped faintly, her head awhirl. It seemed past
+comprehension that this man whom she had worshipped as a divinity for so
+long was actually to materialize in the flesh--that the cherished desire
+of her life was coming true, that she was going to see and talk with
+him.
+
+"Goodness, don't look so excited, child," said Miss Amesbury, laughing.
+"He's only a man. A very rare and wonderful man, however," she added,
+"and it is a great privilege to know him."
+
+"When is he coming?" asked Agony in a whisper.
+
+"Tomorrow afternoon. He is going to stop off between boats and will be
+here only a short time."
+
+"Do you suppose he will speak to me?" asked Agony humbly.
+
+"I rather think he will," replied Miss Amesbury, smiling. "You see," she
+continued, taking Agony's hand in hers as she spoke, "it just happened
+that Edwin Langham was the man who sat under the tree that time you
+climbed up and rescued the robin. He was laid up with blood poisoning in
+his foot at the time and he had been wheeled into the woods from his
+camp that afternoon. His man had left him for a short time when you
+happened along. He was the man who told about the incident down at the
+store at Green's Landing, where Dr. Grayson heard about it later from
+the storekeeper. Dr. Grayson did not know at the time that it was his
+friend Edwin Langham who had witnessed the affair, but in the letter Dr.
+Grayson has just received from Mr. Langham he gives an enthusiastic
+account of it, and says he is coming to camp partly for the purpose of
+meeting the girl in the green bloomers who performed that splendid deed
+that day. So you see, my dear," Miss Amesbury concluded, "I think it is
+highly probable that you will have an opportunity to speak to your
+idolized Edwin Langham."
+
+For a moment things turned black before Agony's eyes. She rose
+unsteadily to her feet and crossed the balcony to the stairs. "I must be
+going, now," she murmured through dry lips.
+
+"Must you go so soon?" asked Miss Amesbury with a real regret in her
+voice that cut Agony to the heart.
+
+"Come again, come often," floated after her as she passed through the
+door.
+
+Agony sped away from camp and hid herself away in the woods, where she
+sank down at the foot of a great tree and hid her face in her hands. The
+thing she had desired, had longed for above all others, was now about to
+come to pass--and she had made it forever an impossibility. The cup of
+joy that Fate had decreed she was to taste she had dashed to the ground
+with her own hands. For she could not see Edwin Langham, could not let
+him see her. As long as he did not see her her secret was safe. He did
+not know her name, or Mary's, so he could not betray her in that way.
+Only, if he ever saw her he would know the difference right away, and
+then would come betrayal and disgrace. There was only one thing to do.
+She must hide away from him; and give up her opportunity of meeting and
+talking with him. It was the only way out of the predicament.
+
+When the steamer swung into view around the bend of the river the next
+afternoon Agony stole away into the thickest part of the woods and
+proceeded toward a place she had discovered some time before. It was a
+deep, extremely narrow ravine, so narrow indeed that it was merely a
+great crock in the earth, not more than six feet across at its widest.
+It was filled with a wild growth of elderberry bushes, which made it an
+excellent hiding place. She scrambled down into this pit and crouched
+under the bushes, completely hidden from view. Here she sat with her
+head bowed down on her knees, hearing the whistle of the steamer as it
+neared the dock, and the welcoming song of the girls as the
+distinguished passenger alighted. A little later it seemed to her that
+she heard voices calling her name. Yes, it was so, without a doubt. Tiny
+Armstrong's megaphone voice came echoing on the breeze.
+
+"A-go-ny! A-go-ny! Oh-h-h-h, A--go--ny!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She clenched her hands in silent misery, and did not raise her head.
+Then the sound of a bark arrested her attention, coming from directly
+overhead, and she sat up in consternation. Micky, the bull pup belonging
+to the Camp, had discovered her hiding place and would undoubtedly give
+her away.
+
+"Go away, Micky!" she commanded in a low tone. At the sound of her voice
+Micky barked more loudly than ever, a joyous, welcoming bark. Having
+been much petted by Agony, Micky had grown very fond of her, and seeing
+her walk off into the woods today, he had followed after her, and now
+gave loud voice to his satisfaction at finding her.
+
+"Micky! Go away!" commanded Agony a second time, throwing a lump of dirt
+at him. Micky looked astonished as the dirt flew past his nose, but
+refused to retire.
+
+"Well, if you won't go away, come down in here, then," said Agony.
+"Here, Micky, Micky," she called coaxingly.
+
+Micky, clumsy puppy that he was, made a wild leap into the ravine and
+landed upon the sharp point of a jagged stump, cutting a jagged gash in
+his shoulder. How he did howl! Agony expected every minute that the
+whole camp would come running to the spot to find out what the matter
+was. But fortunately the wind was blowing from the direction of Camp
+and the sound was carried the other way. Agony worked frantically to get
+the wound bound up and the poor puppy soothed into silence. At last he
+lay still, with his head in her lap, licking her hand with his moppy red
+tongue every few seconds to tell her how grateful he was.
+
+Thus she sat until she heard the deep whistle of the returning steamer
+and the farewell song of the girls as they stood on the dock and waved
+goodbye to Edwin Langham. When she was sure that the boat must be out of
+sight she shoved Micky gently out of her lap and rose to climb out of
+her hiding place. Her feet were asleep from sitting so long in her
+cramped position and as she tried to get a foothold on the steep side of
+the ravine she slipped and fell headlong, striking her head on a stump
+and twisting her back. It was not until night that they found her, after
+her continued absence from camp had roused alarm, and searching parties
+had been made up to scour the woods. Tiny Armstrong, shouting her way
+through the woods, first heard a muffled bark and then a feeble answer
+to her call, coming from the direction of the ravine, and charging
+toward it like a fire engine she discovered the two under the elderberry
+bushes.
+
+Agony was lifted gently out and laid on the ground to await the coming
+of an improvised stretcher.
+
+"We hunted and hunted for you this afternoon," said Jo Severance,
+bending over her with an anxious face. "The poet, Edwin Langham, was
+here, and he wanted especially to see you, and was dreadfully
+disappointed when we couldn't find you. He left a book here for you."
+
+"Oh," groaned Agony, and those hearing her thought that she must be in
+great physical pain.
+
+"How did you happen to fall into that ravine?" asked Jo.
+
+Agony was becoming light headed from the blow on her temple, and she
+answered in disjointed phrases.
+
+"Didn't fall in--went down--purpose. Micky--fell in--hurt shoulder--I
+bandaged it--fell trying--to--get--out."
+
+Her voice trailed off weakly toward the end.
+
+"There, don't talk," said Dr. Grayson. "We understand all about it. The
+dog fell in and hurt himself and you went down after him and then fell
+in yourself. Being kind to dumb animals again. Noble little girl. We're
+proud of you."
+
+Agony heard it all as in a dream, but could summon no voice to speak.
+She was _so_ tired. After all, why not let them think that? It was the
+best way out. Otherwise they might wonder how she happened to be in the
+ravine--it would be hard for them to believe that she had fallen into it
+herself in broad daylight, and it might be embarrassing to answer
+questions. Let them believe that she had gone down after the dog. That
+settled the matter once for all.
+
+The stretcher arrived and she was carried to her tent, where Dr. Grayson
+made a thorough examination of her injuries.
+
+"Not serious," was his verdict, to everybody's immense relief. "Painful
+bump on the head, but no real damage done, and back strained a little,
+that's all."
+
+Once more Agony was the camp heroine, and her tent was crowded all day
+long with admirers. Miss Amesbury sat and read to her by the hour; the
+camp cook made up special dishes and sent them out on a tray trimmed
+with wild flowers; the camp orchestra serenaded her daily and nightly,
+and half a dozen clever camp poets made up songs in her honor. Fame
+comes easily in camps, and enthusiasm runs high while it lasts.
+
+Agony reflected, in a grimly humorous way, that in the matter of fame
+she had a sort of Midas touch; everything she did rebounded to her
+glory, now that the ball was once started rolling. And worst of all was
+the book that Edwin Langham had left for her, a beautiful copy of "The
+Desert Garden," bound in limp leather with gold edged leaves. Inside the
+cover was written in a flowing, beautiful hand:
+
+    "To A.C.W., in memory of a certain day in the woods.
+    From one who rejoices in a brave and noble deed.
+    Sincerely, Edwin Langham."
+
+On the opposite page was written a quotation which Agony had been
+familiar with ever since she had become a Winnebago:
+
+    "Love is the joy of service so deep that self is
+    forgotten."
+
+She put the book away where she could not see it, but the words had
+burned themselves into her brain.
+
+    "To A.C.W. From one who rejoices in a brave and noble
+    deed."
+
+They mocked her in the dead of night, they taunted her in the light of
+day. But, like the boy with the fox gnawing at his vitals, Agony
+continued to smile and make herself agreeable, and no one ever suspected
+that her gayety was not genuine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+THE STUNT'S THE THING
+
+"Where would a shipwreck look best, right by the dock, or farther up the
+shore?" Sahwah's forehead puckered up with the force of her reflection.
+
+"Oh, not right by the dock," said Jo Severance decidely. "That would be
+too modern and--commonplace. It's lots more epic to be dashed against a
+rocky cliff. All the shipwrecks in the books happen on stern and
+rockbound coasts and things like that."
+
+"It might be more epic for those who are looking on, but for the one
+that gets shipwrecked," Sahwah reminded her. "As long as I'm the one
+that get's wrecked I'm going to pick out a soft spot to get wrecked on."
+
+"Why not capsize some distance out in the water and swim ashore?"
+suggested Migwan.
+
+"Of course!" exclaimed Sahwah. "Why didn't we think of that before?
+Geese!"
+
+"This is the way we'll start, then," said Migwan, taking out her
+notebook and scribbling in it with a pencil. "Scene One. Sinbad the
+Sailor clinging to wreckage of vessel out in the water. He drifts ashore
+and lands in the kingdom of the Keewaydins." She paused and bit the end
+of her pencil, seeking inspiration. "Then, what will you do when you
+land, Sahwah?"
+
+"Oh, I'll just poke around a bit, and then discover the Keewaydins in
+their native wilds," replied Sahwah easily. "Then I'll go around with
+you while you go through the events of a day in camp. O, I think it's
+the grandest idea!" she interrupted herself in a burst of rapture.
+"We'll get the stunt prize as easy as pie. The Avenue will never be able
+to think up anything nearly as good. How did you ever manage to think of
+it, Migs?"
+
+"Why, it just came all by itself," replied Migwan modestly.
+
+Anyone who had ever spent a summer at Camp Keewaydin, passing at that
+moment, and hearing the conversation, would have known exactly what week
+of the year it was without consulting a calendar. It was the second week
+in August--the week of Camp Keewaydin's annual Stunt Night, when the
+Avenue and the Alley matched their talents in a contest to see which one
+could put on the best original stunt. Next to Regatta Day, when the two
+struggled for the final supremacy in aquatics, Stunt Night was the
+biggest event of the camping season. Rivalry was intense. It was a fair
+test of the talents of the girls themselves, for the councilors were
+not allowed to participate, nor to give the slightest aid or advice. The
+boys from Camp Altamont came over with their councilors, and together
+with the directors and councilors of Camp Keewaydin they voted on which
+stunt was the best. Originality counted most; finish in working out the
+details next.
+
+The Alley's stunt this year was a sketch entitled THE LAST VOYAGE OF
+SINBAD THE SAILOR, and was a burlesque on Camp life. The idea had come
+to Migwan in a flash of inspiration one night when Dr. Grayson was
+reading the Arabian Nights aloud before the fire in the bungalow. She
+communicated her idea to the rest of the Alley and they received it with
+whoops of joy.
+
+Now it lacked but three days until Stunt Night, and the Alleyites, over
+on Whaleback, where they would be safe from detection, were deep in the
+throes of rehearsing. Sahwah, of course, was picked for the role of the
+shipwrecked Sinbad, for she was the only one who could be depended upon
+to stage the shipweck in a thrilling manner.
+
+"What kind of a costume do I wear?" she inquired, when the location of
+the shipwreck itself had finally been settled. "What nationality was
+Sinbad, anyhow?"
+
+"He came from Bagdad," replied Sahwah brilliantly.
+
+"But where was Bagdad?"
+
+"In Syria," declared Oh-Pshaw.
+
+"Asia," promptly answered Gladys.
+
+"Turkey," said Katherine, somewhat doubtfully, and "Persia," said Agony
+in the same breath.
+
+Then they all looked at each other a little sheepishly.
+
+"The extent to which I don't know geography," remarked Sahwah, "is
+something appalling."
+
+"Well, if _we_ don't know what country Bagdad was in, it's pretty sure
+that none of the others will either," said Hinpoha brightly, "so it
+doesn't make much difference what kind of a costume you wear. Something
+Turkish is what you want, I suppose. A turban and some great big
+bloomers, you know the kind, with yards and yards of goods in them."
+
+"But you can't swim in such awfully full bloomers," Sahwah protested.
+
+"That's so, too," Hinpoha assented.
+
+"Well, get them as big as you _can_ swim in," said Migwan pacifically.
+
+"Who's going to make them?" Sahwah wanted to know. "We haven't much
+time."
+
+"Oh, just borrow Tiny Armstrong's regular ones," Migwan replied.
+"They'll look like Turkish bloomers on you."
+
+"Won't she suspect what we're going to do if I borrow them?" Sahwah
+demurred.
+
+"Nonsense! What could she suspect? She will know of course that you
+want them for the stunt, but she couldn't guess _what_ for."
+
+"We've got to have her other pair, too, for the person who is going to
+impersonate Tiny," Agony reminded Migwan.
+
+"So we do," replied Migwan, making a note in her book. "And her
+stockings, too, those red and black ones. We're going to do that snake
+business over again. Somebody will have to get these without Tiny's
+knowing it, or she'll suspect about the snake. Who's in her tent?"
+
+"We are," replied Katherine and Oh-Pshaw. "We'll manage to get them for
+you. Who's going to impersonate Tiny Armstrong?"
+
+Migwan squinted her eyes in a calculating manner and surveyed the girls
+grouped around her. "It'll have to be Katherine, I guess," she finally
+announced. "She's the biggest of us all. But even she isn't nearly as
+big as Tiny," she added regretfully.
+
+"Couldn't we put two of us together?" suggested Sahwah. "Carmen Chadwick
+is as light as a feather and she could get up on Katherin's shoulders as
+easy as not."
+
+"But we need Katherine to impersonate the Lone Wolf. She's the only one
+who can do it well," objected Migwan. "Somebody else will have to be the
+bottom half of Tiny. Hinpoha, you'll do for that part. Gladys, you'll be
+Pom-pom, of course. There, that's three councilors taken care of. As
+soon as your parts are assigned will you please step over to that side,
+girls. Then I can see what I have left. Now, who'll be Miss Peckham?"
+
+There was a silence, and all the eligibles looked at one another
+doubtfully. Nobody quite dared impersonate Miss Peckham--and nobody
+wanted to, for that matter.
+
+"Jo?" Migwan began hesitatingly. "You're such a good mimic--no--" she
+broke off decidely, "you have to be Dr. Grayson, of course, because you
+can play men's parts so beautifully."
+
+She looked from one to the other inquiringly. Her eye fell upon Bengal
+Virden. "Bengal, dear--"
+
+Bengal looked up with a jerk and a grimace of distaste. "I wouldn't be
+Pecky for a thousand dollars," she declared flatly. "I hate her, I tell
+you." Then something seemed to occur to her, and a mischievous twinkle
+came into her eyes. "Oh, I'll be her," she exclaimed, throwing grammar
+to the winds in her eagerness. "Please let me. I want to be, I want to
+be."
+
+"All right," said Migwan relievedly, putting the entry down in her
+notebook and proceeding with the assignment of parts. But Agony, having
+seen the mischievous gleam that came into Bengal's eyes when she so
+suddenly changed her mind about impersonating Miss Peckham, wondered as
+to its meaning.
+
+She called Bengal to come aside with her, and Bengal, enraptured at
+being noticed by her divinity, trotted after her like a delighted
+Newfoundland puppy, bestowing clumsy caresses upon her as they
+proceeded.
+
+"Oh, I've got the best joke on Pecky!" she gurgled, before Agony had had
+a chance to broach the subject herself.
+
+"Yes?" said Agony.
+
+"Did you know," confided Bengal, with a fresh burst of giggles, "that
+Pecky shaves?"
+
+Then, as Agony gave a little incredulous exclamation, she hastened on.
+"Really she does, her whole chin, with a razor, every morning. I found
+it out a couple of days ago. I guess she'd have a regular beard if she
+didn't. You've noticed how kind of hairy her chin is, haven't you? I
+found a little safety razor among her things one day--"
+
+"Bengal! You weren't rummaging among her things, were you?"
+
+"No, of course not. But once when we were all up in the bungalow she
+found that she'd forgotten her watch, and sent me back to get it out of
+her bathrobe pocket, and there was a little safety razor in where the
+watch was. I didn't think anything about it then, but after that I
+noticed that she always went off by herself in the woods. While the rest
+of us went for morning dip. Yesterday I followed her and saw what she
+did. She shaved her chin with that safety razor. Oh, won't it be great
+fun when I do that in the stunt? Won't she be hopping mad, though!"
+Bengal hopped up and down and chortled with anticipatory glee.
+
+"Bengal!" said Agony firmly, "don't you _dare_ do anything like that?
+Don't you know that it's terribly bad taste to make fun of people's
+personal blemishes?"
+
+"But she deserves it," Bengal persisted, still chuckling. "She's such a
+prune."
+
+"That has nothing whatever to do with the matter," Agony replied
+sternly. "Do you want to ruin our stunt for us? That's what will happen
+if you do anything as ill-bred as that. It would take away every chance
+we have of winning the prize."
+
+"Well, if _you_ say I shouldn't do it I won't," said Bengal rather
+sulkily. "But wouldn't it have been the best joke!" she added
+regretfully.
+
+"Bengal," Agony continued, realizing that even if Bengal could be
+suppressed as far as the stunt went, she would still have plenty of
+opportunity for making life miserable for Miss Peckham now that she had
+learned her embarrassing secret, "you won't mention this to any of the
+other girls, will you? You see, it must be very embarrassing for Miss
+Peckham to have to do that, and naturally she would feel highly
+uncomfortable if the camp found it out. You see, you found it out by
+accident; she didn't tell you of her own free will, so you have no right
+to tell it any further. A girl with a nice sense of honor would never
+think of telling anything she found out in that way, when she knew it
+would cause embarrassment if told. So you'll give me your promise, won't
+you, Bengal dear, that you will never mention this matter to anybody
+around camp?"
+
+Bengal flushed and looked down, maintaining an obstinate silence.
+
+"Please, won't you, Bengal dear?" coaxed Agony in her most irresistible
+manner. "Will you do it for me if you won't do it for Miss Peckham?"
+
+Bengal could not hold out against the coaxing of her adored one, but she
+still hesitated, bargaining her promise for a reward. "If you'll let me
+wear your ring for the rest of the summer, and come and kiss me
+goodnight every night after I'm in bed--"
+
+"All right," Agony agreed hastily, with a sigh of resignation for this
+departure from her fixed principles regarding the lending of jewelry and
+about promiscuous demonstrations of affection, but peace in camp was
+worth the price.
+
+Bengal claimed the ring at once, and then, after pawing Agony over like
+a bear cub, said a little shamefacedly, "I wish I were as good as you
+are. You're so honorable. How do you get such a 'nice sense of honor' as
+you have? I think I'd like to have one."
+
+"Such a nice sense of honor as you have!" Agony jerked up as though she
+had been jabbed with a red hot needle. "Such a nice sense of honor as
+you have!" The words lingered in her ears like a mocking echo. The smile
+faded from her lips; her arm stiffened and dropped from Bengal's
+shoulder. The frank admiration in the younger girl's eyes cut her to the
+quick. With a haggard look she turned away from Bengal and wandered away
+to the other part of the island, away from the girls. Just now she could
+not bear to hear their gay, carefree voices. What would she not give,
+she thought to herself, to have nothing on her mind. She even envied
+rabbit-brained little Carmen Chadwick, who, if she had nothing in her
+head, had nothing on her conscience either.
+
+"Who am I to talk of a 'nice sense of honor' to Bengal Virden?" she
+thought miserably. "I'm a whole lot worse than she. She's only a
+mischievous child, and doesn't know any better, but I do. I'm no better
+than Jane Pratt, either, even though I told Mrs. Grayson about her going
+out at night with boys from Camp Altamont." This matter of Jane Pratt
+had tormented Agony without ceasing. True to her contemptuous attitude
+toward Agony's plea that she break bonds no more, she had refused to
+tell Mrs. Grayson about her nocturnal canoe rides and thus had forced
+Agony to make good her threat and tell Mrs. Grayson herself. She had
+hoped and prayed that Jane would take the better course and confess her
+own wrong doing, but Jane did nothing of the kind, and there was only
+one course open to Agony. It was the rule of the camp that anyone seeing
+another breaking the rules must first give the offender the opportunity
+to confess, and if that failed must report the matter herself to the
+Doctor or Mrs. Grayson. So Agony was obliged to tell Mrs. Grayson that
+Jane was breaking the rules by slipping out nights and setting a bad
+example to the younger girls if any of them knew about it.
+
+The matter caused more of a stir than Agony had expected, and much more
+than she had wished for. Dr. Grayson prided himself upon the high
+standard of conduct which was maintained at his camp, and he knew that
+the mothers of his girls gave their daughters into his keeping with
+implicit faith that they would meet with no harmful influences while
+they were at Camp Keewaydin. If a rumor should ever get about that the
+girls from his camp went out in canoes after hours Keewaydin's
+reputation would suffer considerably. Dr. Grayson was outraged and
+thoroughly angry. He decided at once that Jane should be sent home in
+disgrace. That very day, however, Mrs. Grayson had received a letter
+saying that Jane's mother was quite ill in a sanatarium and that all
+upsetting news was being carefully kept away from her. She particularly
+desired that Jane should not come home, as there was no place for her to
+stay, and she was so much better taken care of in camp than she would be
+in a large city with no one to look after her. It was this letter that
+brought about a three-hour conference between the Doctor and Mrs.
+Grayson. Dr. Grayson was firm about sending Jane home in disgrace; Mrs.
+Grayson, filled with concern about her well loved friend, could not bear
+to risk upsetting her at this critical time by turning loose her unruly
+daughter. In the end Mrs. Grayson won her point, and Jane was allowed to
+stay in camp, but she was deprived of all canoe privileges for the
+remainder of the summer and forbidden to go on any of the trips with the
+camp. She was taken away from the easy-going, sound-sleeping councilor
+whose chaperonage she had succeeded in eluding, and placed in a tent
+with Mrs. Grayson herself. Dr. Grayson called the whole camp together in
+council and explained the matter to the girls, dwelling upon the
+dishonorableness of breaking rules, and when he finished his talk there
+was small danger that even the smallest rule would be broken again
+during the summer. The sight of Jane Pratt called out in public to be
+censured was not one to be soon forgotten. Agony was commended by the
+Doctor for her firm stand in the matter, and praised because she did not
+take the easier course of remaining silent about it and running the risk
+of letting the reputation of the camp suffer.
+
+Since then Jane, though somewhat subdued, had treated Agony with such
+marked animosity of manner that Agony hardly dared look at her. Added
+to her natural embarrassment at having been the in-former--a role which
+no one ever really enjoys--was the matter which lay like lead on Agony's
+own conscience and which tortured her out of all proportion to its real
+significance.
+
+"Pretender!" the whole world seemed to shriek at her wherever she went.
+
+Thus, although Agony apparently was throwing herself heart and soul into
+the preparations for Stunt Night, her mind was not on it half of the
+time and at times she was hardly conscious of the bustle and excitement
+around her.
+
+These last three days the camp were as a house divided against itself,
+as far as the Avenue and the Alley were concerned. Such a gathering of
+groups into corners, such whispering and giggling, such sudden
+scattering at the approach of one from the other side! Sahwah spent two
+whole afternoons over on the far side of Whaleback, rehearsing her
+shipwreck, while the rest of the Alleyites worked up their parts on
+shore, trying to imitate the voices and characteristics of the various
+councilors. All went fairly well except the combination Tiny Armstrong.
+Carmen Chadwick, on top of Hinpoha, and draped up in Tiny's clothes,
+made a truly imposing figure that drew involuntary applause from the
+rest of the cast, but when Tiny spoke, the weak, piping voice that
+issued from the gigantic figure promptly threw them all into hysterics.
+The real Tiny's voice was as deep and resonant as a fog horn.
+
+"That'll never do!" gasped Migwan through her tears of merriment. "That
+doesn't sound any more like Tiny than a chipping sparrow sounds like a
+lion. We'll have to get somebody with a deeper voice for the upper half
+of Tiny."
+
+"But there isn't anybody else as light as Carmen," Hinpoha protested,
+"and I can't carry anybody that's any heavier."
+
+Migwan wrinkled her brows and considered the matter.
+
+"Oh, leave it the way it is," proposed Jo Severance. "They'll never
+notice a little thing like that."
+
+"Yes, they will too," Gladys declared. "Anyway, you can't hear what
+Carmen says, and we want the folks to hear Tiny's speech, because it's
+so funny."
+
+"But what are we going to do about it?" asked Migwan in perplexity.
+
+"I know," said Katherine, rising to the occasion, as usual, "let the
+other half of Tiny do the talking. Hinpoha can make her voice quite deep
+and loud. It doesn't make any difference which half of Tiny talks, as
+long as the people hear it."
+
+"Just the thing!" exclaimed Migwan delightedly. "Katherine, that head of
+yours will make your fortune yet. All right, Hinpoha, you speak Tiny's
+lines."
+
+Hinpoha complied, and the effect of her voice coming apparently from
+beneath Tiny's ribs, while Tiny's mouth up above remained closed, was a
+great deal funnier than the first way.
+
+"Never mind," said Migwan firmly, while the rest wept with laughter on
+each other's shoulders, "it sounds more like Tiny than the other way.
+You might stand with your back turned while you talk if Sinbad can't
+keep his face straight when he looks at you. You'd all better practice
+keeping your faces straight though. Katherine, you won't forget to get
+that gaudy blanket off the Lone Wolf's bed, will you?"
+
+Migwan, her classic forehead streaked with perspiration and red color
+from the notebook in her hands, directed the rehearsal of her production
+all through the hot afternoon, until the lengthening shadows on the
+island warned them that is was time to get back to camp and prepare for
+the real performance. The stunts were to begin at six-thirty, and would
+be held in the open space in front of Mateka, overlooking the river. The
+Avenue's stunt was to go on first, as the long end had fallen to them in
+the drawing of the cuts.
+
+There was a great scurrying around after props after the Alleyites came
+back from the Island after that last rehearsal. Migwan, checking up her
+list, was constantly coming upon things that had been forgotten.
+
+"Did somebody get Tiny Armstrong's red striped stockings?" she asked
+anxiously.
+
+Nobody had remembered to get them. Katherine departed forthwith in quest
+of the necessary hosiery and found one of the stockings hanging out on
+the tent rope. The other was not in evidence. She was about to depart
+quietly without going into the tent, for one stocking was all that she
+needed, when a toothbrush suddenly whizzed past her ear, coming from the
+tent door. Laughing, she turned and went into the tent, first hastily
+concealing Tony's stocking in the front of her middy.
+
+The flinger of the toothbrush turned out to be Tiny herself, who was
+sitting up in bed with her nightgown on.
+
+"What's the matter, Tiny?" Katherine asked solicitously. "Are you sick?
+Aren't you going to get up to see the Stunts?"
+
+"Get up!" shouted Tiny wrathfully. "I _can't_ get up--I haven't any
+clothes."
+
+"No clothes?" murmured Katherine in a puzzled tone.
+
+"Everything's gone," continued Tiny plaintively, "bloomers, middies,
+shoes, stockings, hat, everything. Somebody has taken and hidden them
+for a joke, I suppose. I went to sleep here this afternoon, and when I
+woke up everything was gone."
+
+Katherine suddenly grew very non-committal, although she wanted to
+shriek with laughter. Oh-Pshaw, who had been sent after a suit of
+Tiny's that afternoon, had apparently made a pretty thorough job of it.
+
+"Somebody must be playing a joke on you," Katherine remarked tranquilly,
+although she was conscious of the lump that Tiny's one remaining
+stocking made under her middy. "Never mind. Tiny, I'll go out and borrow
+some things for you to wear."
+
+"But there's nothing of anybody's here that I can get into," mourned
+Tiny. "I'm four sizes bigger than the biggest of you. You'll have to
+find out who's hidden my things and bring them back."
+
+Katherine was touched by Tiny's predicament, but the stunt had first
+claim on her. She came back presently with Tiny's bathing suit, which
+she had hanging on a nearby tree, and a long raincoat of Dr. Grayson's,
+together with his tennis shoes. She even had to beg a pair of his socks
+from Mrs. Grayson, for all of Tiny's that had not been borrowed were
+away at the laundry. And in that collection of clothes Tiny had to go
+and sit in the Judges' box at the Stunts, but her good nature was not
+ruffled one whit on account of it.
+
+Katherine was still getting Tiny into her improvised wardrobe when a
+loud hubbub proclaimed the arrival of the boys from Camp Altamont, and
+at the same time the bugle sounded the assembly call for the girls. The
+Alleyites, bursting with impatience for the time of their own stunt to
+arrive, settled themselves in their places to watch the Avenue stunt.
+The bugle sounded again, and the chairman of the Avenue stunt stood up.
+
+"Our stunt tonight," she announced, "tells a hitherto unpublished one of
+Gulliver's Travels, namely, his voyage to the Land of the Keewaydins."
+
+The Alley sat up with one convulsive jerk. "Gulliver's Travels!" That
+sounded nearly like their own idea.
+
+Then the stunt proceeded, beginning with Gulliver wrecked on the shore
+of the Land of the Keewaydins. Undine Girelle was Gulliver, and her
+shipwreck was trully a thrilling one. She finally landed, spent with
+swimming, on the shore, and was taken in hand by the friendly
+Keewaydins, who proceeded to show him their customs. The Alley gradually
+turned to stone as they saw practically the very same things they were
+planning to do, being performed before their eyes by the Avenue. There
+was Miss Peckham and the stocking-snake (that explained to Katherine why
+she had only been able to find one of Tiny's red and black stockings);
+there was Tiny herself, and made out of two girls, just as they were
+going to do it! There was Dr. Grayson, there were all the other
+councilors; there was a burlesque on camp life almost exactly as they
+had planned to do it!
+
+The boys and the councilors applauded wildly, but the Alleyites, too
+surprised and taken back to be appreciative, merely looked at each
+other in mute consternation.
+
+"Somebody gave away our secret!" was the first indignant thought that
+flashed into the minds of the Alleyites, but the utter astonishment of
+the Avenue when the Alley said that their stunt was practically the
+same, soon convinced them that the whole thing was a mere co-incidence.
+
+"It's a wonder I didn't suspect anything when I found that all of Tiny's
+clothes were gone," said Katherine. "That should have told me that
+someone else was impersonating her."
+
+The Alley at first declined to put on their stunt, since it was so
+nearly the same as the other, but the audience refused to let them off,
+insisting that they had come to see two stunts, and they were going to
+see two, even if they _were_ alike.
+
+"We can still judge which is the best," said Dr. Grayson. "In fact, it
+is an unusual opportunity. Usually the stunts are so different that it
+is hard to tell which is the better, but having two performances on the
+same subject gives a rare chance to consider the fine points."
+
+So the Alley went ahead with their stunt just as if nothing out of the
+way had occurred, and the judges applauded them just as wildly as they
+had the others. In the end, the honors had to be evenly divided between
+the two, for the judges declared that one was just as good as the other
+and it was impossible to decide between them.
+
+"And we were so dead sure that the Avenue would never be able to think
+up anything nearly as clever as ours," remarked Sahwah ruefully, as she
+prepared for bed that night.
+
+"I'm beginning to come to the conclusion," replied Hinpoha with a sleepy
+yawn, "that it isn't safe to be too sure of anything. You never can tell
+from the outside of people what they are likely to have inside of them."
+
+"No, you can't" echoed Agony soberly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THEIR NATIVE WILDS
+
+Miss Judy's hat was more or less a barometer of the state of her
+emotions. Worn far back on her head with its brim turned up, it
+indicated that she was at peace with all the world and upon pleasure
+bent; tipped over one ear, it denoted intense preoccupation with
+business affairs; pulled low over her eyes, it was a sign of extreme
+vexation. This morning the hat was pulled so far down over her face that
+only the tip of her chin was visible. Katherine, stopping to help her
+run a canoe up on the bank after swimming hour, noticed the unnecessary
+vehemence of her movements, and asked mildly as to the cause.
+
+Miss Judy replied with a single explosive exclamation of "Monty!"
+
+"Monty!" Katherine echoed inquringly. "What's that?"
+
+"You're right, it _is_ a 'what'," replied Miss Judy emphatically,
+"although it usually goes down in the catalog as a 'who.' It's my
+cousin, Egmont Satter-white," she continued in explanation. "He's
+coming to pay us a visit at camp."
+
+"Yes," said Katherine. "What is he like?"
+
+"Like?" repeated Miss Judy derisively. "He's like the cock who thought
+the sun didn't get up until he crowed--so conceited; only he goes still
+farther. He doesn't see what need there is for the sun at all while he
+is there to shed his light. He's the only child of his adoring mother,
+and she's cultivated him like a rare floral specimen; private tutors and
+all that sort of thing. Now he's learned everything there is to know,
+and he's ready to write a book. He regards his fellow creatures as
+quaint and curious specimens, 'rather diverting for one to observe,
+don't you know,' but not at all important. I suppose he's going to put a
+chapter in his book about girls, because he wrote to father and
+announced that he was going to run up for a week or so and observe us in
+our native wilds--that was the delicate way he put it. He'll probably
+set down everything he sees in a notebook and then go home and solemnly
+write his chapter, wise as Solomon."
+
+"What a bore!" sighed Katherine. "I hate to be stared at, and 'observed'
+for somebody else's benefit."
+
+"Monty's a pest!" Miss Judy exploded wrathfully. "I don't see why father
+ever told him he could come. He's under no obligations to him--we're
+only third cousins, and Monty considers us far, far beneath him at
+best. But you know how father is--hospitality with a capital H. So we're
+doomed to a visitation from Monty."
+
+"When is he coming?" asked Katherine, smiling at Miss Judy's lugubrious
+tone.
+
+"The day after tomorrow," replied Miss Judy. "The Thursday afternoon
+boat has the honor of bringing him."
+
+"'O better that her shattered hulk should sink beneath the wave,' eh?"
+remarked Katherine sympathetically.
+
+"Katherine," said Miss Judy feelingly, "_vous et moi_ we speak the same
+language, _n'est-ce pas_?"
+
+"We do," agreed Katherine laughingly.
+
+That evening when all the campers were gathered around the fire in the
+bungalow, listening to Dr. Grayson reading "The Crock of Gold" to the
+pattering accompaniment of the raindrops on the roof, Miss Judy went
+into the camp office to answer the telephone, and came out with a look
+of half-humorous exasperation on her face.
+
+"What is it?" asked Dr. Grayson, pausing in his reading.
+
+"It's Cousin Monty," announced Miss Judy. He's at Emmet's Landing, two
+stops down the river. He decided to come to camp a day earlier than he
+had written. He got off the boat at Emmet's Landing to sketch an
+'exquisite' bit of scenery that he spied there. Now he's marooned at
+Emmet's Landing and can't get a boat to bring him to camp. He decided
+to stay there all night, and found a room, but the bed didn't look
+comfortable. He wants us to come and get him."
+
+"At this time of night!" Dr. Grayson exclaimed involuntarily. He
+recovered himself instantly. "Ah yes, certainly, of course. I'll go and
+get him. Tell him I'll come for him."
+
+"But it's raining pitchforks," demurred Miss Judy.
+
+"Ah well, never mind, I'll go anyhow," said her father composedly.
+
+"I'll go with you," declared Miss Judy firmly. "I'll run the launch." As
+she passed by Katherine on her way out of the bungalow she flashed her a
+meaning look, which Katherine answered with a sympathetic grimace.
+
+In the morning when camp assembled for breakfast there was Cousin Egmont
+sitting beside Dr. Grayson at the table, notebook in hand, looking about
+him in a loftily curious way. He was a small, slightly built youth,
+sallow of complexion and insignificant of feature, with pale hair
+brushed up into an exaggerated pompadour, and a neat little moustache.
+In contrast to Dr. Grayson's heroic proportions he looked like a Vest
+Pocket Edition alongside of an Unabridged.
+
+"Nice little camp you have here, Uncle, very," he drawled, peering
+languidly through his huge spectacles at the shining river and the far
+off rolling hills beyond. "Nothing like the camps I've seen in
+Switzerland, though. For real camps you want to go to Switzerland,
+Uncle. A chap I know goes there every summer. Of course, for a girl's
+camp this does very well, very. Pretty fair looking lot of girls you
+have, Uncle. All from picked families, eh? Require references and all
+that sort of thing?"
+
+Dr. Grayson made a deprecatory gesture with his hand and looked uneasily
+around the table, to see if Egmont's remarks were being overheard. But
+Mrs. Grayson sat on the other side of Egmont, and the seat next to the
+Doctor was vacant, so there was really no one within hearing distance
+except the Lone Wolf, who sat opposite to Mrs. Grayson, and she was
+deeply engrossed in conversation with the girl on the other side of her.
+
+Monty prattled on. "You see, Uncle, I wouldn't have come up here to
+observe if I thought they were not from the best families. Anybody I'd
+care to write about--you understand, Uncle."
+
+"Yes, I understand," replied Dr. Grayson quizzically. "Have you taken
+any notes yet?" he continued.
+
+"Nothing yet," Monty admitted, "but I mean to begin immediately after
+breakfast. I mean to flit unobtrusively about Camp, Uncle, and watch the
+young ladies when they do not suspect I am around, taking down their
+innocent girlish conversation among themselves. So much more natural
+that way, Uncle, very!"
+
+Dr. Grayson hurriedly took a huge mouthful of water, and then choked on
+it in a very natural manner, and Miss Judy's coming in with the mail bag
+at that moment caused a welcome diversion.
+
+"Ah, good morning, Cousin Judith," drawled Monty. "I see you didn't get
+up as early as the rest of us. Perhaps the fatigue of last night--"
+
+"I've been down the river for the mail," replied Miss Judy shortly. Then
+she turned her back on him and spoke to her father. "The weather is
+settled for this week. That rainstorm last night cleared things up
+beautifully. We ought to take the canoe trip, the one up to the Falls."
+
+"That's so," agreed Dr. Grayson. "How soon can you arrange to go?"
+
+"Tomorrow," replied Miss Judy.
+
+"Ah, a canoe trip," cried Monty brightly. "I ought to get quantities of
+notes from that."
+
+Miss Judy eyed him for a moment with an unfathomable expression on her
+face, then turned away and began to talk to the Lone Wolf.
+
+All during Morning Sing Monty sat in a corner and took notes with a
+silver pencil in an embossed leather notebook, staring now at this girl,
+now at that, until she turned fiery red and fidgeted. After Morning Sing
+he established himself on a rocky ledge just below Bedlam, where, hidden
+by the bushes, he sat ready to take down the innocent conversation of
+the young ladies among themselves as they made their tents ready for
+tent inspection.
+
+Katherine and Oh-Pshaw were in the midst of tidying up when the Lone
+Wolf dropped in to return a flashlight she had borrowed the night
+before. She strolled over to the railing at the back of the tent and
+peered over it. A gleam came into her eye as she noticed that one of the
+bushes just below the tent on the slope toward the river was waving
+slightly in an opposite direction from the way in which the wind was
+blowing. Stepping back into the tent she stopped beside Bedlam's water
+pail, newly filled for tent inspection.
+
+"Your water looks sort of--er--muddy," she remarked artfully. "Hadn't
+you better throw it out and get some fresh? Here, I'll do it for you.
+I'm not busy."
+
+She picked up the brimming pail and emptied it over the back railing,
+right over the spot where she had seen the bush waving. Immediately
+there came a curious sound out of the bush--half gasp and half yell, and
+out sprang Monty, dripping like a rat, and fled down the path toward the
+bungalow, without ever looking around.
+
+"Why, he was down there _listening_," Katherine exclaimed in disgust.
+"Oh, how funny it was," she remarked to the Lone Wolf, "that you
+happened to come in and dump that pail of water over the railing just
+at that time."
+
+"It certainty was," the Lone Wolf acquiesced gravely, as she departed
+with the pail in the direction of the spring.
+
+Cousin Monty flitted unobtrusively to his tent, got on dry garments,
+fished another notebook out of his bag, and set out once more in quest
+of local color. He wandered down to Mateka, where Craft Hour was in
+progress. A pottery craze had struck camp, and the long tables were
+filled with girls rolling and patting lumps of plastic clay into vases,
+jars, bowls, plates and other vessels. Cousin Monty strolled up and
+down, contemplating the really creditable creation of the girls with a
+condescending patronage that made them feel like small children in the
+kindergarten. He gave the art director numerous directions as to how she
+might improve her method of teaching, and benevolently pointed out to a
+number of the girls how the things they were making were all wrong.
+
+Finally he came and stood by Hinpoha, who was putting the finishing
+touches on the decoration of a rose jar, an exquisite thing, with a
+raised design in rose petals. Hinpoha was smoothing out the flat
+background of her design when Monty paused beside her.
+
+"You're not holding your instrument right." he remarked patronizingly.
+"Let me show you how." He took the instrument from Hinpoha's unwilling
+hand, and turning it wrong way up, proceeded to scrape back and forth.
+At the third stroke it went too far, and gouged out a deep scratch right
+through the design, clear across the whole side of the vase.
+
+"Ah, a little scratch," he remarked airily. "Ah, sorry, really, very.
+But it can soon be remedied. A little dob of clay, now."
+
+"Let me fix it myself," said Hinpoha firmly, with difficulty keeping her
+exasperation under the surface, and without more ado seized her
+mutilated treasure from his hands.
+
+"Ah, yes, of course," murmured Monty, and wandered on to the next table.
+
+By the time the day was over Cousin Monty was about as popular as a
+hornet. "How long is he going to stay?" the girls asked each other in
+comical dismay. "A week? Oh, my gracious, how can we ever stand him
+around here a week?"
+
+"Is he going along with us on the canoe trip?" Katherine asked Miss Judy
+as she helped her check over supplies for the expedition.
+
+"He is that," replied Miss Judy. "He's going along to pester us just as
+he has been doing--probably worse, because he's had a night to think up
+a whole lot more fool questions to ask than he could think of
+yesterday."
+
+And it was even so. Monty, notebook in hand, insisted upon knowing the
+why and wherefore of every move each one of the girls made until they
+began to flee at his approach. "Why are you tying up your ponchos that
+way? That isn't the way. Now if you will just let me show you--"
+
+"Why you are putting that stout girl"--indicating Bengal--"in the stern
+of the canoe? You want the weight up front--that's the newest way."
+
+"Now Uncle, just let me show you a trick or two about stowing away those
+supplies. You're not in the least scientific about it."
+
+Thus he buzzed about, inquisitive and officious.
+
+Katherine and Miss Judy looked into each other's eyes and exchanged
+exasperated glances. Then Katherine's eye took on a peculiar expression,
+the one which always registered the birth of an idea. At dinner, which
+came just before the expedition started, she was late--a good twenty
+minutes. She tranquilly ate what was left for her and was extremely
+polite to Counsin Monty, answering his continuous questions about the
+coming trip with great amiability, even enthusiasm. Miss Judy looked at
+her curiously.
+
+The expedition started. Monty, who had Miss Peckham in the canoe with
+him--she being the only one who would ride with him--insisted upon going
+at the head of the procession. "I'll paddle so much faster than the rest
+of you," he said airly, "that I'll want room to go ahead. I don't want
+to be held back by the rest of you when I shall want to put on a slight
+spurt now and then. That is the way I like to go, now fast, now slowly,
+as inclination dictates, without having to keep my pace down to that of
+others. I will start first, Uncle, and lead the line."
+
+"All right," replied Dr. Grayson a trifle wearily. "You may lead the
+line."
+
+The various canoes had been assigned before, so there was no confusion
+in starting. The smallest of the canoes had been given to Monty because
+there would be only two in it. Conscious that he was decidedly
+ornamental in his speckless white flannels and silk shirt he helped Miss
+Peckham into the boat with exaggerated gallantry, all the while watching
+out of the corner of his eye to see if Pom-pom was looking at him. He
+had been trying desperately to flirt with her ever since his arrival,
+and had begged her to go with him in the canoe on the trip, all in vain.
+Nevertheless, he was still buzzing around her and playing to the
+audience of her eyes. By fair means or foul he meant to get the
+privilege of having her with him on the return trip. Miss Peckham, newly
+graduated into the canoe privilege, was nervous and fussy, and handled
+her paddle as gingerly as if it were a gun.
+
+"Ah, let me do all the paddling," he insisted, knowing that Pom-pom, in
+a nearby canoe, could hear him. "I could not think of allowing you to
+exert yourself. It is the man's place, you know. You really mustn't
+think of it."
+
+Miss Peckham laid down her paddle with a sigh of relief, and Monty,
+with a graceful gesture, untied the canoe and pushed it out from the
+dock. Behind him the line of boats were all waiting to start.
+
+"Here we go!" he shouted loudly, as he dipped his paddle. In a moment
+all the canoes were in motion. Monty, at the head, seemed to find the
+paddling more difficult than he had expected. He dipped his paddle with
+great vigor and vim, but the canoe only went forward a few inches at
+each stroke. One by one the canoes began to pass him, their occupants
+casting amusing glances at him as he perspired over his paddle. He
+redoubled his efforts, he strained every sinew, and the canoe did go a
+little faster, but not nearly as fast as the others were going.
+
+"What's the matter, Monty, is your load too heavy for you?" called out
+Miss Judy.
+
+"Not at all," replied Monty doggedly. "I'm a little out of form, I
+guess. This arm--I strained it last spring--seems to have gone lame all
+of a sudden."
+
+"Would you like to get in a canoe with some of the girls?" asked Dr.
+Grayson solicitously.
+
+"I would _not_," replied Monty somewhat peevishly. "Please let me alone,
+Uncle, I'll be all right in a minute. Don't any of you bother about me,
+I'll follow you at my leisure. When I get used to paddling again I'll
+very soon overtake you even if you have a good start."
+
+The rest of the canoes swept by, and Monty and Miss Peckham soon found
+themselves alone on the river.
+
+"Hadn't I better help you paddle?" asked Miss Peckham anxiously. She was
+beginning to distrust the powers of her ferryman.
+
+"No, no, no," insisted Monty, stung to the quick by the concern in her
+voice. "I can do it very well alone, I tell you."
+
+He kept at it doggedly for another half hour, stubbornly refusing to
+accept any help, until the canoe came _to_ a dead stop. No amount of
+paddling would budge it an inch; it was apparently anchored. Puzzled,
+Monty peered into the river to find the cause of the stoppage. The water
+was deep, but there were many snags and obstructions under the surface.
+Something was holding him, that was plain, but what it was he could not
+find out, nor could he get loose from it. The water was too deep to wade
+ashore, and there was nothing to do but sit there and try to get loose
+by means of the paddle, a proceeding which soon proved fruitless. In
+some mysterious way they were anchored out in mid stream at a lonely
+place in the river where no one would be likely to see them for a long
+time. The others were out of sight long ago, having obeyed Monty's
+injunction to let him alone.
+
+Monty, in his usual airy way, tried to make the best of the situation
+and draw attention away from his evident inability to cope with the
+situation. "Ah, pleasant it is to sit out here and bask in the warm
+sunshine," he murmured in dulcet tones. "The view is exquisite here,
+_n'est-ce pas_? I could sit here all day and look at that mountain in
+the distance. It reminds me somewhat of the Alps, don't you know."
+
+Miss Peckham gazed unhappily at the mountain, which was merely a blur in
+the distance. "Do you think we'll have to sit here all night?" she asked
+anxiously.
+
+Monty exerted himself to divert her. "How does it come that I have never
+met you before, Miss Peckham? Really, I didn't know that Uncle Clement
+had such delightful relations. Can it be that you are really his cousin?
+It hardly seems possible that you are old enough. Sitting there with the
+breeze toying with you hair that way you look like a young girl, no
+older than Judith herself."
+
+Now this was quite a large dose to swallow, but Miss Peckham swallowed
+it, and much delighted with the gallant youth, so much more appreciative
+of her than the others at camp, she sat listening attentively to his
+prattle of what he had seen and done, keeping her hat off the while to
+let her hair ripple in the breeze the way he said he liked it,
+regardless of the fact that the sun was rather hot.
+
+In something over an hour a pair of rowboats came along filled with
+youngsters who thought it great sport to rescue the pair in the marooned
+canoe, and who promptly discovered the cause of the trouble. It was an
+iron kettle full of stones, fastened to the bottom of the canoe with a
+long wire, which had wedged itself in among the branches of a submerged
+tree in the river and anchored the canoe firmly.
+
+"Somebody's played a trick on us!" exclaimed Miss Peckham wrathfully.
+"Somebody at camp deliberately fastened that kettle of stones to the
+bottom of the canoe to make it hard for you to paddle. That's just what
+you might have expected from those girls. They're playing tricks all the
+time. They have no respect for anyone."
+
+Monty turned a dull red when he saw that kettle full of stones, and he,
+too, sputtered with indignation. "Low brow trick," he exclaimed loftily,
+but he felt quite the reverse of lofty. "This must be Cousin Judith's
+doing," he continued angrily, remembering the subtle antagonism that had
+sprung up between his cousin and himself.
+
+His dignity was too much hurt to allow him to follow the rest of the
+party now. Disgusted, he turned back in the direction of camp. By the
+time he arrived he began to feel that he did not want to stay long
+enough to see the enjoyment of his cousin over his discomfiture. He
+announced his intention of leaving that very night, paddling down the
+river to the next landing, and boarding the evening boat.
+
+Miss Peckham suddenly made up her mind, too. "I'm going with you." she
+declared. "I'm not going to stay here and be insulted any longer. It'll
+serve them right to do without my services as councilor for the rest of
+the summer. I'll just leave a note for Mrs. Grayson and slip out quietly
+with you."
+
+When the expedition returned the following day both Pecky and Monty were
+gone.
+
+Bengal raised such a shout of joy when she heard of the departure of her
+despised councilor that her tent mates were obliged to restrain her
+transports for the look of the thing, but they, too, were somewhat
+relieved to be rid of her.
+
+The reason of the double departure remained a mystery in camp until the
+very end, but there were a select few that always winked solemnly at one
+another whenever Dr. Grayson wondered what had become of his largest
+camping kettle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+REGATTA DAY
+
+The long anticipated, the much practiced for Regatta Day had dawned,
+bringing with it crowds of visitors to Camp. It was Camp Keewaydin's
+great day, when the Avenue and the Alley struggled for supremacy in
+aquatics. The program consisted of contests in swimming and diving,
+canoe upsetting and righting, demonstrations of rescue work, stunts and
+small canoe races, and ended up with a race between the two war canoes.
+Visitors came from all the summer resorts around, and many of the girls'
+parents and friends came to see their daughters perform.
+
+The dock and the diving platform were gay with flags; the tents had been
+tidied up to wax-like neatness and decorated with wild flowers until
+they looked like so many royal bowers; in Mateka an exhibition of Craft
+Work was laid out on the long tables--pottery and silver work and
+weaving and decorating. Hinpoha's rose jar, done with infinite pains
+and patience after its unfortunate meeting with Cousin Egmont, held the
+place of honor in the centre of the pottery table, and her silver
+candlesticks, done in an exquisite design of dogwood blossoms, was the
+most conspicuous piece on the jewelry table.
+
+"Hinpoha'll get the Craft Work prize, without any doubt," said Migwan to
+Agony as they stood helping to arrange the articles in the Craft Work
+exhibit. "She's a real artist. The rest of us are just dabblers. It's
+queer, though, I admire that little plain pottery bowl I made myself
+more than I do Hinpoha's wonderful rose jar. I suppose it's because I
+made it all myself; it's like my own child. There's a thrill about doing
+things yourself that makes you hold your head higher even if other
+people don't think it's anything very wonderful. Don't you feel that
+way, Agony?"
+
+"I suppose so," murmured Agony, rather absently, her animation falling
+away from her in an instant, and a weary look creeping into her eyes.
+
+"That's the way you must feel all the time since you did that splendid
+thing," continued Migwan warmly. "No matter where you are, or how hard a
+thing you're up against, you have only to think, 'I was equal to a great
+emergency once; I did the brave and splendid thing when the time came,'
+and then you'll be equal to it again. O, how wonderful it must be to
+know that when the time comes you won't be a coward! O Agony, we're all
+so proud of you!" cried Migwan, interrupting herself to give Agony an
+adoring hug. "All the Winnebagos will be braver and better because you
+did that, Agony. They'll be ashamed to be any less than you are."
+
+"It wasn't anything much that--I did," Agony protested in a flat voice.
+
+Migwan, busy straightening out the rows of bracelets and rings, did not
+notice the hunted expression in Agony's face, and soon the bugle
+sounded, calling all the girls together on the dock.
+
+Only those who have ever taken part in Regatta Day will get the real
+thrill when reading an account of it in cold print--the thrill which
+comes from seeing dozens of motor boats filled with spectators lined up
+on the river, and crowds standing on the shore; the sun shining in
+dazzling splendor on the ripples; the flags snapping in the breeze, the
+starters with their pistols standing out on the end of the dock, the
+canoes rocking alongside, straining at their ropes as if impatient to be
+off in the races; the crews, in their new uniforms, standing nervously
+around their captains, getting their last instructions and examining
+their paddles for any possible cracks; the councilors rushing around
+preparing the props for the stunts they were directing; and over all a
+universal atmosphere of suspense, of tenseness, of excitement.
+
+The Alleys wore bright red bathing caps, the Avenues blue; otherwise
+they wore the regulation Camp bathing suits, all alike. First on the
+program came the demonstrations--canoe tipping, rescuing a drowning
+person, resuscitation. Sahwah won the canoe tipping contest, getting her
+canoe righted in one minute less time than it took Undine Girelle, so
+the first score went to the Alley. The Avenue had a speedy revenge,
+however, for Undine took first honors in the diving exhibition which
+followed immediately after. Even the Winnebagos, disappointed as they
+were that Sahwah had not won out, admitted that Undine's performance was
+unequalled, and joined heartily in the cheers that greeted the
+announcement of her winning. In the smaller contests the Avenue and the
+Alley were pretty well matched, and at the end of the swimming and small
+canoe races the score was tied between them. This left the war canoe
+race, which counted ten points, to decide the championship.
+
+A round of applause greeted the two crews as they marched out on the
+dock to the music of the Camp band and took their places in the war
+canoes. Sahwah was Captain of the Dolphins, the Alley crew; Undine
+commanded the Avenue Turtles. Agony was stern paddler of the Dolphin,
+the most important position next to the Captain. Prominence had come to
+her in many ways since she had become the camp heroine; positions of
+trust and honor fell to her thick and fast without her making any
+special efforts to get them. If nothing succeeds like success it is
+equally true that nothing brings honor like honor already achieved. To
+her who hath shall be given.
+
+Besides Sahwah and Agony the Dolphin crew consisted of Hinpoha, Migwan,
+Gladys, Katherine, Jo Severance, Jean Lawrence, Bengal Virden, Oh-Pshaw,
+and two girls from Aloha, Edith Anderson and Jerry Mortimer, a crew
+picked after severe tests which eliminated all but the most expert
+paddlers. That the Winnebagos had all passed the test was a matter of
+considerable pride to them, and also to Nyoda, to whom they had promptly
+written the good news.
+
+"I am not surprised, though," she had written in return. "I am never
+surprised at anything my girls accomplish. I always expect you to do
+things--and you do them."
+
+Quickly the two Captains brought their canoes out to the starting line
+and sat waiting for the shot from the starter's pistol. The command
+"Paddles Up!" had been given, and twenty-four broad yellow blades were
+poised stiffly in air, ready for the plunge into the shining water
+below. A hush fell upon the watching crowd; the silence was so intense
+that the song of a bird on the roof of Mateka could be plainly heard. A
+smile came to Sahwah's lips as she heard the joyous thrill of the bird.
+An omen of victory, she said to herself.
+
+Then the pistol cracked. Almost simultaneously with its report came her
+clear command, "Down paddles!" Twelve paddles dipped as one and the
+Dolphin shot forward a good five feet on the very first stroke. The race
+was on.
+
+The course was from the dock to Whaleback Island, around the Island and
+back to the starting point.
+
+Until the Island was reached the canoes kept practically abreast, now
+one forging a few inches ahead, now the other, but always evening up the
+difference before long. As the pull toward Whaleback was downstream both
+crews made magnificent speed with apparently little effort. The real
+struggle lay in rounding the Island and making the return pull upstream.
+The Dolphin had the inside track, a fact which at first caused her crew
+to exult, because of the shorter turn, but they soon found that the
+advantage gained in this way was practically offset by the force of the
+current close to the Island, which made it difficult for the boat to
+keep in her course. It took all of Agony's skill as stern paddler to
+swing the Dolphin around and keep her out of the current. The two canoes
+were still abreast when they recovered from the turn and started back
+upstream. As they rounded the large pile of rocks which formed a
+bodyguard around Whaleback, the current caught the Dolphin and gave her
+a half turn back toward the Island. Agony bore quickly down on her
+paddle to offset the pull of the current; it struck an unexpected rock
+underneath the surface and twisted itself out of her hands. In a moment
+the current had caught it and whirled it out of reach. Only an instant
+did Agony waste looking after it in consternation.
+
+"Give me your paddle," she said quickly to Bengal Virden, who sat in
+front of her, and took it out of her hand without ceremony.
+
+The Dolphin righted herself without any further trouble and came out
+into the straight upstream course only a little behind the Turtle. Then
+the real race began.
+
+In a few moments the Turtle had forged ahead, and it soon became
+apparent that the Dolphin, carrying one member of the crew who was not
+paddling, could not hope to keep up.
+
+"Bengal," megaphoned Sahwah, taking in the situation at a glance,
+"you'll have to get out. You're dead weight. Jump and swim back to the
+island. The water isn't deep here."
+
+Bengal refused. "I want to stay in the race."
+
+Sahwah gave a disgusted snort into the megaphone. Agony cast herself
+into the breach and made use of Bengal's crush on her for the sake of
+the Alley cause. "If you do it, Bengal, I'll come and sleep with you
+all the rest of the time we're in camp."
+
+Bengal rose to the bait. "I'll do it for you," she said adoringly, and
+promptly jumped out of the canoe and swam back the short distance to the
+Island where she was soon picked up by one of the visiting launches and
+carried to the sidelines.
+
+Relieved of Bengal's weight, which had been considerable, the Dolphin
+quickly recovered herself and caught up with the Turtle; then slowly
+worked into the lead. She did not lose the lead again, but came under
+the line a good three feet ahead of the Turtle. The long anticipated
+struggle was over and the Alley was the victor.
+
+The rest of the Alley rushed down upon the dock and dragged the
+victorious crew up out of the Dolphin as she came up alongside of the
+dock, and lifting them to their shoulders carried them to shore in a
+triumphal procession, with waving banners, and ear splitting cheers, and
+songs which excess of emotion rendered slightly off key. Bengal was
+brought over and given a separate ovation for having so nobly sacrificed
+herself for the cause of the Alley; Agony also came in for a great deal
+of extra cheering because she had acted so promptly when she lost her
+paddle, and Sahwah--well, Sahwah was the Captain, and when did the
+Captain of a victorious crew ever suffer neglect from the side he
+represented?
+
+Until Taps sounded that night the Alley celebrated its victory, and the
+last thing they did for joy was to carry all the beds out of the tents
+and set them in one long row in the Alley, and when Miss Judy went the
+last rounds there they lay, all linked together arm in arm, smiling one
+long smile which reached from one end of the Alley to the other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+THE BUFFALO ROBE
+
+  "Sunset and evening star,
+  And one clear call for me!"
+
+The familiar lines slipped softly from Miss Amesbury's lips as she
+leaned luxuriously against the canoe cushions, watching the vivid glows
+of the sunset. It was the hour after supper, when the Camp girls were
+free to do as they pleased, and Agony and Miss Amesbury had come out for
+a quiet paddle on the river. The excitement of Regatta Day had subsided,
+and Camp was jogging peacefully toward its close. Only a few more days
+and then the _Carribou_ would come and take away the merry, frolicking
+campers, and the Alley and the Avenue alike would know desolation.
+
+All over there were signs that told summer was drawing to a close. The
+fields were gay with goldenrod and wild asters, the swamp maples had
+begun to flame in the woods, and there was a crisp tang in the air that
+sent the blood racing in the veins like a draught of strong, new wine.
+All these things, as well as the westward shifting of the summer
+constellations, which a month before had reigned supreme on the
+meridian, told that the summer was drawing to an end.
+
+Never had the friends at Camp seemed so jolly and dear as in this last
+week when the days together were numbered, and every sunrise brought
+them one degree nearer the parting. Everyone was filled with the desire
+to make the most of these last few days; there was a frantic scramble to
+do the things that had been talked of all summer, but which had been
+crowded out by other things, and especially there was a busy taking of
+pictures of favorite councilors and best friends. Pom-pom, Miss Judy,
+Tiny Armstrong and the Lone Wolf could be seen at almost any hour of the
+day "looking pleasant" while some girl snapped their pictures.
+
+"If anyone else asks me to pose for a picture today I shall explode!"
+declared Tiny Armstrong at last. "I've stood in the sun until I'm burned
+to a cinder, and I've 'looked pleasant' until my face aches. I'm going
+on a strike!"
+
+Agony found herself possessed in these last days of an ever increasing
+desire to be with Miss Amesbury, to hear her talk and watch the
+expressions play over her beautiful, mobile face. For this brilliant and
+accomplished woman Agony had conceived an admiration which stirred the
+very depths of her intense, passionate nature. To be famous and
+fascinating like Miss Amesbury, this was the secret ambition that filled
+her restless soul. To be near her now, to have her all to herself in a
+canoe in this most beautiful hour of the day, thrilled Agony to the
+verge of intoxication. Her voice trembled when she spoke, her hand shook
+as she dipped the paddle.
+
+The wide flaming fire of the sunset toned down to a tawny orange; then
+faded into a pale primrose; the big, bright evening star appeared in the
+west. From all the woods around came the goodnight twitter of the birds.
+
+"Sunset and evening star--" repeated Agony softly, echoing the words
+Miss Amesbury had spoken a few moments before. "Oh," she declared,
+"sunset is the most perfect time of the day for me. I feel just
+bewitched. I could do anything just at sunset; all my dreams seem about
+to come true."
+
+And drifting there in the rosy afterglow they talked of dreams and
+hopes, and ambitions, and Agony laid her soul bare to the older woman.
+She spoke of the things she planned to do, the career of social service
+she had laid out for herself, and of the influence for good she would be
+in the world--all of this to take place in the golden sometime when she
+would be grown up and out of school.
+
+Miss Amesbury heard her through with a quiet smile. Agony looked up,
+encountered her gaze and stopped speaking. "Don't you think I can?" she
+asked quickly.
+
+"It is possible," replied Miss Amesbury tranquilly. "Everything is
+possible. 'We are all architects of fate;' you must have heard that line
+quoted before. Everyone carries his future in his own hands; fate has
+really nothing to do with it. Whatever kind of bud we are, such a flower
+we will be. We cannot make ourselves; all we can do is blossom. This
+Other Person that you see in your golden dreams is after all only you,
+changed from the You that you are now into the You that you hope to be.
+If we are little, stunted buds we cannot be big, glorious blossoms. The
+Future is only a great many Nows added up. It is the things you are
+doing now that will make your future glorious or abject. To be a noble
+woman you must have been a noble girl. You are setting your face now in
+the direction in which you are going to travel. Every worthy action you
+perform now will open the way for more worthy actions in the future, and
+the same is true of unworthy ones."
+
+Agony sat very still.
+
+"It is the thing we stand for ourselves that makes us an influence for
+evil or good," continued Miss Amesbury, "not the thing that we preach.
+That is why so much of the so-called 'uplift work' in the world has no
+effect upon the persons we are trying to uplift--we try to give them
+something which we do not possess ourselves. We cannot give something
+which we don't possess, don't ever forget that, dear child. Be sure that
+your own torch is burning brightly before you attempt to light someone
+else's with it.
+
+"You know, Agony, that after Jesus went away out of the Temple at the
+age of twelve years we do not hear of him again until he was a grown man
+of thirty. What took place in those years we will never know exactly;
+but in those Silent Years He prepared Himself for His glorious destiny.
+He must have conquered Self, day by day, until He was master over all
+his moods and desires, to be able to influence others so profoundly. He
+must have developed a sympathetic understanding of His friends and
+playfellows, to know so intimately the troubles of all the multitudes
+which he afterwards met. These are _your_ Silent Years, Agony. What you
+make of them will determine your future."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Why, where is everybody?" Agony asked wonderingly as they drew their
+canoe up on the dock and went up the hill path. Nobody was in sight, but
+a subdued sound of cheering and laughter came from the direction of
+Mateka.
+
+"Oh, I forgot," cried Agony. "There _is_ something tonight in Mateka, a
+meeting. Dr. Grayson announced it this noon at dinner, but I forgot all
+about it and hurried through supper tonight so I could come out on the
+river with you. I wonder what it was about. Come on, let's go up, maybe
+we can get there before it's over."
+
+They were just going up the steps of Mateka when half a dozen girls
+rushed out of the door and fell upon Agony.
+
+"Where on earth have you been? We've been hunting all over camp for you.
+You're elected most popular camper! You've won the Buffalo Robe! Oh,
+Agony, you've won the Buffalo Robe!"
+
+It was Oh-Pshaw who was speaking, and she cast herself on her twin's
+neck and kissed her rapturously.
+
+Agony stood very still on the steps, looking in a dazed sort of way from
+one to the other of the faces around her.
+
+"Oh, Agony, don't you understand? You've won the Buffalo Robe!" Oh-Pshaw
+repeated laughingly. "We had the election tonight. You won by a big
+majority. It's all on account of the robin. Nobody else had done
+anything nearly so splendid. Oh, but I'm proud to be your twin sister!"
+
+Then all the rest came out of Mateka and surrounded Agony, telling her
+how glad they were she had won the Buffalo Robe, and they ended up by
+taking her on their shoulders into Mateka and setting her down before
+the Robe where it hung on the wall. It would be formally presented to
+her at the farewell banquet two nights later.
+
+"We're going to paint a robin on it as a record of your brave deed,"
+said Migwan. "Hinpoha is working on the design right now."
+
+Agony's emotions were tumultous as she stood there in Mateka before the
+Buffalo Robe with the girls singing cheer after cheer to her. First
+triumph flooded her whole being, and delight and satisfaction that she
+had won the biggest honor in Camp took complete possession of her. The
+most popular girl in camp! The desire of her heart, born on that first,
+far off day at camp, had been realized. The precious trophy was hers to
+take home, to exhibit to Nyoda. She was the center of all eyes; her name
+was on every lip.
+
+Then, in the midst of her triumph the leaden weight began to press down
+on her spirits, pulling her back to realization. Her smile faded, her
+lips trembled, her voice was so husky that she could hardly speak.
+
+"It's--so--hot--in--here," she panted. "Let me go out where it's cool."
+
+And all unsuspecting they led her out and bore her to her tent in
+triumph.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE TORCH KINDLES
+
+Even the Winnebagos wondered slightly at the extremely quiet way in
+which Agony received the great honor that had been bestowed upon her.
+She did not expand as usual under the influence of the limelight until
+she fairly radiated light. She hummed no gay songs, she played no pranks
+on her friends; she did not outdo herself in work and play as she used
+to in the days of yore when she was the observed of all observers.
+Silent and pensive she wandered about Camp the next day and seemed
+rather to be shunning the gay groups in Mateka and on the beach. Most of
+the girls believed that Agony's silence proceeded from the genuine
+humility of the truly great when singled out for honor, and admired her
+all the more for her sober, pensive air. She found herself overwhelmed
+with requests to stand for her picture, and the younger girls thronged
+her tent, begging for locks of hair to take home as keepsakes. Agony
+escaped from them as best she could without offending them.
+
+She sedulously avoided Mateka, for there sat Hinpoha busily painting
+robins on the place cards for the banquet which was to take place the
+following night. This banquet was given each year as a wind-up to the
+camp activities, with the winner of the Buffalo Robe in the place of
+honor at the head of the table. Agony felt weak every time she thought
+of that banquet. Why had she not the courage to confess the deception to
+Dr. Grayson, and give up the Buffalo Robe, she thought miserably. No,
+she could never do that. The terrific pride which was Agony's very life
+and soul would not let her humble herself. The pain it would give Dr.
+Grayson, the astonishment and disappointment of the Winnebagos, the
+coldness of the beloved councilors--and Jane Pratt! How could she ever
+humble herself before Jane Pratt and witness Jane's keen relish of her
+downfall? She could hear Jane's spiteful laughter, her malicious
+remarks, her unrestrained rejoicing over the situation.
+
+And Miss Amesbury! No, she could never let Miss Amesbury know what a
+cheat she was. No, no, the thing had gone too far, she must see it
+through now. Better to endure the gnawings of conscience than give
+herself away now. And Nyoda--Nyoda who had praised her so sincerely, and
+Slim and the Captain, who thought it was a "bully stunt"--could she let
+them know that it was all a lie? She shrank back shuddering from the
+notion. No, she must go on. No one would ever find it out now. Other
+people had received honors which they hadn't earned; the world was full
+of them; thus she tried to soothe her conscience. But she averted her
+eyes every time she passed the Buffalo Robe hanging over the fireplace
+in Mateka.
+
+Slumber came hard to her that night, and when she finally did drop off
+it was to dream that the Buffalo Robe was being presented to her, but
+just as she put out her hand to take it Mary Sylvester appeared on the
+scene and called out loudly, "She doesn't deserve it!" and then all the
+girls pointed to her in scorn and repeated, "She doesn't deserve it!"
+"She doesn't deserve it!" until she ran away and hid herself in the
+woods.
+
+So vivid was the dream that she wakened, trembling in ever limb, and
+burrowed into the pillow to shut out the sight of those dreadful
+pointing fingers, which still seemed to be before her eyes. Once awake
+she could not go back to sleep. She looked enviously across the tent at
+Hinpoha, who lay calm and peaceful in the moonlight, a faint smile
+parting her lips. She had nothing on her mind to keep her awake. Sahwah,
+too, was wrapped in profound slumber, her brow serene and untroubled;
+she had no uncomfortable secret to disturb her rest. How she envied
+them!
+
+She envied Oh-Pshaw, who had taken the swimming test that day after a
+whole summer of trying to learn to swim, and was so proud of herself
+that she seemed to have grown an inch in height. There was no flaw in
+her happiness; she had won her honor fairly.
+
+Then, as Agony lay there, her favorite heroines of history and fiction
+seemed to rise up and repudiate her--Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom
+she had formed an imaginary comradeship; there he stood looking at her
+scornfully and coldly; Joan of Arc, her especial heroine; she turned
+away in disgust; so all the others; one by one they reproached her.
+
+Agony tossed for a long while and then rose, slipped on her bathrobe and
+shoes and stockings and wandered about for awhile, finally sitting down
+on a rustic bench on the veranda of Mateka, where she could look out on
+the river and the wide sky. Even the beauty of the night seemed to mock
+her. The big, bright stars, which used to twinkle in such a friendly
+fashion, now gleamed coldly at her; the light breeze rustling in the
+leaves was like so many spiteful whispers telling her secret. She had
+plucked a red lily that grew outside her tent door as she came out, and
+sat twirling it in her fingers. In an incredibly short time it whithered
+and let its petals droop. Agony gazed at it superstitiously. An old
+nurse had once told her that a flower would wither in the hand of a
+person who had told a lie. The idle tale came back to her now. Was it
+perhaps true after all? Did she have a withering touch now?
+
+The things Miss Amesbury had said to her at sunset on the river the day
+before came back with startling force. "We carry our destiny in our own
+hands. We are what we make ourselves. Whatever kind of bud we are, just
+such a flower we will be. You are setting your face now in the direction
+in which you are going to travel. To be a noble woman you must have been
+a noble girl. The Future is only a great many Nows added up. Every
+worthy action you perform now will make it easier to perform another one
+later on, and every unworthy one will do the same thing. If your lamp is
+dim you can't light the way for others...."
+
+Agony looked at herself pitilessly and shuddered. Was this the road she
+was going to travel; was this the direction in which she had set her
+face? Cheat, deceiver, that was what she was. The winds whispered it;
+the river babbled it; the very stars seemed to twinkle it. Agony closed
+her eyes, and put her hands over her ears to shut out the little
+insinuating sounds; and in the silence her very heart beats throbbed it,
+rhythmically, pitilessly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the hour before dawn Miss Amesbury sat up in bed, under the
+impression that someone had called her name. Yes, there was someone on
+her balcony; in the dim light she could make out a drooping figure
+beside her bed.
+
+"Miss Amesbury," faltered a low, but familiar voice.
+
+"Why Agony, child!" exclaimed Miss Amesbury, now well awake and
+recognizing her visitor. "What is the matter? Are you sick?"
+
+"Yes," replied Agony quietly, "sick of deceiving people."
+
+And there, in the dim light, she told her whole story, the story of
+vaulting ambition and timely temptation, of action in haste and
+repentance at weary leisure.
+
+"So that was it," Miss Amesbury exclaimed involuntarily, as Agony
+finished. "It seemed to me that you had something on your mind; it
+puzzled me a great deal. How you must have suffered in conscience, poor
+child!"
+
+She put out her hand and drew Agony down on the bed, laying cool fingers
+on her hot forehead. Agony, entirely taken aback by Miss Amesbury's
+sympathetic attitude, for she had expected nothing but scorn and
+contempt, broke down and began to weep wildly. Miss Amesbury let her cry
+for awhile for she knew that the overburdened heart and strained nerves
+must find relief first of all. After awhile she began to speak soothing
+words, and gradually Agony's tempestuous sobs ceased and she grew calm.
+Then the two talked together for a long while, of the dangers of
+ambition, the seeking for personal glory at whatever cost. When the
+rising sun began to redden the ripples on the river Agony's heart once
+more knew peace, and she lay sleeping quietly, worn out, but tranquil in
+conscience. She had at last found the courage to make her decision; she
+would tell the Camp at Morning Sing the true story of the robin, and
+decline the honor of the Buffalo Robe. Agony's torch, dim and smoky for
+so long, at last was burning bright and high.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was over. Agony sat on the deck of the _Carribou_ beside Miss
+Amesbury. Camp had vanished from sight several minutes before behind an
+abrupt bend in the river, and was now only a memory. Agony sat pensive,
+her mind going back over the events of the day. It had been harder than
+she thought--to stand up in Mateka, and looking into the faces about
+her, tell the story of her deceit, but she had done it without
+flinching. Of course it had created a sensation. There was a painful
+silence, then several audible gasps of astonishment, and nervous giggles
+from the younger girls, and above these the scornful, unpleasant laugh
+of Jane Pratt. But Agony was strangely serene. Being prepared for almost
+any demonstration of scorn she was surprised that it was no worse. Now
+that the weight of deceit was off her conscience and the haunting fear
+of discovery put at an end the relief was so great that nothing else
+mattered. She bore it all tranquilly--Dr. Grayson's fatherly advice on
+the evils of ambition; the snubs of certain girls; Oh-Pshaw's
+sympathetic tears; Jo Severance's unforgettable look of unbelieving
+astonishment; Bengal Virden's prompt transferring of her affections to
+Sahwah; the loving loyalty of the Winnebagos, who said never a word of
+reproach.
+
+And now it was all over, and she was going away with Miss Amesbury to
+spend a week with her in her home, going away the day before Camp
+closed. Miss Amesbury, loving friend that she was, realized that it was
+well both for Agony and for the rest of the girls that she should not be
+present at that farewell banquet where she was to have been presented
+with the Buffalo Robe, and had borne her away as soon as possible.
+
+And now once more it was sunset, and the evening star was shining in the
+west, and it seemed to Agony that it had never seemed so fair and
+friendly before. Agony's face was pensive, but her heart was light, for
+now at last she knew that she was not a coward, and that "when the time
+came she would be able to do the brave and splendid thing."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS AT CAMP
+KEEWAYDIN***
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