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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18606.txt b/18606.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15f2954 --- /dev/null +++ b/18606.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6551 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods, 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 Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods + Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping + + +Author: Hildegard G. Frey + + + +Release Date: June 16, 2006 [eBook #18606] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE +WOODS*** + + +E-text prepared by Meredith Minter Dixon <dixonm@pobox.com> + + + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS + +or, The Winnebagos Go Camping + +by + +HILDEGARD G. FREY + +Author of "The Camp Fire Girls at School," "The Camp Fire Girls +at Onoway House," "The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring." + + + + + + + +New York : A. L. Burt +1916. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A NEW WINNEBAGO. + +Sahwah the Sunfish sat on top of the diving tower squinting +through Nakwisi's spy-glass at the distant horizon. + +"Sister Anne, sister Anne," called Migwan from the rocks below, +"do you see any one coming?" + +Sahwah lowered her glass and shook her head. "No sign of the +_Bluebird_ yet," she answered. "If Gladys doesn't come pretty +soon I shall die of impatience. Oh, what do you suppose she'll +be like, anyway?" + +"Beautiful beyond compare," answered Migwan promptly, "and +skilled in every art we ever thought or dreamed of. She is going +to be my affinity, I feel it in my bones." + +Sahwah looked rather pensive. "Nobody in her right mind would +choose me for an affinity," she said with a sigh, squinting +sidewise down her nose and mentally counting the freckles +thereon, "I'm not interesting enough looking." + +"Goosie," said Migwan, laughing, "affinities aren't chosen, they +just happen. You see somebody for the first time and you don't +know a thing about her, perhaps not even her name, and yet +something tells you that you two belong together. That's an +affinity." + +"But how can you tell in advance that you and Gladys are going to +be affinities?" asked Sahwah. "How do you know that when she +sees me waving the sheet from the tower she won't say to herself, +'The energetic maiden on yon lofty tower is my one and only love. +I can only see one bloomer leg and a hank of hair, but that is +enough to recognize my soul mate by. Come to my arms, Finny!'" + +Migwan laughed at the picture, and replied mysteriously, "Oh, I +have a way of telling things beforehand. I can read them in the +stars!" + +Sahwah sniffed and resumed her watch, holding the sheet in +readiness to wave the instant the little steamer should appear +around Blueberry Island. The minutes passed without a sign of +the _Bluebird_, and Sahwah grew tired of looking at nothing. She +ceased staring fixedly at the distant gap between Blueberry +Island and the mainland, and pointed the glass around at the +objects near her; at Migwan washing middies in the lake, her soap +tied to the dock to keep it from floating away; at the toothbrushes +strewn over the rocks like bones bleaching in the sun; at the smooth +strip of shining sand; aiming her glass idly now here, now there, +her feet swinging in the air eighteen feet above the water, her +long brown hair flying in the wind. + +High up on the cliff Hinpoha stood nailing the railing around the +Crow's Nest, a tiny tree-house just big enough for two, built in +the branches of a tall pine tree. She finished her pounding and +stood looking out over the gleaming lake, dotted with rocky, +pine-covered islands, shading her eyes with her hand. Her gaze +strayed again and again to the narrow gap between Blueberry +Island and the mainland, and now and then she heaved an impatient +sigh. "Oh, please, dear _Bluebird_," she said aloud, "please +hurry up!" By and by her eyes rested upon Sahwah, silhouetted +against the sky on top of the diving tower. Picking up a big dry +pine cone from the floor of the Crow's Nest, she took careful aim +and sent it sailing downward in a swift, curving flight. The +prickly missile hit Sahwah squarely in the back of the neck. She +started violently and threw up her arms, while the spyglass fell +into the water with a loud splash. Hinpoha laughed a ringing +laugh when she beheld the effect of her handiwork. Sahwah turned +around and saw Hinpoha perched in the Crow's Nest, nearly doubled +up with laughter, and she too laughed, and then, shaking her fist +amiably in Hinpoha's direction, she prepared to dive from the +tower, bloomers and all, in search of the spy-glass. + +As she stood there poised on the end of the springboard her ears +caught the sound of a swinging boating song, borne on the breeze +across the water: + + "Across the silver'd lake + The moonlit ripples break, + Their path a magic highway seems: + We'll send our good canoe + Along that highway, too, + And follow where the moonlight gleams." + +Around the cliff which jutted out just beyond the camp there +appeared two canoes, containing four more of the Winnebagos, +making all speed ahead, the girls singing in time to the dipping +of their paddles. Sahwah curved her hands around her mouth and +set forth a long, yodling hail, which was answered in kind by the +paddlers. Then the four girls in the boats, speaking all +together as with one voice, called to Sahwah, "J-U-D-G-E T-H-E +F-I-N-I-S-H! W-E-'-R-E R-A-C-I-N-G!" + +Sahwah waved her arm as a signal that she understood, and then +stood motionless, her eyes fixed on the shadow of the springboard +on the water, watching to see which canoe would cross it first. +In a few moments the slender green craft bearing Nyoda and +Medmangi shot into view beneath her, the two paddlers shouting +triumphantly. Scarcely a canoe-length behind came the other +pair. Choosing the instant when the second canoe was directly +beneath her, Sahwah jumped from the springboard and landed neatly +in the bow, upsetting the craft and dumping the girls into the +lake. The other girls in the first canoe, just ahead, turned to +see what was happening, and in their laughter over the upset +forgot to hold their own boat steady, and presently there was a +second spill. Sahwah came up choking with laughter, and was +immediately ducked under again by Nakwisi and Chapa, the two she +had dropped in upon. The water flew in all directions, and +Migwan fled over the rocks to avoid being drenched. Medmangi and +Nyoda also came up thirsting for vengeance, but Sahwah escaped by +swimming under water around the dock and clambering out on the +rocks. She made an impish grimace at Migwan, who was standing on +the rock where she came up. Migwan leaned over and put a streak +of soap on her face, Sahwah promptly caught Migwan by the feet +and pulled her off the rock into the water. Struggling, they +both went under and came up choking and giggling. Hinpoha, from +her airy perch in the tree, cheered the combatants on. "Good +work, Migwan, hang on to the rock! That's the stuff, Sahwah, +pull her off!" + +Meanwhile, the four racers, at Nyoda's suggestion, had towed +their canoes out some distance from the dock and were trying to +right them and climb in. This was easier said than done, for as +fast as they splashed the water out on one side it ran in at the +other. Nyoda and Medmangi were trying to get all the water out +of theirs before getting in themselves, while Nakwisi and Chapa +had theirs half empty and had managed to get in and were +splashing the water out from both sides at once. Sahwah and +Migwan stopped ducking each other to watch the righting process. +Nakwisi and Chapa had just triumphantly paddled up to the canoe +dock, and Nyoda and Medmangi were just about ready to start, when +Hinpoha shouted that the _Bluebird_ was coming. The girls looked +up to find the little steamer hardly a hundred yards from the +dock. "Sahwah," cried Nyoda, hastily coming up on the dock, +"where is the sheet you were going to wave from the tower when +the _Bluebird_ came in sight?" + +"It's up on top," said Sahwah, running for the ladder. An +instant later she was frantically waving the sheet from the top +of the tower. There was no time for the girls to get dry clothes +on before the boat stopped beside the dock. They lined up all +dripping, except Hinpoha, to greet, the newcomer, and looked on +expectantly when a young girl of about sixteen stepped ashore. +Nyoda advanced and held out her hand. + +"Welcome to Camp Winnebago," she said cordially. "Girls, this is +Gladys Evans, our new member, whose father has made it possible +for us to camp here this summer. Winnebago Maidens, stand forth +and tell your names! You begin, 'Poha." + +"I am Hinpoha," said the girl addressed, an extremely fat girl +with an amazing quantity of bright red hair that curled below her +waist, "it means 'Curly Haired."' + +"I am Sahwah the Sunfish," said a slim brown-haired maiden with +dancing eyes. "I chose the Sun part because I like sunshine and +the Fish part because I like to swim. I am very virtuous and a +pattern of propriety." The girls shouted with laughter. + +"My name is Migwan," said the next girl. "It means 'Quill Pen,' +and stands for my ambition to write stories and things." She was +a thoughtful-looking girl with a beautiful high forehead and +large dreamy eyes. + +So all the girls introduced themselves, Chapa the Chipmunk, +Medmangi the Medicine Man Girl, and Nakwisi the Star Maiden. "And +this," they cried in unison, encircling one of their number with +affectionate arms, "is Nyoda, the best Guardian that ever lived!" + +"How do you do, Miss Kent?" said Gladys, in a high, artificially +sweet voice, staring amazedly at her wet clothes and then around +at the dishevelled group. She was a very fair girl, rather tall, +but slender and pale and delicate looking. "Stuck up," was +Sahwah's mental estimate. + +"How do you do, girls?" she continued, edging, back a little, as +if she were afraid they might also enfold her in a wet embrace, +"would you mind telling me your names?" + +"We told you our names," said Sahwah. + +"I mean your real names," answered Gladys, "you don't expect me +to remember all those Camp Fire names, do you?" + +"Oh, you'll learn them soon enough," said Nyoda, "we left our old +names behind us when we came to camp." Silence fell on the +group, and each girl was acutely conscious of her wet clothes. +Sahwah looked to see Migwan and Gladys fall into each other's +arms, but nothing happened. Nyoda was busy checking over the +supplies brought by the boat. The silence became awkward. + +"Look, there's an eagle," shrieked Hinpoha suddenly, pointing to +a large winged bird that was circling slowly above the lake. + +"Quick, where's my glass?" said Nakwisi. + +"Wait a minute, I'll get it for you," said Sahwah, and quick as a +flash she dove off the end of the dock, coming up with the +spy-glass in her hand. Gladys's eyes nearly popped out of her +head as Sahwah cast herself headlong into the water. + +"Awfully sorry, 'Wisi, I dropped it in off the tower," said +Sahwah, tendering her the glass, "will getting it wet hurt it +any?" Nakwisi screwed her beloved glass back and forth and wiped +the lenses and finally reported it unharmed. + +"Sahwah, Sahwah," said Nyoda, shaking her head, "you will never +learn to be careful of other people's things?" + +Sahwah flushed. "I didn't mean to be careless with it, it just +slipped out of my hand." + +Here Hinpoha spoke up. "It's all my fault, Nyoda," she explained. +"I hit her with a pine cone and made her drop it." + +Nyoda could do nothing but laugh at the good-natured sparring +that was continually going on between those two. "Come on, +girls," she called, "and get dry clothes on. Whoever gets dressed +first may go to the village with me this afternoon." + +The girls scurried up the steep path like squirrels and Nyoda +followed more slowly with Gladys, whose city shoes made it hard +for her to climb. As they went up she explained how she happened +to be so wet, describing in detail the upsetting of the canoes. +Gladys's eyes opened wide at the tale of Sahwah's pranks. "How +dreadful," she said with a shudder, and Nyoda sighed inwardly, +for she realized that she had a problem on her hands. + +Gladys Evans was not a regular member of the Winnebago Camp Fire. +She did not attend the public high school where the other girls +went, but went to a private girls' school in the East. Early in +the spring, Mr. Evans, with whom Miss Kent was slightly +acquainted, came to her and offered her group the use of his +camping grounds on Loon Lake in Maine for the summer if they +would take Gladys in and teach her to do the things they did. He +had become interested in the Winnebago group through a picture of +them in the newspaper, and thought it would be a fine thing for +Gladys. He and Mrs. Evans were going on an all-summer trip +through Canada with a party of friends, and wanted to put Gladys +where she would have a good time. He added in confidence that +Gladys had been in the company of grown-ups so much that she felt +altogether too grown up herself, and he wished her to romp a +whole summer in bloomers and forget about styles. + +Miss Kent gladly accepted the charge. Aside from her willingness +to help Gladys, the offer of a camping ground for the summer was +irresistible. All winter the girls had been trying to find a +place to camp for at least a few weeks the next summer, and had +given a play to raise the money. They had not thought of going +so far away as Maine, but now that they could have the camp +without paying for it they could use the money for railroad +fares. Such a shout went up from the Winnebagos when Miss Kent +broke the news that passersby paused to listen. They sang a +dozen different cheers to Gladys and her father; then they +cheered for the lake and the camp and the good time they were +going to have until they were too hoarse to speak. Gladys was +then away at school and was to be in New York City with her +parents until the first of July, so Miss Kent and her girls came +up the last week in June to open camp. Gladys had never seen the +place until that day, for her father had just bought it the +previous winter. That she did not want to come was evident to +Miss Kent. She was overdressed and rather supercilious looking, +and was not strong enough to really enjoy the rough and tumble +life of the camp. Miss Kent realized that some adjusting would +be necessary before Gladys would be transformed into a genuine +Winnebago. "But we'll do it, never fear," she thought brightly, +with the unquenchable optimism that had won for her the name of +"Face Toward the Mountain." + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE COUNCIL FIRE. + +Supper, which was eaten on the big rock overhanging the lake, was +made short work of, for tonight was to be held the first Council +Fire. + +"What's going to happen?" asked Gladys of Nyoda, watching the +girls scrambling out of their bloomers and middies and into brown +khaki dresses trimmed with leather fringe. + +"Ceremonial Meeting," answered Nyoda, slipping on a pair of +beaded moccasins. + +"What's that?" asked Gladys. + +"You'll see," said Nyoda. "Follow the girls when I call them." + +Nyoda slipped out of her tent and disappeared into the woods. In +a few minutes a clear call rang out through the stillness: +"Wohelo, Wohelo, come ye all Wohelo." The girls stepped forward +in a single file, their arms folded in front of them, singing as +they went, "Wohelo, Wohelo, come we all Wohelo." Gladys followed +at the tail of the procession. + +Nyoda stood in the center of a circular space about twenty feet +across among the trees, completely surrounded by high pines. In +the middle the fire was laid. The girls took their places in the +circle, and Gladys, now arrayed in bloomers and middy, with her +hair down in two braids and a leather band around her forehead, +sat under a tree and looked on. Not being a Camp Fire Girl she +could not sit in the Council Circle. Nyoda made fire with the +bow and drill, and when the leaping flames lit up the circle of +faces the girls sprang to their feet and sang, "Burn, fire, +burn," and then, "Mystic Fire," with its dramatic gestures. +Gladys, sitting in the shadows, looked on curiously at the +fantastically clad figures passing back and forth around the fire +singing, + + "Ghost-dance round the mystic ring, + Faces in the starlight glow, + Maids of Wohelo. + Praises to Wokanda sing, + While the music soft and low + Rubbing sticks grind slow. + Dusky forest now darker grown, + Broods in silence o'er its own, + Till the wee spark to a flame has blown, + And living fire leaps up to greet + The song of Wohelo." + +As they chanted the words the girls acted out with gestures the +dancing ghosts, the brooding forest, the rubbing sticks and the +leaping fire. So they proceeded through the strange measures, +ending up in a close circle around the fire, all making the hand +sign of fire together. Gladys began to be stirred with a desire +to sit in the circle. + +When the girls were again seated in their original places and the +roll called, Nyoda rose and read the rules of camp. No one was +to leave the camp without telling at least one person where she +was going, or the general direction in which she was going, and +the length of time she expected to be gone. No candy was to be +bought in the village. No one was to go in swimming except at +the regular swimming time. Every one pointed a finger at Sahwah +when this was read, for she had been going into the lake at least +a dozen times a day. No one could go in swimming whose +belongings were not in order at tent inspection time. A groan +went around the circle at this. + +Nyoda dwelt with particular emphasis on the rules governing the +canoes. No one could go out in a canoe who had not taken the +swimming test. No one could go out in a canoe unless Sahwah, +Hinpoha or herself were along. Disobedience to these rules would +mean having to stay out of the canoes altogether. She explained +to the girls the importance of implicit obedience to the one in +charge of a boat, regardless of personal feeling, and how the +captain of a vessel had absolute authority over those on board. +She spoke of the necessity of coolheadedness and courage on the +part of the girl in charge, and ability to control her temper. +She said she knew Sahwah and Hinpoha were well able to have +charge of a canoe and she would never feel uneasy to have the +other girls go out with them. Hinpoha and Sahwah flushed with +pleasure and mentally resolved to die rather than prove unworthy +of her trust. Gladys gave a little start when the canoe rules +were read. She could not swim. She had been looking forward to +going out in a canoe very shortly. + +The rest of the rules dealt with the day's schedule, which was as +follows: + + Rising bugle at seven. + Morning dip. + Breakfast. + Song hour. + Tent inspection. + Craft work. + Folk dancing. + Swimming. + Lesson in camp cookery. + Dinner. + Rest hour. + Nature study. + Two hours spent in any way preferred. + Supper. + Evening open for any kind of stunt. + First bugle, 8:30. + Lights out, 9:00. + +Ceremonial meeting would be held every week on Monday night, +because the girls had so many opportunities to win honors now +that a whole month would be too long to wait. + +After the announcements Nyoda awarded the honors. Medmangi had +taken the swimming test, Nakwisi and Chapa had righted an +overturned canoe, Sahwah had built a reflecting oven and baked +biscuits in it. All the girls had won some kind of an honor. +Gladys listened wonderingly to the account of the things they had +accomplished--things she did not have the faintest notion of how +to do. + +Then came the elevating of Migwan to the rank of Fire Maker. +Proudly she exhibited her fourteen purple beads, indicating the +fulfilment of the fourteen requirements. Nyoda asked her +questions on the things she had learned, and asked her to explain +to the girls how much better she had gotten along since she +started to keep an itemized account book. Migwan blushed and +hung her head, for figures were an abomination to her and keeping +accounts a fearful task. If it had not been for her ambition to +be a Fire Maker she would never have attempted it at all, but +once having learned how she realized their value, and heroically +resolved to keep accurate accounts right along. When it came to +the subject of bandaging she had to give demonstrations of +triangular and roller bandaging, with Hinpoha as the subject. +Then in a clear, earnest voice she dedicated her "strength, her +ambition, her heart's desire, her joy and her sorrow" to the +keeping up of the flame of love for her fellow creatures. +Satisfied that Migwan was a worthy candidate, Nyoda slipped the +silver bracelet on her arm and proclaimed her a Fire Maker. +Migwan blushed fiery red and hung her head modestly. + +"Speech, speech!" shouted the girls. "Give us a poem, Migwan." + +Migwan thought a moment and then recited dramatically: + + "I am a Fire Maker! + I have completed + The Fourteen Requirements! + I have repeated + The Fire Maker's Desire! + Now I may light + The great Council Fire! + Now I may kindle + The Wohelo Candles! + Long months have I labored + Gathering firewood, + That I might kindle + The Fire of Wohelo! + My arm is encircled + With a silver bracelet, + The outward symbol + Of the Fire I have kindled; + And those who behold it + Shall say to each other, + 'Lo, she has labored, + She has given service, + She has pursued knowledge, + She has been trustworthy, + Fulfilled the requirements, + She is a Fire Maker!' + That symbol is sacred, + A charm against evil, + Evil thoughts and dark passions, + Against envy and hatred! + One step am I nearer + The goal of my ambition, + To be a Torch Bearer + Is now my desire! + To carry aloft + The threefold flame, + The symbol of Work, + Of Health and of Love, + The flaming, enveloping + Symbol of Love + Triumphant; where might fails + I conquer by Love! + Where I have been led + I now will lead others, + Undimmed will I pass on + The light I have kindled; + The flame in my hand + Shall mount higher and higher, + To be a Torch Bearer + Is now my desire!" + +A round of applause followed. Next the "Count" was called for. +This had also been written by Migwan. In rippling Hiawatha meter +it told how the Winnebagos had journeyed + + "From their homes in distant Cleveland + To Loon Lake's inviting waters--" + +how they pitched the tents and made the beds, how they named the +tents Alpha and Omega, how eagerly they awaited Gladys's coming, +how Sahwah was placed on the tower to wave at her, + + "And the telescope descending, + Fell kersplash into the water," + +and all the rest of the doings up to the beginning of Council +Fire. + +Nyoda then rose and said that as the Camp Fire was a singing +movement she wished the girls to write as many songs as possible, +and to encourage this had worked out a system of local honors for +songs which could be sung by the Winnebagos. Any girl writing +the words of a song which was adopted for use would receive a +leather W cut in the form of wings to represent "winged words" or +poetry; the honor for composing the music for a song would be a +winged note cut from leather, and the honor for writing both +words and music would be a combination of the two. These were to +be known as the "Olowan" honors, because "Olowan" was the +Winnebago word for song, and were quite independent of the +National song honors, because a great many songs which could not +be adopted by the National organization would be admirable for +use in the local group on account of their aptness. + +Just before they sang the Goodnight Song, Nyoda drew Gladys into +the group and officially invited her to become a Winnebago at the +next Council Fire. Gladys accepted the invitation and the girls +sang a ringing cheer to her because her coming made it possible +for them to have the camp. + +To close the Ceremonial Meeting the girls sang "Mammy Moon," +ending up by lying in a circle around the fire, their heads +pillowed on one another. The fire was burning very low now and +great shadows from the woods lay across the open space. Nyoda +stole silently to the edge of the clearing and the girls rose and +filed past her, softly singing "Now our Camp Fire's burning low." +Nyoda held each girl's hand in a warm clasp for a moment as she +passed before her and the girls clung to her lovingly. The +forest was so big and dark, and they were so far from home, and +Nyoda was so strong and tender! + +"Wasn't it wonderful?" whispered Migwan to Sahwah, as they picked +their way back to the tents in the darkness. + +"Wasn't it, though!" answered Sahwah, flashing her little bug +light on the path before her. + +Gladys's bed was in the Omega tent with Sahwah, Hinpoha and +Migwan. One end faced the lake and the stars peeked in with +friendly twinkles, while the moon flooded the place with silver +light. The three girls were out of their Ceremonial costumes and +into their nightgowns in no time, while Gladys fussed around +nervously. + +"Aren't we going to have the lantern lit?" she asked. + +"What for?" said Sahwah. "The moon makes it as bright as day." + +Gladys took off her middy. "Where are we going to hang our +clothes?" she asked next. + +"Throw them across the foot of your bed," answered Hinpoha, "or +lay them on the stool, or up on the swinging shelf, or hang them +on the floor, the way Sahwah does." At this Sahwah sat up in bed +and threw her pillow at Hinpoha. Hinpoha sent it back and Sahwah +threw it the second time. Instead of hitting Hinpoha, however, +it landed in the basin of water in which Gladys was trying to +wash herself, knocking it off the stand and out of the tent door. +Gladys gave an exclamation of impatience. Sahwah hastened to +apologize. "I'm awfully sorry, Gladys. But you saw how it was. +I was trying to hit 'Poha and hit you by mistake." Here the +pent-up laughter of the three girls broke forth, and they shouted +in unison. Gladys did not laugh. "I'll get you some more +water," said Sahwah, getting out of bed. The pail was empty, so +Sahwah went all the way down to the lake for water. On the way +back she rescued the pillow, which was soaking wet, and stood it +up against the tent pole to dry. + +Just then came a loud hail from the other tent. "Goodnight, +Omegas!" "Good night, Alphas," they answered, "sleep tight!" +Again came the fourfold voice out of Alpha, "Goodnight, Gladys!" + +Gladys was finally ready for bed. "You aren't going to leave the +sides of the tent rolled up all night, are you?" she asked in a +horrified tone. + +"We surely are," said Sahwah, "we always do." + +"What if it rains?" + +"Plenty of time then to put them down." + +Gladys stood irresolute beside the bed. "We'll put your side +down, if you prefer it," said Migwan good-naturedly, "but it's +really pleasanter with it up. It seemed rather airy to me at +first, but now I wouldn't have it down for anything." + +"Don't trouble yourself," said Gladys. + +"Sure, I'll put it down," said Migwan, making a motion to rise, +but just then the second bugle rang out and she subsided. + +Gladys got into bed and pulled the blankets over her head. It +was the first time she had ever slept out of doors. She felt +very small and lonesome and neglected. She had not wanted to +come to this camp the least bit. Other summers she had always +gone to Atlantic City or some other crowded, lively summer resort +with her parents, where she had received considerable attention +from young men, just like the older girls with whom she +associated. Here, banished to the silent woods, she saw the +summer stretch out endlessly before her, intolerably dull and +uninteresting. She loved fluffy clothes and despised the +bloomers and middies which the girls wore. She loved dainty table +service and hated to cook. Up here she would be expected to help +with the meals, and all there was to cook on was an open fire and +a gasoline stove! What could her father have been thinking of to +want her to join such a club! These girls were not in her own +class; they went to public school, they were rough and horrid and +threw each other into the water! + +Gladys could not go to sleep. She tossed restlessly, thinking +rebellious thoughts, and shuddering at the night noises in the +woods. The lapping of the water on the rocks below had a +lonesome sound. She had not yet learned to hear its soft +crooning lullaby. The wind rustled in the pine trees with a +ghostly, mysterious sound. From somewhere in the woods came a +mournful cry that sent the chills up and down her spine. It was +only a whippoorwill, but Gladys did not know a whippoorwill from +a bluebird. Then the frogs in a distant pool began their +concert. "Blub!" "Blub!" "Knee-deep!" "Better go round!" +"Knee-deep!" "Better go round!" "Skeel!" "Skeek!" "Skeel!" +"Skeek!" "Blub!" "Glub!" "Chralk!" Gladys's eyes started out of +her head at the unearthly noises. Her nerves were just about on +edge from their incessant piping when suddenly a long, eerie +laugh rang out over the water. + +"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" + +She screamed aloud and sat up in bed. "What's the matter?" said +Migwan, waking up. + +"What was it? Oh, what was it?" asked Gladys in a voice cold +with terror. + +"What was what?" said Migwan. + +Just then the sound rang out again. "That!" said Gladys. + +"Why, that's nothing but a loon," answered Migwan. "Isn't it +lovely!" And she fell asleep again. + +But slumber would not come to Gladys. The bed sagged in the +middle and she could not get herself adjusted to it. She was +finally in the act of dozing off when the bed collapsed with a +jarring crash. Instantly the whole camp was awake. Migwan +jumped up and lit the lantern, and Nyoda came running over from +Alpha to see what was the matter. There was much laughter over +the mishap, but unfortunately Gladys got the idea that Sahwah, +who had giggled uncontrollably from the start, was responsible +for the bed going down. "You made it fall down," she said to +her, and burst into tears. Sahwah stared at her open mouthed. + +"I never touched it," she declared. + +Nyoda hastened to smooth things over. "Nobody made your bed +collapse, dear," she said, putting her arm around Gladys, "it's a +trick camp beds have." Gladys went on crying, however, so Nyoda +sat down on the edge of her bed and talked soothingly to her. +She realized that Gladys felt strange in camp and was probably +homesick in spite of the fact that the girls had received her +with open arms. So to divert the girl's attention from herself +she pointed out the constellations blazing in the sky and told +some of their stories, and Gladys gradually relaxed and fell +asleep. + +When she opened her eyes again it was broad daylight and the sun +was shining into the tent. She looked around at the others. +Hinpoha was still asleep; Migwan was coaxing a chipmunk up on the +bed with peanuts; Sahwah was noiselessly getting into her bathing +suit. Seeing that Gladys was awake, both girls waved their arms +in friendly greeting. Talking was not allowed before the first +bugle. There was a soft scurry of little feet on the floor, and +another chipmunk darted in and paused inquiringly beside Gladys's +bed. Migwan tossed her some peanuts and Gladys held one out +gingerly to the little creature. He hopped up boldly and took it +from her fingers, stuffing it into his baggy cheek. Then his +bright little eyes spied the rest of the peanuts on Gladys's bed, +and quick as a wink he was up after them, his tail whisking right +into her face. Gladys screamed and wriggled, and he fled for his +life, pausing a short distance from the tent to scold about the +peanuts he had left behind in his flight. + +Just then the bugle blew, and with a whoop Sahwah leapt from bed, +while Migwan rose and donned her bathing suit. "Coming in for a +dip, Gladys?" she asked. + +"Is the water cold?" asked Gladys. + +"Well, yes," said Migwan honestly. "It usually is in the morning +before the sun has shone very long on it." Gladys decided she +would not take a dip. Hinpoha slumbered calmly on. Sahwah pulled +the pillow from under her head with a quick jerk and plucked the +blankets off. Hinpoha opened her eyes sleepily. + +"Wake up, lazy bones," said Sahwah. "It's time to dip!" + +"Have a heart," mumbled Hinpoha, opening her eyes a little +farther, "the bugle hasn't blown yet!" + +"Indeed it has, a whole minute ago! Hurry up or you'll miss the +dip!" Sahwah prodded Hinpoha energetically. Hinpoha struggled +into her bathing suit and sped down the path to the lake, hot in +pursuit of Sahwah. Migwan had already gone down. A minute later +the girls from the other tent ran out, calling a cheery +good-morning to Gladys. A series of splashes and shrieks +followed, which proclaimed the coldness of the water. Gladys lay +cozily in bed, watching the chipmunks as they scampered across +the floor of the tent. Presently another bugle sounded from +somewhere and the girls returned, dripping and rosy, to hustle +into middies and bloomers. + +"Aren't you going to get up, Gladys?" asked Migwan. "That second +bugle means 'get up,' you know." + +"Does it?" said Gladys, and rose reluctantly. It seemed as if +she had just gone to sleep. She was still combing her hair +before the tiny mirror that hung on the tent pole swinging in the +wind when the breakfast bugle blew. Migwan waited for her +dutifully and escorted her to the "Mess Tent," where the other +girls were already gathered around the table. + +"We'll call it the 'Mess Tent' until we can find a prettier name +for it," explained Migwan. "Sahwah thinks we should call it the +'Grand Gorge.' Have you anything to suggest?" + +"No," replied Gladys, "I haven't." + +Nyoda greeted Gladys cordially and asked how she slept, and the +other girls sang her a Kindergarten Good Morning song, making +funny little bows and bobs. Then they sang the Camp Fire Grace, +"If We Have Earned the Right to Eat This Bread," and set to work +making the fruit and pancakes and cocoa disappear like magic. +Gladys ate nearly as much as the others, although she would have +been very much surprised if you had told her so. The meal over, +each girl carried her dishes and stacked them in a neat pile on +the table in the tiny kitchen which formed a part of the small +wooden shack which stood on the camp grounds, and dropped her cup +into a pan of water. This made very light work for the Dishes +Committee, which consisted of two different girls each week. The +Dishes Committee took care of all three meals a day for the +entire week, as this duty did not require much time, but there +was a different Breakfast, Dinner and Supper Committee, each pair +serving a whole week at their job. Up until Gladys's arrival +there had been only seven in camp and Nyoda had been working +alone, but now the division was equal. Gladys was assigned to the +supper committee for the rest of the week with Migwan as a +partner, for Nyoda thought it would help her get acquainted +faster to let her work with one of the girls. + +As soon as the dishes were washed the girls gathered in the front +part of the shack, where there was an old piano, and sang hymns +and camp songs. "Let's pick out some hymns to learn by heart," +suggested Nyoda; "think how lovely they'll sound, sung out on the +lake in canoes." Nyoda's suggestion found favor with the girls, +and they set immediately to work learning the "Crusaders' Hymn." + +"Do you know," said Nyoda from her seat on the piano stool, after +they had sung it through a couple of times, "I believe that the +last verse of that song should be sung first. The climax seems +be in the first verse, and the rest, beginning with the last, +merely lead up to it. Try it that way once." + +The girls sang it through in the new order and declared they +liked the effect much better, so the change was adopted. Migwan +and Nyoda sang a strong alto, and Sahwah a clear, though somewhat +uncertain, high tenor, so the little band succeeded in making a +considerable amount of harmony. A tiny song bird, perched on the +limb of a tall pine tree just before the shack, blended his notes +with theirs and poured out his enjoyment of the universe in a +thrilling flood of song. The girls sang their hymn over and over +again, just to hear him join in, until Nyoda, looking at her +watch, exclaimed, "Ten minutes until tent inspection!" + + The girls scattered to their tents, and began a hasty cleaning + up. Gladys had never made a bed before, and had trouble getting + hers straight and smooth, but Migwan took a hand and showed her + how to spread the sheets evenly and tuck them in neatly. Her + night gown she folded and tucked under the pillow. "One quarter + of this swinging shelf belongs to you, Gladys, so you might as + well put some of your stuff up here," she said when the bed was + finished, "as well as part of the table and the washstand." She + moved things around as she spoke, leaving spaces clear for + Gladys's possessions. "We aren't supposed to have anything + hanging over the edge of the shelf, or out of the compartment of + the table," she explained as she moved about. "Nothing is to be + left on the bed except one sweater or one folded up blanket, and + not more than two pairs of shoes under the bed. Our towels and + bathing suits are to be hung on the tent flies as + inconspicuously as possible. We also clean up our dooryards and + see that there is no waste paper about." + +"What happens if everything isn't in applepie order?" asked +Gladys, mentally remarking that such rules were an unnecessary +nuisance. + +"We get marked down in tent inspection, and if our things are +left in very bad order we forfeit our swimming hour for that day. +Besides, we are all working for the Camp Craft honor of doing the +work in a tent for a week, and if the tent isn't properly cared +for it doesn't count toward the honor. More than all that, the +two tents are racing to see which one gets the highest average at +the end of the summer, for Nyoda has offered a banner to the +members of the winning family." + +She had hardly finished her explanation when the bugle announced +the imminent approach of Nyoda on her tour of inspection, and the +three girls ran from the tent, pulling Gladys with them. "What's +the matter?" panted Gladys. "What are we running away for?" + +"We never stay in the tent while it's being inspected," explained +Migwan. "Nyoda tells us our standing during Craft hour, and what +the matter was, if there was anything, and the weekly averages +are to be read at Council Fire." + +The girls settled down to Craft work in the shack, for they had +chosen that as their workroom, on account of the hinged shelves +around the walls, which were so convenient to spread work out on. +The front wall of the shack, facing the lake, was all windows, +which could be lowered, making the room as cool and airy as could +be desired. + +The special work which the girls had just begun was the painting +of their paddles with their symbols. Gladys, having neither +paddle nor symbol, was at a loss what to do. "Here, take the +symbol book," said Migwan, "and begin working on your symbol." +Gladys took the book and began idly turning the pages. Symbolism +was an entirely new thing to her, and she was unable to decide on +any of the queerly shaped things in the little book. + +"I can't find a thing that I like," she said to Nyoda when she +joined the girls in the shack. + +"Have you decided on a name?" asked Nyoda. Gladys shook her +head. "Well, then," said Nyoda, "I would wait with the symbol +until I had chosen a name. And I wouldn't be in too much of a +hurry about it, either. Take time to look about you and make +your name express something that you like to do better than +anything else, or something that you earnestly aspire to do or +be. Then choose your symbol in keeping with your name." + +"But suppose there shouldn't be a symbol in the book that fitted +the name I chose?" asked Gladys. + +"Then we would be put to the painful necessity of finding a brand +new one!" answered Nyoda with a mock tragic air. + +Here the others girls flung themselves upon Nyoda and demanded to +be told their standing in tent inspection. "Alpha, 97, Omega, +98," she replied. + +The Omegas hugged each other with joy at having received a higher +mark than the Alphas. "What was wrong with us?" chorused the +disappointed Alphas. + +"One bed had not been swept under, one pair of shoes were lying +down instead of standing up, and the wash bowl contained a +spy-glass," answered Nyoda. + +Nakwisi blushed at the mention of the spy-glass. "I didn't mean +to leave it there, really and truly I didn't, Nyoda. I was just +looking over the lake when Chapa wanted me to help her move her +bed and I laid it in the first convenient place and then forgot +to remove it." + +"No explanations!" called the girls. Nakwisi laughed and +subsided. + +"Where did we lose our two points, Nyoda?" demanded the Omegas. + +"There was a pillow propped against the tent pole and one bed +looked decidedly lumpy," said Nyoda. + +"I knew you'd go off and leave that pillow there, Sahwah," +exclaimed Hinpoha. + +"I knew your shoes would show if you tried to hide them in the +bed!" returned Sahwah. + +"Murder will out," said Nyoda, laughing, "I was not going to +mention any names!" + + + +CHAPTER III. + +INDEPENDENCE DAY. + +"Girls!" exclaimed Nyoda one day at the dinner table, "to-morrow +is the Fourth of July. Shall we have a celebration?" + +Sahwah looked at Hinpoha and slowly lowered one eyelid. "Yes, +yes," cried all the girls in chorus, "let's do!" + +"Well, what shall it be?" continued Nyoda, "a flag raising and a +bonfire and some canoe races?" + +"Oh, a flag raising by all means," said Migwan, "they always have +one in the Scout camps. My brother is a Scout and he thinks it's +awful because we don't have more flag exercises." + +"Where will we get the flag?" asked Sahwah. + +"It's here already," answered Nyoda, "in the bottom of my trunk. +I knew that sooner or later we would want it so I brought it +along." + +"Who will do the raising?" asked Hinpoha. + +"Why, Nyoda, of course," said Migwan, "who else?" + +"And I move," said Nyoda, "that Migwan write a poem suitable to +the occasion and deliver same." + +"Yes, yes," cried all the girls, "a poem from Migwan." Migwan +demurred at first, but finally promised, just as she always did. + +"Wait a minute," said Sahwah suddenly, "where are we going to get +the pole to raise the flag on?" All the girls looked blank for a +moment. + +"We'll run it up on the diving tower," said Nyoda promptly. "We +can find a small dry tree in the woods and strip the branches off +and fasten it to the top of the tower and run the flag up on it. +There, that's settled. Now, what kind of water sports shall we +have?" + +Sahwah and Hinpoha exchanged glances, and Sahwah wriggled in her +chair. "Wouldn't you like a committee to arrange that?" she +asked, trying to make her voice sound natural and disinterested. + +"Why, yes, that would be a good idea," said Nyoda, "and I appoint +you and Hinpoha as the committee to do the arranging. I am very +glad you suggested that, for it leaves me free to go to the +village this afternoon. Now, do we need any more committees?" + +"There ought to be one on seating arrangements," said Sahwah. + +"On what?" asked Nyoda. + +"Seating arrangements," repeated Sahwah. "Where to place our +guests." + +"May I ask who our guests are going to be?" said Nyoda. + +"I don't know yet, myself," said Sahwah calmly. "But we ought to +have some. It would be sort of flat to have a celebration just +for ourselves. We'll all have to be in it and there won't be any +audience. How would you feel like giving a show for nobody's +benefit? So I thought we'd do it this way.. We'd have a +committee on seating arrangements, and they would have to furnish +the audience as well as the seats. Isn't that a good idea?" + +"It's an original one, anyway," said Nyoda, somewhat +breathlessly. "However, I think you are quite right. If there +is an audience to be had, by all means let us have one. But I +give you fair warning, it may not be the easiest thing to pick up +an audience in the Maine woods." + +"There are other campers around the lake," replied Sahwah, "and +there are the people in the village. We could bring them here in +the boats." + +"They might have plans of their own, though," said Nyoda, "so we +mustn't count too much on having them come to visit us. By the +way, Sahwah, whom would you suggest for a seating-arrangements +committee?" + +"Oh, you would be the best one for that, Nyoda," answered Sahwah. + +Nyoda bowed, laughing. "I accept the position of Audience +Furnisher," she said, formally. "Now, every man to his task! +Gladys, would you like to come to the village with me this +afternoon?" + +Sahwah and Hinpoha also went to the village, but they waited +until Nyoda was well out of sight, then they paddled across the +lake with strong swift strokes that sent the canoe fairly flying +through the water. + +"I thought Nyoda would want some kind of a celebration," said +Sahwah, "so it's a good thing we have our plans made, although we +did want them to be a complete surprise." Instead of getting out +at the regular landing they paddled around the village and up the +mouth of a small creek, where they beached the canoe and crept +stealthily toward the store. After peeking through the window +and satisfying themselves that Nyoda was not within Sahwah +entered, while Hinpoha kept watch in the doorway. "Did you get +everything?" asked Hinpoha, as Sahwah emerged with her arms full +of bundles. + +Sahwah nodded. "But it took every yard of bunting they had." +They hastened back to camp and preparations for the next day's +celebration were soon under way. + +When Nyoda returned at supper time she was immediately surrounded +by an eager group clamoring to know who was going to be the +audience. Nyoda shook her head sadly. "There ain't no such +animal," she replied tragically. "We stopped everybody we met on +the street in the village--we only met five people--and, invited +them; we invited the storekeeper and the man who rents the boats; +but none of them could come. Then we went around to the houses +to see if we could find some women and girls, but with the same +result. It seems that some local magnate is giving a barbecue +out at his farm to-morrow and the whole town is invited." + +"But the other campers," said Sahwah hopefully. + +Again Nyoda shook her head. "We took the launch and ran in at +every landing for several miles around. There aren't so many +campers up here yet as you might think. A great many of the +cottages were closed. The few people we did talk to had their +plans already made. Don't look so disappointed, Sahwah. If we +were out in the middle of the desert or shipwrecked on a lonely +island there wouldn't be any possibility of an audience, and yet +we would be having a celebration for our own benefit just the +same." + +"Of course we would," said Migwan stoutly, "and to tell the +truth, it would never have occurred to me to ask any one else to +our celebration to-morrow. I think it's lovely to have it just by +ourselves." + +"I tell you what we'll do," said Hinpoha with a burst of +inspiration, "we'll take turns being the audience. The seating +committee can usher us to our seats between our own performances +and we can pretend that we don't know what is coming." + +"You forget that I, for one, don't know what is coming," said +Nyoda, "and will be a very appreciative spectator indeed. Behold +me, ladies, at your service, the Audience!" And Nyoda swept them +a low curtsey, whereupon they fell on her neck with one accord. + +Sahwah woke with the dawn the next morning and craned her neck to +look at the weather. To her great disappointment the lake was +covered with a heavy mist and there was no sign of the sun. The +woods looked dark and gloomy. "Rain!" she exclaimed tragically, +and buried her head in the blankets. The clouds were still thick +at breakfast time, although no actual rain had fallen. + +The flag raising took place right after breakfast, with due +ceremony. Up went the Stars and Stripes, without a pause, and +just as it reached the top of the pole and yielded its folds to +the breeze the sun broke through the clouds and bathed it in a +golden glory. The girls cheered and burst into a lusty rendition +of the "Star Spangled Banner," after which Migwan's patriotic +poem was recited amid much applause. + +Then began the water sports, which opened with canoe races. The +four who were not in this took their seats on the shore, being +placed by Nyoda with great formality, and passed Nakwisi's +spy-glass from hand to hand. Hinpoha and Nakwisi, and Sahwah and +Migwan were partners in the races. First they raced for +distance, paddling around the nearest island and coming back to +the dock. Hinpoha and Nakwisi came out ahead, because Migwan, +who was paddling stem in her canoe, lost time steering around the +island. Then came an obstacle race, in which the girls paddled +up to the dock, disembarked, dragged the canoes across the dock +and launched them again on the other side. Again Hinpoha and +Nakwisi won. + +Then came a race between the two crews with the paddlers standing +on the gunwales, which tested the skill of the girls to the +uttermost. With superhuman effort they kept their balance and +came sweeping in neck and neck, the watchers on shore cheering +lustily. "Go it, Hinpoha!" shouted Nyoda, and Hinpoha raised her +head to look at her, lost her balance, and upset the canoe, +leaving Sahwah and Migwan the victors. + +The spectators applauded heartily, and sang cheers for the +winners, when suddenly the applause was echoed from behind them. +Nyoda wheeled swiftly around and faced two gentlemen standing at +the foot of the path leading to the dock. As she turned they came +forward, hats in hand. The elder man spoke: "I am Professor +Bentley, of Harvard University, and this is Professor Wheeler." +Nyoda graciously acknowledged the introductions. "We have been +staying at the other end of the lake," resumed the stranger, "and +intended to return home to-day, but missed the steamer. We were +told that a steamer passed Wharton's Landing at noon, so we +walked over for it. Can you tell us which is Wharton's Landing?" + +"That is Wharton's Landing directly opposite," replied Nyoda, +"but the steamer has already gone past. There is a different +schedule on holidays. However, it passes again at six this +evening. Won't you be our guests until then? We can take you +across in the launch." The strangers accepted the invitation and +Nyoda introduced the other girls. + +Professor Wheeler looked long and hard at Hinpoha. He seemed +unable to take his eyes from her hair. + +"And now," said Professor Bentley, when they were all comfortably +seated upon the rocks, "would you mind telling me what you are +and what you were doing when we came up?" + +"We are Camp Fire Girls," they cried in chorus, "and we're +celebrating the Fourth of July!" + +"So you're Camp Fire Girls, are you?" answered Professor Bentley. +"That is a Species of the Female that I am greatly interested in. +How fortunate that I should have come upon them in their native +wilds! Is this where you hibernate?--excuse me, I mean +sunburnate!" He wanted to ask a great many questions about the +girls, but Professor Wheeler was anxious for the water sports to +continue. + +"The Audience!" exclaimed Sahwah in a rapturous aside to Hinpoha, +"it fell right kerplunk off the knees of the gods!" + +Sahwah, who was by far the best diver in camp, now performed a +series of spectacular dives, which she had been practising early +and late, including forward, backward, somersault, angel, sailor, +box-to-springboard, and springboard from the top of the tower. +Then she produced a hoop, which she made Hinpoha hold while she +dove through it, forward and backward, from the high springboard. +She ended her number with what she called the "Wohelo Dive," in +which she jumped from the dock to the low springboard, landing in +a sitting position, bounced up three times for Work, Health and +Love, and then turned a somersault into the water. + +"Whew!" whistled Professor Bentley, "what a diver! She's a +regular Annette Kellerman!" This was repeated to Sahwah later, +to her great gratification. + +After the diving was over the girls did a stunt which called for +a great deal of endurance. It was invented by Sahwah and called +a "Submarine Race." Sahwah, Hinpoha and Nakwisi, the three girls +who could swim under water, each tied a toy balloon around her +neck, and jumping from the dock on signal, swam beneath the +surface to see who could reach the shore without coming up for +air. The balloons of course stayed in the air and indicated the +progress of the swimmers. This stunt amused both the visitors +highly, and they grew quite excited over which one was going to +stay down the longest. "I bet on the red balloon," said +Professor Bentley, who knew that Sahwah was attached to it. + +"The green one for mine," answered Professor Wheeler, who was +keeping his eye on Hinpoha. + +"It was the weirdest thing," said Migwan afterward, "to see those +balloons go darting and wobbling back and forth!" + +"And the weirdest feeling when you were attached to them," said +Sahwah, "I felt like the keel of a boat when the sails are full +of wind." + +The second part of the program was a series of tableaux showing +events of American history. The first represented Washington +Crossing the Delaware. The sponson, a flat-bottomed canoe with +air tanks in the sides, came into view around the cliff propelled +by one paddler in the stern. In the bottom sat two devoted +patriots carrying hatchets. The great George stood in the bow, +in defiance of all canoe laws, with one foot up on the bow point, +his hand on his sword, his eyes on the distant shore. His hair +had turned bright red and he had taken on considerable flesh +since his friends had seen him last, but there was no mistaking +the military attitude. In the water around the sponson floated a +number of water wings, tied to the boat, to represent floating +ice cakes. The audience applauded vigorously as the skiff drew +near. At the psychological moment, when Nyoda had her camera +focused for a snap a huge mosquito settled on George's extended +calf. He uttered a sudden yell, brought his hand down on his leg +and pitched headfirst into the water. The patriots rescued him +and set him on the dock, and Professor Wheeler, who had sprung +from his seat and looked as if he were going to the rescue +himself, sat down again amid the general laughter. + +"What next?" he murmured, chuckling extravagantly. + +The next was an episode entitled "The Pirates of Tripoli." +Chapa, Medmangi and Nakwisi came swaggering out on the dock +dressed as pirates, with turbans and sashes and fearful knives +stuck in their belts, singing, "Fifteen men on a dead man's +chest!" Striking piratical attitudes on the end of the dock they +sang the Pirate song from "Peter Pan," making savage gestures and +pointing downward dramatically at the line, + + "We're sure to meet below!" + +Chorus over, the captain bold set his men to swabbing decks, +etc., and ordered the watch up aloft on the tower to plant the +flag with the skull and crossbones and keep the lookout. Boldly +he paced up and down on top of the tower, sweeping the seas with +his spy-glass. Suddenly he paused and uttered a shout. The +pirates crowded to the edge of the dock. Looking in the +direction he pointed they beheld two sailors approaching in a +small open boat. Seeing the pirates, the sailors were overcome +with terror and tried to avoid passing the dock, but the ruthless +cut-throats flung out a rope and lassoed them. Pulling them up +on the dock, they blindfolded them and tied their hands behind +them. Then, in spite of pitiful shrieks for mercy, the pirate +captain ordered the poor sailors up the ladder to the top of the +tower and made them walk the plank off the high springboard, +still blindfolded. It was so thrilling the audience squealed +with excitement. + +As Sahwah jumped she flung out her arms in a despairing gesture, +and wobbled beautifully all the way down through the air. It was +Migwan, though, who created the most merriment. The two sailors +were dressed very correctly in white duck trousers, middies and +sailor caps. The trousers were part of the outfit that Sahwah +had purchased in the village the day before, and the pair that +fell to Migwan were much too big for her. When it came her turn +to walk the plank she remembered Sahwah's parting injunction to +"hang on to 'em, whatever you do," and in a sudden panic lest she +should fall out of them in her flight through the air, she +grabbed them firmly by both sides of the belt, and jumped in that +position. The watchers on the beach were convulsed and struggled +for some minutes to regain their composure. + +The last tableau brought tears to Nyoda's eyes--tears of joy and +pride. Around the cliff came a gay craft, moving slowly and +majestically through the water, but there was no sign of a +paddle. As it drew nearer the watchers saw that it was a canoe, +its sides covered with red, white and blue bunting. Before it +swam Sahwah and Medmangi. Inside, on a flag-covered seat, sat +Hinpoha, dressed as Columbia, with a crown on her head, her +glorious hair rippling down to her waist and shining like copper +in the sunlight. In one hand she carried a torch, in the other +she held two white streamers. These streamers were fastened to +Sahwah's and Medmangi's waists, who drew the canoe as they swam. +The spectators drew a long breath and exclaimed with delight. +Professor Wheeler sprang to his feet, camera in hand, and snapped +the "Ship of State" at least a dozen times. "Glory! What a head +of hair!" he muttered to himself. + +The cortege approached the dock and those on shore thrilled with +a fearful realism as the swimmers reared up their heads and blew +jets of water out through their mouths and noses just like sea +horses. As the boat passed the dock the watchers with one accord +stood and sang "America," and kept on singing until it had +vanished from sight around the next cliff. + +"Great!" cried Professor Bentley, applauding until he was red in +the face, "great!" + +When the three girls came out on the beach after having changed +their fancy costumes they were met with another round of +applause. "That little pageant of yours," said Professor +Bentley, "was about the neatest thing I have ever seen. Was it +an original idea?" + +The girls proudly replied that it was. "And not only original," +added Nyoda, "but executed entirely without my help. The whole +program was a surprise to me." + +"You don't say so," said Professor Bentley. "Well, all I can say +is you are a pretty clever lot of girls!" + +Chapa had been busy for the last few minutes gathering driftwood +and getting a fire started. The girls had decided to cook dinner +down on the beach in order to show the visitors their skill in +cooking in the most primitive way. A big kettle of clams was hung +over a fire all its own, while another fire was kindled between +two long logs, and the pots and pans set along on it in a row. +Migwan tended the clams, Sahwah put on a kettle of potatoes and +then began making toast, Nakwisi made cocoa, Medmangi fried +bacon, and Hinpoha flew about concocting a delicious compound +which was her own invention and with which no one dared to +meddle. The two men watched with interest every move of the +girls as they went about preparing dinner. + +"Look at that!" said Professor Bentley to his friend. "That" +happened to be Hinpoha, who was momentarily left alone with the +fire. The cocoa kettle started to sag as the wood burned away +and at the same time the mixture in the other kettle began to +boil over. Bracing the cocoa kettle with one foot, she snatched +the other kettle from the fire, and stood there on one foot +holding the steaming pot. Professor Wheeler sprang to her +assistance and propped up the cocoa kettle. + +Dinner was the merriest meal imaginable, and "food just faded +away," as Sahwah declared. Hinpoha won much praise for her +concoction, which she called "Slumgullion." It was a sort of +glorified tomato soup, made with a thick white sauce, containing +chopped-up pimentoes and hard-boiled eggs, the mixture being +served over toast. The clams of course were the main dainty, and +when dipped in butter slid down with amazing rapidity. After +dinner the girls threw themselves down in the sand in various +attitudes of relaxation, while Professor Wheeler, his eyes +straying again and again toward Hinpoha, told stories of camping +in the Canadian Rockies. + +When he had finished the girls rose and stretched themselves, and +then began to clamor for "more celebration." Nyoda suggested a +fire-building contest. Each girl was to have three minutes in +which to collect material and get a fire started. No paper was +allowed and only three matches. What a scramble there was to +find small dry twigs! There was a smart breeze blowing, and most +of the matches went out as soon as lighted, putting their owners +out of the contest. Sahwah was wise and piled her twigs where a +huge stump sheltered them from the wind; Hinpoha sat between hers +and the wind. Even then it was difficult to get the twigs to +burn. It seemed as if they were in league against the contestants +and firmly refused to light. + +"Two and a half minutes," called Nyoda warningly, her watch in +her hand. + +"Mine's burning," shouted Hinpoha, jumping up as the flames began +to curl up from the twigs. Just then a gust of wind came up, and +pouf! out went the fire. + +"Time's up!" called Nyoda, and Sahwah rose from her knees, +disclosing a neat little blaze. She had wisely sheltered her +fire until the last second, giving it a chance to kindle well. + +Now it was the custom of the Winnebagos to have a folk story told +by one of their number right after supper, but as the visitors +would have to leave early Nyoda asked if the girls wouldn't like +to tell the folk story before supper. They agreed, as usual, to +anything that would give pleasure to a guest. It was Migwan's +turn to tell the story, so seating herself on a rock in the midst +of the group, she related the story of Aliquipiso, the heroic +Oneida maiden. + +"Once upon a time the savage Mingoes made war upon the Oneidas, +so the Oneidas were obliged to flee from their pleasant village +and seek refuge in the depths of the forest. So well did they +hide their traces that the Mingoes were not able to find their +hiding place and they remained safe. Their food supply, however, +began to be exhausted, for they were hemmed in by the Mingoes and +could not break through the lines. They were facing destruction +in two ways; either by slow starvation should they remain in +hiding, or a cruel death at the hands of the Mingoes should they +venture out. The chiefs and warriors of the Oneidas held a +council, but none had a plan to offer which would effect their +salvation. Then the maiden Aliquipiso stepped forward. With +becoming modesty she addressed the chiefs and warriors, saying +that the Great Manitou had sent her a dream in which he showed +her how great boulders could be dashed on the heads of the +Mingoes if they could be lured to a spot directly beneath the +bluff on which the Oneidas were hiding. She went on to say that +the Great Manitou had inspired her with the desire to be the +means of luring the Mingoes to their destruction, and she was +ready to start out on her mission. + +"The Oneida braves hailed her as the saviour of her people and +the Beloved of the Great Spirit, and hung strings of wampum +around her neck. Bidding her people farewell, she left the +hiding place and was found by the Mingoes wandering in the +forest, apparently a lost maiden of the Oneida tribe. They took +her to their camp and put her to torture trying to make her tell +where her people were hidden. At last she broke down and +promised that when night fell she would lead the Mingoes to the +hiding place of the Oneidas. + +"Under cover of the darkness she led them to the gully at the +foot of the ravine. On each side of her was a Mingo warrior, +ready to strike her dead at the first cry for help. When she +reached the spot where she knew the Oneidas were waiting to hurl +immense boulders down over the cliff she uttered a piercing +scream--the signal agreed upon. The warrior next to her had just +time to strike her dead with his club when the boulders came +down, crushing him and all the Mingoes like worms beneath a +giant's heel. Thus the Oneidas owed their deliverance to the +bravery of a maiden." + +"It must be fine to be a heroine," sighed Sahwah, when the +applause was finished, "to save a person's life or something. I +wish I had lived in the early days of the country. Nothing ever +happens now." + +Unsuspecting Sahwah! Little did she dream what was hidden under +the wings of the Thunder Moon! + +The guests rose to depart, after inspecting the tents and +partaking of sandwiches and cocoa out on the Sunset Rock. Nyoda +took them across the lake in the _Sunbeam_, the little launch +that belonged to camp. Both gentlemen expressed their unbounded +admiration for the physical prowess of the Winnebago girls and +remarked on their splendid ability to pull together. + +Professor Wheeler raved about Hinpoha's hair. "Let me come and +paint her," he pleaded. "Sitting out on the rocks--with the sun +on that hair--O, what a picture!" + +Gently but firmly, Nyoda refused permission. "The girls have +come up here for a summer all by themselves; to learn the joys of +camping out and of doing things together. Such an interruption +would break up the unity of their activities and lessen the +influence of camp." + +Professor Wheeler begged and entreated, but in vain; Nyoda stood +her ground. The most she would promise to do was to send him +Hinpoha's address at the close of camp so that he might take the +matter up with her parents. + +Nyoda returned home very thoughtful. Hinpoha's dawning beauty +was causing her many thoughtful moments of late. Not that +Hinpoha was in the least vain or self-conscious; on the contrary, +she was the jolliest and most natural girl in the group, and the +least fastidious. That same red hair which Professor Wheeler +raved over was the bane of her existence, and she had more than +once threatened to cut it off when the curls became hopelessly +snarled. Her chief aim in life was to have as much fun as +possible and to get as many others mixed up in it as she could. +Hinpoha, haughty and proud because of her good looks, was a +picture that the imagination balked at. Yet Nyoda could not help +noticing that wherever the group went Hinpoha attracted by far +the most attention from outsiders. All the way down from +Cleveland on the train Nyoda had watched men who had scarcely +taken their eyes from Hinpoha. The guardian sighed as she +reflected on the problem, for she knew how difficult it would be +for Hinpoha to live out the happy normal girl life which was her +birthright. + +When Nyoda reached camp Hinpoha and Sahwah were lying on their +stomachs on the dock, rigging up a light-boat to be sent over the +lake. It consisted of a flat board for a keel and voluminous +sails dipped in turpentine. As Nyoda landed they set a match to +the sails and shoved the boat out into the wind. It made a grand +glare as it glided out over the lake and the girls cheered until +the last spark had fallen hissing into the water. + +"Wasn't it a grand success all the way through?" sighed Sahwah +happily as they climbed the path to the tents at the sound of the +first bugle. "First we thought it was going to rain and then the +sun shone; and first we thought we weren't going to have any +audience and then we did anyway, and the dinner didn't burn and +everything was lovely!" + +The day had been pretty strenuous for most of the girls and it +was not long before Nepahwin, the Spirit of Sleep, claimed them +for his own. Then it was that the Dream Manitou, hovering over +the Omega tent, fluttered down on Sahwah's pillow. In fancy she +roamed through the virgin forest, before the white man had come +to destroy the Indian lodges. She was the daughter of a +Chieftain, the acknowledged leader of the other maidens. Now +there was a young brave belonging to a neighboring tribe with +whom she was in love, but there was enmity between her tribe and +his, and he dared not ask for her hand. So they were in the +habit of meeting secretly in the forest. One day when they were +together they became aware of footsteps approaching, and peering +through the bushes saw a number of braves belonging to the young +man's tribe close upon them. So great was their hatred of her +father that for them to find her would mean instant death. + +"Fly! fly!" whispered her lover, "fly to the edge of the cliff +and jump for your life. My canoe is at the foot of the +cliff--take it and escape while I divert the attention of these +braves!" + +Like an arrow from the bow she set out. Reaching the edge of the +cliff, she poised for an instant, then leaped into the lake +twenty feet below. As she struck the water Sahwah woke up. All +about her was darkness and seeming chaos. There was a swirling +about her ears and her limbs seemed detached from her body. She +seemed to be rising rapidly. Suddenly her head shot clear of the +enveloping gloom and she saw the moon and stars overhead. Just +above her reared a black framework. Mechanically she flung out +her hand and grasped solid wood. The next moment a voice rang +out above her head. "Sahwah! What are you doing?" Then a hand +came over the edge of the dock and pulled her up. It was Nyoda. +Sahwah blinked at her stupidly. + +"Whatever possessed you to jump off the tower?" persisted Nyoda. + +"He told me to jump and I did," said Sahwah, still in a daze. +Then suddenly her eyes fell on her nightdress, dripping at every +fold. "Where am I?" she said sharply, her teeth beginning to +chatter. "Why, _Nyoda!_" + +Nyoda laughed. "You dreamed it, dear," she said. "You jumped +off the tower in your sleep. Come up to bed now before you take +cold." Putting her arm around the shivering girl, she led her up +the path to the tent and tucked her in between dry blankets. +"Too much celebration," she reflected, and then added to herself, +"It's a good thing I happened to see her." + +Nyoda had wakened in the night and lay looking out through the +tent door at the lake bathed in moonlight. The diving tower was +right in her line of vision, solitary and black against the +moonlight. Suddenly she became aware of a figure climbing up the +ladder to the top. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes and +recognized Sahwah. The girl poised for an instant on the edge +and then jumped into the water. Nyoda sped down the path and +reached the dock just as Sahwah came up. + +"And up until now," thought Nyoda, as she dropped off to sleep +again, "I did think they were safe in their beds!" + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE. + +At the close of singing hour one morning the week following the +Fourth-of-July celebration Nyoda rose with an air of mystery and +requested the girls not to make up their beds as usual, but +instead to roll their blankets in their ponchos and pile them up +together. A shriek of joy went up from the girls. "What is it, +Nyoda, a canoe trip?" + +Nyoda shook her head. "You'll see," was all she would say. +Immediately she was surrounded by the girls clamoring to be told +where they were going. "I surrender," she said, laughing at +Migwan, who was embracing her feet in supplication, "we're going +hunting." + +"Hunting what?" clamored the chorus. + +"Oh, adventures and such things," said Nyoda in an off-hand +manner. + +"Where are we going?" "How are we going?" "When are we going to +start?" shouted the girls from all sides. + +Nyoda put her hands over her ears and tapped for silence with her +foot. "One at a time, please, ladies, and I will endeavor to +answer any questions that may come into your minds," she said in +her best lecture-room manner. + +"Oh, Nyoda, tell us," begged the girls. + +"Having your kind permission to speak," resumed Nyoda, "I will +try to state the case briefly. Now then, one, two, three! We're +going to Balsam Lake!" + +"It's a hike!" shouted Sahwah, turning a handspring. + +"Is it, Nyoda?" asked Migwan. + +Nyoda nodded. "That's it. We're going to hike through the woods +to Balsam Lake, which is a distance of about twelve miles, camp +there for the night, and return to-morrow by another route." + +"O Goody!" cried Sahwah, hopping up and down on one foot, "when +are we going to start?" + +"The first two will start at ten o'clock," said Nyoda. + +"The first two!" echoed the girls. "Aren't we all going +together?" + +Then Nyoda outlined her plan. Believing that the girls would +collect more adventures by going in pairs instead of all +together, besides the fun of following a trail marked out by +leaders, she had arranged the girls two by two. The first pair, +who would be the pathfinders and blaze the trail for those coming +after, would leave at ten o'clock, the next pair twenty minutes +later, then the next, and so on. Their ponchos would be brought +in a wagon over the main road and left for them; they would buy +their supplies for supper and breakfast at the last village they +passed through. Their lunches, they would carry with them. The +first two were to buy potatoes and start the fire and put them +in, while the rest would bring the other supplies. + +"Who and who are going to be partners?" demanded Sahwah. + +"Listen, while I read the list," answered Nyoda. "Sahwah and +Nakwisi, Hinpoha and Migwan, Gladys and Chapa, Medmangi and +myself. You will leave camp in the order I have named you. +Sahwah and Nakwisi will be the pathfinders." Sahwah seized +Nakwisi around the waist and the two danced for joy. + +"Who'll take care of the camp while we're away?" asked Chapa. + +"I have arranged with a man from the village to look after things +until we get back," answered Nyoda. + +"What are we to carry with us?" asked Migwan. + +"You will each carry a hatchet, flashlight, notebook and pencil, +a camera, a roll of antiseptic gauze and a roll of surgeon's +plaster. Sahwah and Nakwisi, here is a chart of the road you are +to take and a can of vermilion paint with which to mark the +trail. Take all the pictures you can along the road, girls, and +keep a list of the birds, animals, trees and flowers that you +recognize. We will compare them afterward and the pair who has +observed the most will receive a local honor. Hurry up, you +pathfinders, you have only an hour to get ready!" + +With a wild scramble the girls made for their tents to get their +ponchos rolled and things collected. Nyoda had given them a +demonstration of poncho rolling the week before so they all knew +how. Gladys, however, had to have a good deal of help from Chapa +before she was ready to start. Good-natured Chapa folded her +blankets so the poncho extended on all sides and spread her +nightgown, towel, brush and comb and toothbrush crosswise so they +would roll. Now Gladys understood why Nyoda had told her +especially to bring a small, loosely-stuffed pillow. It was to +roll in the poncho. When it came to the actual rolling Gladys +had to take a hand herself, for it takes two to roll a poncho +successfully. + +"Now you tie it up with a square knot," directed Chapa, when the +stovepipe-like roll had been bent into a horseshoe. + +"What's a square knot?" asked Gladys. + +"Why, this kind," said Chapa, dexterously tying one. Gladys +tried several times, but failed to produce a square knot. "O +dear," she exclaimed impatiently, "I can't tie the crazy thing. +Why won't the other kind do?" + +"A granny knot always comes untied," explained Chapa. "Here, I'll +tie your poncho up. It's getting late, and I want to help make +the sandwiches for the girls who are starting first." + +"Close your tents before you leave, girls," said Nyoda, appearing +in the doorway, "it may rain while we are away. Very neatly +done," she said, indicating Gladys's poncho with its smooth ties, +"you are fast learning to be a camper." Gladys said nothing +about Chapa's having done it up for her, and of course Chapa +would not say so. + +Promptly at ten o'clock the pathfinders marched away, looking +quite explorerfied with their hatchets hanging from their belts +and their Wohelo knives chained to their bloomer pockets. At +twenty-minute intervals the other pairs started, Nyoda going the +rounds before she left to see who had left her things in the +neatest order, and whose poncho looked the best. A banner would +go to the pair who kept up the best style throughout the hike. +She and Medmangi ate their lunch before starting, as they left so +near noon. + +Leaving camp in the care of the man from the village, they struck +into the path through the woods. The whole earth seemed filled +with the scent of flowers and the invigorating odor of the pines. +Here in Maine the wild strawberries were in full prime early in +July, and the path was bordered with daisies and other bright +flowers. The two swung along in silence with an enjoyment too +deep for words, for they appreciated as only Camp Fire Girls can +the beauties and, wonders of nature. Back somewhere in the world +they had left behind dull care might be beating its incessant +tom-tom, and the air was full of wars and rumors of wars, but +here every harsh note was drowned in the singing of birds. +"Isn't it glorious?" said Nyoda fervently, drinking in a long +breath of the pine-scented air, and swelling out her already +well-developed chest. + +Presently the path they were on was crossed by another and at the +intersection there was a splash of bright red paint on a tree. +"A blaze!" cried Nyoda, stopping short. "Which path did they +take, I wonder?" In the road at the foot of the blazed tree lay +a small heap of stones pointing in the direction taken by the +leaders. "What's this?" asked Nyoda, picking up a small box from +beside the stones. It was marked "For Nyoda." She lifted the +lid and out hopped a tiny live frog. In the bottom of the box +was a piece of paper on which was drawn a sunfish. + +So they went on for nearly half an hour, following the red +blazes, when suddenly they came upon Chapa and Gladys sitting in +the road. Gladys had a blister on her heel. Nyoda bandaged it +for her and showed her how to put a piece of adhesive on the +other heel to keep it from blistering. The rule of the road was +that if one pair caught up with another they were to sit down and +give them a ten minutes' start. So Nyoda and Medmangi sat down +and waited until Gladys and Chapa were well under way. + +The next blaze they struck was truly startling. It was a little +silver birch tree with the stem painted entirely red. Nailed to +it with a big rusty nail was a piece of cardboard. At the top +was written: + + "Sahwah and the Starlore Maiden + Keep ahead though heavy laden." + +Then followed a many-pointed symbol and the words, "See our +combination symbol? It's a starfish!" Underneath was a couplet in +a different writing. + + "Here come Migwan and Hinpoha + Two and two like the beasts of Noah." + +Underneath that was a verse signed by "The Chipmunk." + + "Gladys's heel is full of plaster, + Or else we would travel faster." + +Nyoda and Medmangi shouted and took the card along for a +souvenir, adding the lines, + + "Here Nyoda and Medmangi + Read the blaze and held a tangi." + +A little farther on they discovered the legend: + + "Here we sit down in the road, + For Sahwah's stocking must be sewed." + +"What's the matter, Grumpy?" said Migwan to Hinpoha, who had been +stewing around to herself for the last ten minutes. + +"It's this old orange I brought along for lunch," burst out +Hinpoha. "I don't know what to do with it. If I put it in my +bloomers it bangs against my leg, and if I carry it in my bag it +bangs against my stomach, and if I carry it in my hand I drop it +every other minute. It's driving me crazy." + +"Why don't you eat it?" asked Migwan simply. + +"Why, I never thought of that!" exclaimed Hinpoha, and soon had +the offending orange safely disposed of. + +Lunch time found Sahwah and Nakwisi close to a farm house and +they went in to ask for a drink of water. The farmer's wife +looked curiously at the two girls in bloomers carrying a can of +red paint. Sahwah introduced Nakwisi and herself and explained +what they were doing. "Land sakes alive!" exclaimed the farmer's +wife, "what girls don't do nowadays! Livin' like Indians and +walkin' their legs off just for the fun of it! Come right in and +I'll see if I can't find something better than water to give +you." She bustled out into the summer kitchen and returned with +a pitcher of milk and two glasses. "Here, drink this along with +your sandwiches, and try a dish of berries." Sahwah and Nakwisi +needed no second invitation. Their sandwiches had been pretty +well baked in the sun for the last two hours and were as dry as +straw, so the milk and berries were decidedly refreshing. + +"How restful it is here," sighed Sahwah luxuriously, leaning back +in the cushioned rocking chair. "Can't you stay a spell, girls, +and rest up?" said their hostess cordially. + +"We have half an hour for our noonday rest," said Sahwah, "and +I'd like to take it right in this chair, if you don't mind." She +slipped off her shoes and stretched her feet to rest them, +closing her eyes meanwhile, and Nakwisi followed suit. + +When they finally rose to go the farmer's wife brought out a +plate of cookies which she urged them to take along to eat on the +road. She stood looking after them for a long time as they +trudged along in the yellow dust. "I wish I could go along with +'em, over the hills," she exclaimed suddenly to the unheeding +hens that were walking up and down the steps, "I'm tired of +staying at home and doing the same things over and over again. I +wish I could go along too!" + +Chapa and Gladys, following the blazes through the woods, found +their path barred at one place by a rather wide brook. The trail +was marked again on the other side. "How are we going to get +across?" asked Gladys. + +"Wade through," said Chapa, briefly, sitting down and commencing +to pull off her shoes and stockings. + +Gladys put her hand into the water and shook her head. "It's too +cold," she said, drawing back. + +"No, it isn't," said Chapa, "the rest went through it. Come on, +you'll be all right." Stuffing her stockings into her shoes, she +threw them to the farther bank, and then stepping into the swift +little stream she waded across calmly. Gladys hesitated for +several minutes before she could make up her mind to put her feet +in the water, but finally, encouraged by Chapa, she stepped +gingerly in. "Be careful of the rocks, they're slippery," warned +Chapa, but the warning was hardly out of her mouth when Gladys +slipped on one of the smooth stones and sat down with a mighty +splash. Chapa flew to the rescue and pulled her out on the bank. + +"What will I do?" wailed Gladys, "I can't go on with these wet +bloomers." + +"Wear my bathing suit," suggested Chapa, untying it from around +her waist where she had been wearing it as a sort of sash, with +all her impedimenta stuck into the folds. So Gladys changed to +the bathing suit, and Chapa fixed the wet bloomers on a stick +which they could carry between them, so they would be dry by the +time they reached the night's encampment. + +"We ought to be pretty near the end of our journey," said Nyoda +to Medmangi, at about half-past four in the afternoon. "Have you +caught sight of Balsam Lake yet?" + +Medmangi shook her head. "The woods are too thick to see +anything through," she answered. "Let's call," said Nyoda. +Together they raised their hands to their mouths and sent out the +long, yodling call of the Camp Fire Girls, and then stood silent, +listening. Before the echoes had ceased coming out of the woods +the call was answered from somewhere beyond the trees. "We're +nearly there!" said Nyoda, and they quickened their pace as they +went through the last strip of woods. Soon they heard voices and +saw figures moving about in the distance, and presently they came +upon the rest of the girls on the shore of the tiny lake. Some +of the girls were lying at full length on the soft ground; others +were preparing supper. Hinpoha was chopping wood with her +hatchet; Sahwah was shaving chocolate with hers. The fire was +built close to the water's edge and the firelight shone out redly +across the water. + +Migwan set a can of beans in the embers to warm, then she sat +down on the beach to enjoy the view. The late afternoon sun was +pouring its full glory on the lake, making its surface one +dazzling sheet of light. Migwan shaded her eyes with her hand, +and drank in the splendor of the scene with all her beauty-loving +soul. "Now I know how Scott felt when he wrote: + + "One burnished sheet of living gold, + Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled,"' + +mused Migwan, and fell to dreaming dreams as golden as the +setting sun. + +Around the fire the tongues were wagging merrily. "We met a man +with a wagon and he said, 'Jump in,' and we said, 'No, thank +you,' and he said, 'Well, don't, then, ding it.'--" + +"We ate our lunch beside a brook and Migwan dropped her +sandwiches in and had bread soup--" + +"We met a bull and Hinpoha climbed the fence into a field and +there were two bulls in that field--" + +"Nyoda sat down in a potato patch to tie her shoe and the farmer +came out and yelled--" + +BANG! There was a terrific explosion that scattered the +firebrands among the girls and showered them with ashes and +fragments of potatoes. They sprang to their feet, extinguishing +the fires that started in various places, and asking what had +happened. Nyoda's glance happened to fall on Hinpoha, who had +sat nearest the fire. The whole front of her middy was plastered +with--_beans!_ + +On the ground by the fire lay the flattened remains of a tin can. +Migwan had put the beans to heat without opening the can. Shrieks +of laughter arose when the truth dawned on the girls and it was +many a day before they left off teasing Migwan about it. The +fire was built up again, bacon "frizzled," and toast and cocoa +made. "And my mouth was just watering for baked potatoes," +wailed Hinpoha. + +"And mine for baked beans," echoed Sahwah. + +"You shouldn't eat potatoes if you want to get thin," said +Migwan. + +"Shouldn't I, Nyoda?" asked Hinpoha, appealing to her guardian. + +Nyoda pursed up her lips and recited with a judicial air: + + "If you would slimmer grow, my daughter, + Eat no starches, drink no water." + +Sahwah then took up the tale: + + "Look not on the candy sweet, + Fall not for the fat of meat." + +Thus it went round the circle, each girl pointing her finger at +Hinpoha and reciting a couplet: + + "If your fat you'd wear away, + Exercise ten hours a day," + + "If you would grow thin and graceful, + Eat of lemons this whole caseful." + + "If you think that you're too large, + Swim ahead and tow the barge." + + "If you really would grow small, + Don't eat anything at all." + +"I think you're mean," said Hinpoha, wiping away mock tears. +Immediately all the girls flung themselves on her, hugging and +caressing her. + +"Never mind, 'Poha," they comforted, "we love you anyhow. We +couldn't live without you." + +"Did anybody catch up with anybody else today?" asked Sahwah. +Nyoda and Medmangi sprang to their feet, and pointing scornfully +at Chapa and Gladys, sang to the tune of "Forsaken: + + "O'ertaken, o'ertaken, o'ertaken were they, + On a stone by the roadside they sat plain as day; + We sat down beside them and sang them this song, + Which caused them to rise up and travel along." + +"We made a song, too," cried Migwan and Hinpoha, springing to +their feet. "It's to the tune of 'Jingle Bells.'" And keeping +time with their feet, they sang: + + "Marching through the woods, + Onward day by day, + Round the lake we go, + Singing all the way. + Packs strapped to our backs, + There our eats we stow, + Oh, what fun it is to hike + With the girls of Wohelo! + + Wohelo, Wohelo, + Singing all the day, + O what fun it is to hike + Around the world away!" + +The girls joined in the chorus, and then went back to the +beginning, and in a few minutes the song had been "adopted for +use." By this time the fire was burning low and Nyoda reminded +the girls that they had walked twelve miles that day and had a +still longer tramp ahead on the morrow. "It doesn't seem +possible that I've walked so far today," said Migwan, sitting up +and stretching. "I'm not nearly as tired as I have been some +days last winter after school." + +The girls had all picked out their sleeping places before dark +and made up their beds on the ground. Before retiring they all +took a dip in the lake, splashing around in the darkness and +barking their shins on the rocks. Gladys and Chapa sought their +beds first. It was the first time that Gladys had ever slept on +the ground. "There's a rock in my back and my feet are higher +than my head," she wailed. + +"Then let's move," said Chapa, and suiting the action to the +word, she picked up the bed and deposited it in another place. +This was fairly comfortable and they subsided. + +Next an uproar arose from a bed near the beach. "There's a +million ants in my bed!" shrieked Migwan, jumping up and shaking +her blankets. She had spread her bed on a colony of ant hills, +and the ants had improved the shining hours until bedtime by +crawling between the blankets. + +Sahwah was the last in bed, having stayed in the water longer +than the others. She was strangely wakeful and lay for a long +time staring up at the pines towering above her, that seemed to +rise hundreds of feet before a branch appeared. She amused +herself by reaching out her hand and identifying her belongings, +which hung on a bush at her head. Her hand closed over the can +of red paint. Like lightning she had an inspiration. She raised +her head and looked at the next bed. "It's Migwan," she said to +herself. Grasping the paint brush, she reached over and daubed +the face of the sleeper. Then she settled down and slept. + +Gladys woke up in the gray dawn and looked out from her sandwich +bed. The lake was completely hidden by a thick mist. Drops were +coming down, patter, patter, on her poncho. "Chapa," she +whispered excitedly to her partner, "it's raining!" + +"Well, what of it?" answered Chapa, without opening her eyes, and +pulling the poncho over their heads, she resumed her slumbers. +Gladys drew a horrified breath at the idea of sleeping on the +ground in the rain, but the cozy dryness of her bed soon wooed +her back to slumber. When she opened her eyes again the sun was +rising over the lake. No, there were two suns, one in the lake +which was making it boil and send up clouds of steam, and another +in the sky which was drawing up the vapor. Soon the bugle blew +and the camp woke to activity. + +With a whoop the girls made for the lake for their morning +plunge. "Gladys!" said Nyoda, "what is the matter with your +face?" On each cheek, as well as on her nose and forehead, there +was a daub of red. + +Sahwah stared, then she giggled. "I thought it was Migwan beside +me," she explained. "Excuse me, Gladys, I didn't mean to +decorate you." Gladys, however, evidently thought differently, +for she was decidedly cool to Sahwah from then on. + +Just before breakfast the girls assembled on the high cliff to +sing the morning song. Their choice was Rousseau's beautiful +hymn, + + "When the mists have rolled in splendor + From the beauty of the hills." + +The mist curtains were rolling up from the lake in the morning +sun, disclosing the lofty brow of Mount Washington in the +distance, and the girls felt very near to God and Nature as they +sang the inspired words. + +Breakfast was cooked in the open and consisted of fruit, pancakes +and cocoa. Hinpoha heroically passed up both the pancakes and the +cocoa and contented herself with one piece of dry toast. + +The hike proceeded in order just as on the previous day. Right +after breakfast the ponchos were rolled and the pathfinders +struck the trail through the woods. The first note left by them +read: "10:30. First rest. 'Ware the pest!" + +"Wonder what they meant by that?" said Hinpoha to Migwan. They +soon found out. At the last blaze the path dipped into dense +woods. From all sides rose a cloud of mosquitoes which settled +on every exposed portion of their persons and stung viciously. +"Ooo, wow!" they cried, breaking into a run and brushing the +mosquitoes off with branches. Before they entered the next +woods they stripped the bark off a fallen birch log and made +leggings of it, tying them on with their handkerchiefs. + +Migwan made up a song as they went along and taught it to +Hinpoha. The tune was "Solomon Levi:" + + "Oh, we are Winnebagos and our color is the Red, + Over the hills and down the dales we go wherever we're led, + We follow the blazes through the wood like hounds upon the hunt, + We keep our feet upon the path and our faces to the front! + + Oh, Winnebagos! 'Bagos, tra la la la, + Oh, Winnebagos! 'Bagos, tra la la la la la la, + Oh, we are Winnebagos and our color is the Red, + Over the hills and down the dales we go wherever we're led!" + +"I suppose you'll be a great poet when you grow up," said +Hinpoha, stooping to pick a cluster of ripe strawberries. + +Migwan sighed. "No, I'll never be a great poet," she answered, +"but I may be able to write stories in time, if I learn enough +about composition." + +"What college are you going to?" asked Hinpoha. + +"I'm not going at all," said Migwan seriously. "You know, since +father died we have had to live very carefully, and high school +is all mother can do for me. I have to go to work as soon as I +graduate." + +"It's too bad," sympathized Hinpoha. "You ought to go to college +more than any of us. Here am I, with no more brains than a +rabbit, going to Smith. It isn't fair. Can't you work your way +through and go anyhow?" + +Migwan shook her head. "You see, we will need the money I earn +to send Betty and Tom to high school." + +Thus talking earnestly they followed the blazes until they came +to a place where the path divided around a very dense piece of +woods. "You take one path, and I'll take the other," said +Migwan, "and we'll see who comes out first." They separated and +Migwan plunged into the darker of the two paths. It was hard +breaking through. Small scrub pines closed over the path, their +branches intertwined, so that more than once she had to use her +hatchet. Roots and vines tangled her feet and made her stumble. +Then she wedged her foot in between two stumps and could not get +it out. She pulled and twisted and finally grasped hold of the +stem of a small tree and braced herself firmly while she +endeavored to free herself. With a sudden jerk her foot came +free, and at the same instant the tree came up by the roots, the +ground caved in beneath it and Migwan began to fall. She now +discovered what she had not noticed before, that the path was on +the edge of a very deep ravine which was hidden by the thick +bushes. Straight down she rolled for about fifty feet, vainly +trying to stop herself by grasping the small bushes. Deep down +in the gully she came to a stop not two feet away from a small +stream. + +"I'm not dead, anyhow," was her first thought as she scrambled to +her feet. A red-hot stab of agony went through her left knee and +she sank down again, white and faint. "Dislocated," she said to +herself after inspecting the injured member. "Let's see if I can +put it back." Migwan had had First-Aid work and had learned to +set dislocations, so she slipped the joint back into place before +it could get a chance to swell, and bound it fast with a strip of +the bandage the girls always carried with them. At that the pain +made her sick to her stomach and she lay back, her head reeling. +When she could see clearly again she sat up and looked around. +It was nearly dark, as the thick pines shut out the declining +rays of the sun. She called aloud till the echoes rang, but +there was no answering call. The gravity of the situation came +home to her, but Migwan was not one to whimper. She had nothing +with her to eat, but there was clear water at hand and she drank +and bathed her scratched face and hands. Then she lay still and +thought things out. + +"They'll surely find me sometime," she reflected, "for Hinpoha +knows which path I took. The cave-in will tell the tale. +There's nothing in the woods to hurt me, either man or beast. My +knee is back in joint and will begin to heal while I stay here. +Things might have been worse." Beside her lay a dry pine tree +and she chopped it up and built a fire. For a long time she lay +looking up at the great pines above her, lost in romantic +fancies, her beautiful, expressive eyes shining in the firelight. +By and by she slept, her head pillowed on her sweater. + +She was aroused by the squalling of the jays in the pine trees. +Sunlight was filtering down through the branches. She felt +chilly from her sleep on the ground, although the trees had kept +the dew from her. Sitting up, she exercised her arms to get up +the circulation. Then, leaning on a heavy stick and hobbling on +one foot, she began to look about her. Not far from where she +had fallen there was an opening in the undergrowth and through +this Migwan could see another path about six feet lower down the +slope. + +"I wonder if they would come this way," thought Migwan. "I had +better put a blaze in the road so they can find me." She was +casting about for something that would attract the attention of +the searchers when she heard footsteps coming down the path. +"They're coming," she thought, and was just ready to fall on +Hinpoha's neck, when out of the woods came two men, one of them +carrying a little boy. A few paces from where Migwan stood, +hidden by a large tree trunk, they came to a halt, and the one +man, pulling out a purse, began to count money. The little boy +was dressed in a white sailor suit and hat, and his hair under +the hat brim was yellow and curly. A beam of sunlight fell +directly on him, making such a pretty picture that Migwan could +not help snap-shotting him. Her camera still hung around her +neck in its case, having luckily escaped injury by her fall. +Then she stepped out and called to the men. Both started +violently. Migwan hastened to explain her plight. + +"Sorry we can't carry you along," said the man with the purse, +"but we have to catch the boat at the lake and that would make us +miss it." + +"Can't you tell someone where I am?" asked Migwan. + +"Why, yes, yes," answered the man, pulling out his watch. "We'll +send some one for you." They disappeared down the path at a +quick pace, and Migwan sat down by the opening and waited. + +Hinpoha, following the path taken by the leaders, was tripping +blithely along, not looking where she was going, with the result +that she ran into a pine branch which caught her long hair, and +in freeing herself broke the chain of her locket, which slipped +to the ground and hid among the leaves. Hinpoha got down on her +knees and hunted for it. The minutes passed, but still she did +not find it. She did not worry about Migwan because she knew she +would wait where the paths met. Chapa and Gladys caught up and +helped her search, and finally they found it. Upon reaching the +main path, however, they did not see Migwan. "Probably got tired +waiting and went on by herself," said Hinpoha. "Serves me +right." And she walked on with Gladys and Chapa. + +Two hours later they reached camp, and Hinpoha began calling +around for Migwan, but there was no sign of her. "Are you sure +she isn't hiding about the camp to surprise us?" asked Hinpoha +hopefully. Sahwah seized the bugle and blew the call which +meant, "Come at once, no matter what you are doing," but there +was no answer. Thoroughly frightened, they started back on the +trail, meeting Nyoda and Medmangi just coming in. At the story +of Migwan's disappearance Nyoda immediately planned a search. +But first of all she insisted on the girls eating their supper. +Then she reminded them that they had walked fifteen miles that +day and most of them needed rest. Hinpoha stoutly maintained +that she was as fresh as a May morning and declared she would +walk all night to find Migwan. "What if she never comes back!" +she wailed. Her knees gave way under her at the thought and she +sank down at Nyoda's feet, her head on her arms. + +"Of course she'll come back," said Nyoda confidently, but her +heart was like water within her. These girls were all in her +charge for the summer and she was responsible for their welfare. +What had become of Migwan? The party that finally started out +were Nyoda, Hinpoha, Sahwah and the man who had watched the camp +while the girls were away, who drove his wagon along the roadway +and let the girls ride in turn. They explored the woods back to +where the two paths emerged from the thicket, calling and +searching with lanterns. All to no purpose. They went over +every inch of the path down which Migwan had disappeared. Now +Migwan, in coming through, had strayed off the path, which was +very hard to follow, and the place where she had gone over the +edge was at least twenty feet from the true path. The searchers +therefore did not find the evidence of her fall, and as the time +when they stood there and called to her corresponded with the +time when Migwan lay in a dead faint, she made no response, and +they passed on. + +The night wore on and the searchers grew more and more alarmed. +Hinpoha dissolved in tears and declared she just couldn't live +without Migwan. Nyoda tried to comfort her with all sorts of +cheering possibilities, but her own heart was troubled and +anxious. They retraced their route back to the place where they +had camped the night before, but found nothing. Then, discouraged +and panic-stricken, they began to retrace their steps to camp. +Morning light brought a new disclosure. Not only had they lost +Migwan somewhere in the great woods, but they themselves were +completely off the trail of the day before. At one of the dim +cross-roads they had made a misturn, and were now wandering +around without the slightest notion of where they were going. +"Well, I'll be jiggered," said the man with the wagon. "I thought +I knew these here woods pretty well, but I'm blamed if I know +where we are now. Everything looks turned around; I'd swear now, +that that was the west over there, yet there is the sun a-risin' +as big as life. I'm plumb addled!" + +They advanced uncertainly, looking closely for the red-marked +trees of the hike. "This road looks as if it went somewhere," +said Hinpoha. They stuck to the road for a while but soon saw a +sign board reading, "Cambridge, 7 miles." Cambridge was a town +lying exactly in the opposite direction from Loon Lake. +Bewildered, they turned back and Hinpoha left the main road and +followed a narrow path that led into the woods. Wearily Nyoda +walked after her. She was at her wits' end. + +"It's no use, Hinpoha," she said sadly. "This path isn't any +better than the road. We never went through this gully on the +hike." + +"Still, it might lead to one we know," answered Hinpoha, and they +kept on. The path seemed endless, and was hard to walk in, for it +was on the side of a hill. + +"Let's turn back," pleaded Nyoda. "We're only wasting our +strength without getting anywhere." + +"Maybe we had better," answered Hinpoha in a discouraged tone. +Just then the path turned sharply, and as they rounded the corner +they came upon a figure sitting in the long grass. "Migwan!" +cried Nyoda, and stood as if petrified. Hinpoha pointed her +finger and tried to sing "O'ertaken," but burst into tears +instead and fell on Migwan's neck. Explanations were soon made +and Migwan was carried to the wagon to be petted and fussed over +as if she had been lost for a year. + +So, wearied but triumphant, the hunting party returned to camp +with the trophy of the chase. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +IN WHICH A FILM TELLS A TALE. + +It was the end of the swimming period and Nyoda was thoroughly +exhausted. She had been giving Gladys her first swimming lesson. +It had taken a week to coax the girl into the water at all and +nearly another one to get her in over her knees. She showed a +perfectly unreasoning terror of the water. In vain did Sahwah +dive off the tower and come up safe and sound; in vain did +Hinpoha demonstrate how impossible it was to sink if you relaxed. +Gladys doubled up in a tense knot and grew sick with fear, +regardless of Nyoda's supporting hand. Finally Nyoda took her +farther up the beach, away from the other girls. "Now, Gladys," +she said reassuringly, "do you believe, down deep in your heart, +that I would let go of you and let you drown?" + +"No," said Gladys. + +"Then," said Nyoda, "you come along and let me hold you up while +you float." Gladys swallowed hard and stiffened out like a +crowbar; then as a wavelet washed over her face she clutched +wildly at Nyoda and put her feet on solid bottom. And so she +went on. With inexhaustible patience Nyoda tried again and again +to get her to lie out flat on the water, but was compelled to +admit at the end of the hour that she had made no progress +whatever, for Gladys had not made the slightest effort to control +either her muscles or her fears. Nyoda sympathized with her +great fear of the water, for she realized that it was a very real +thing; but she was disappointed that she had not tried to conquer +it. + +Her first impression of Gladys bad been borne out by later +events. She was vain and silly and shallow; she lacked the good +sportsmanship which made the rest of the Winnebagos such +successful campers. Of team work she had no idea at all. She +wanted to order her day to suit herself, and put on an injured +air if one of the girls declined to help her make a stencil when +it was time to clean up the tent for inspection. Her corner of +the tent was never in order, and as a result the Omegas were +getting low marks in inspection, much to their disgust, for the +rivalry between the two tents was very keen. Gladys had +officially joined the Winnebagos, having come into the group at +the last Council Fire as Kamama the Butterfly. The very name she +chose was an illustration of her character. She had no higher +ambition than to be a society butterfly. Nyoda sighed, but she +knew Gladys was not to blame, for she had been brought up in an +artificial atmosphere of fashion and snobbery. + +Nyoda saw at once that in order to get the most good out of camp +Gladys must be on the same basis as the other girls, so she +defined their relative positions clearly at the beginning. +Gladys's father owned the camp, so they were in a measure her +guests; therefore, Nyoda would not let her pay a share of the +provisions, thus evening things up. Gladys had now been in camp +nearly two weeks, but she had not entered heart and soul into the +life as the others had. And it was not because they had left her +out of things--every girl had gone out of her way to make her +feel at home. The fault was clearly Gladys's own. + +Nyoda was thinking about all these things when her reverie was +interrupted by the sound of an automobile horn, and in a few +moments a man came down the path from the road. He approached +her and introduced himself as Mr. Bailey. He was a private +detective, he said, and was trying to locate a child that had +strayed or been kidnapped from a family on the other end of the +lake. He was visiting all the camps to see if any one had seen +the child. Nyoda shook her head. "We haven't seen any child +around here," she said. "Was it a girl or a boy?" + +"A boy," answered Mr. Bailey, "three years old; at the time of +his disappearance he wore a white sailor suit and hat." + +"When did he disappear?" asked Nyoda. + +"Last Thursday night." + +"We were just coming home from a hiking trip then and had lost +one of our own girls and weren't paying much attention to +anything else," said Nyoda, "but I'll ask the girls who were in +camp while we were looking for Migwan." She blew the bugle and +called the girls together and when they had come she introduced +Mr. Bailey and asked if they had seen anything of the little boy. + +At the mention of a boy in a white sailor suit Migwan pricked up +her ears. "Why, I saw him when I was lying in the woods waiting +for the girls to come for me. There were two men with him, one +carrying him. I spoke to them and asked them to send somebody +after me. They said they were hurrying to catch the boat." + +"What boat?" asked the detective. + +"It must have been the _Bluebird_,--the Loon Lake boat--for they +were going in the direction of Loon Lake." + +"Can you describe the men?" asked Mr. Bailey. Migwan tilted back +her head and squinted her eyes in an effort to bring back the +picture. "One was tall and had a black mustache. He was the one +who carried the boy. The other was shorter and smooth-faced," +she said. + +"Could you swear to that description?" asked the detective. + +Migwan suddenly clapped her hands. "I can do better than that," +she said. "I can show a picture of them. The little boy looked +so cute I snapped them." + +"You have this picture?" said the detective eagerly. + +"The film isn't developed yet," answered Migwan. + +"How soon can you have it developed?" asked Mr. Bailey. + +"We'll do it right away," said Nyoda. "We have a dark room +rigged up." Nyoda took every precaution to guard against spoiling +the film, and Hinpoha, who was in the dark room with her, hardly +dared breathe for fear of working some harm. What an exciting +moment it was when the figures finally stood out plainly on the +film! The girls crowded around the detective as he held the +picture to the light. There were the two men and the little boy +just as Migwan had described them. + +"What will you take for this film?" asked the detective. + +"Take for it!" said Migwan. "You're perfectly welcome to it. +I'm only too glad to help if the picture will be of any benefit." + +"Migwan's a heroine!" sighed Sahwah after the detective had +departed. "I wish I had a chance to do something big and noble! +The only time I can be heroic is in my sleep, and then I make +myself ridiculous." + +"Cheer up, Sahwah," said Hinpoha, "I can't even be heroic in my +sleep. Come on, I'll beat you a game of tennis." And off went +the two cronies, arm in arm. + +Gladys came and sat beside Migwan, who was spending her +convalescent days in a steamer chair on the porch of the shack, +where she could watch the girls in the lake and be with them +during Craft hour. Nyoda had summoned a doctor from the village +who proclaimed Migwan's dislocation a slight one and her prompt +setting of it a good thing, and promised that in a few weeks it +would be as good as ever. Meanwhile, however, she had to keep +off her feet, and the enforced rest bothered her more than the +pain did at first. She read a good deal, however, and did much +Craft work, and the days went by somehow. + +"What are you doing?" asked Gladys. + +"Making a woodblock," said Migwan. + +"What's it for?" + +"Why, you cut a design in the wood," explained Migwan, "and then +use it to stamp things with, either scarfs or table covers or +book-plates. This is for a book-plate." + +"What's a book-plate?" asked Gladys. + +"It's a thin sheet of paper stamped with a design bearing your +name. You paste it in the front of your books. See my design? +The tall pine trees on either side mean friendship; the rocks +underneath signify that my friendships have a firm foundation. +The letters underneath read, 'Migwan, Her Book.' You have to +carve the letters backward so they will print forward. The +feather design around the letters is made from my symbol, which +is the Quill Pen." + +Gladys sat watching Migwan's busy knife cutting out the design. +"Why don't you bring your Craft work and keep me company?" asked +Migwan presently. "I hate Craft work," said Gladys fretfully, +"but I suppose I might as well work on my ceremonial gown." She +brought the gown and sat down beside Migwan. "Do you think these +beads would be pretty hanging down this way?" she asked, pinning +several strings of gay-colored beads to the leather collar. + +"You aren't going to put those beads on your dress, are you?" +asked Migwan in surprise. + +"Why not?" said Gladys, "you've got beads hanging all over +yours." + +"But they're all honor beads," explained Migwan, "and stand for +something." + +"But I have no honor beads," said Gladys. + +"Then you must win some. We all went with our dresses undecorated +until we had won honors." + +"I don't care," said Gladys, "I'm going to decorate mine. I +won't be the only plain one. Miss Kent," she called, as their +guardian passed by with an armful of firewood, "I may put these +beads on my ceremonial costume, mayn't I?" + +Nyoda dumped her burden on the ground and came over to the girls. +"Of course you may if you want to," she said genially. "It's your +dress. But do you want to? What does the ceremonial dress mean +to you? Is it only a sort of masquerade costume to be decorated +up just anyhow to make it look fantastic, or is it a record of +achievements, written in a language that only Camp Fire Girls +understand? Just think what it means to sit in a circle of girls +and be able to tell by their costumes what kind of things they +have done! We'll pretend that a Guardian from another group has +come to look on at our ceremonial. The first one she happens to +see is myself. She looks at my costume, sees the Guardian's +symbol on the back and the border of small symbols around the +bottom. She counts them; there are seven. She says to herself, +'She is the Guardian and there are seven girls in her group.' +She then sees Migwan's costume with the four Wakan honors for +Written Thought. She knows that Migwan has literary ability and +that her symbol is the Quill Pen, because there is a quill sewn +to the front of her dress and feathers are never used for +decoration except in case of a personal symbol. She knows that +Migwan had to work hard for her Wakan honors because above the +first one there are two Shuta buttons and a Keda, showing that +her first efforts won only third and second class honors, but she +persevered until she reached the first class. She knows Sahwah +can swim well because she has a fish on the side seam of her +gown, which is the place for local or national honors. She knows +Chapa must be very dexterous in Handcraft, for she has a great +many green beads on her thong. And then she sees you--with a +number of gaudy and meaningless beads sewn around your collar! +Just what would be her estimate of you? Whereas, if you had no +decoration whatever on your gown she would know at once that you +had lately joined the group and had not yet won honors." + +The beads gradually slipped from Gladys's hands. "I guess I +won't put them on, anyhow," she said, not without some regret. + +"However," said Nyoda, "there is no need of your costume being +utterly bare of ornamentation. I can suggest several things +which you have a perfect right to wear on your dress." + +"What are they?" asked Gladys, looking interested. + +"The first thing to do," said Nyoda, "is to get your symbol put +in a conspicuous place. You have designed your collar with the +long bands dropping from the shoulders. Now, I would apply your +butterfly symbol to each band about six inches from the bottom, +and then cut the leather below the symbol into fringe. I would +paint the butterflies red, yellow and blue, which are the colors +that represent Work, Health and Love. You could also produce the +colors by sewing beads over the design. So much for your symbol. +Now in the middle of the hem in the front of your dress you may +put the Winnebago symbol--the sign of your tribe. You will find +it on the banner before the tents and over the fireplace in the +shack, as well as on all the girls' costumes. It is the Indian +sign Aki-yu-hapi and means 'Carrying Together.' It is the secret +of the wonderful team work of the Winnebagos. Develop this in +wood brown and green. When you put the fringe on the bottom, +instead of using a straight piece, leave the top edge in uneven +peaks to represent mountains and outline them with blue beads for +the sky above them. This will indicate that you love nature. +There you have the costume with the thongs and fringes all ready +to receive the honor beads, and there are some honors you should +be able to win very soon. You will receive a Handcraft honor for +making the costume, and a Campcraft bead for making the headband. +You have walked forty miles in ten days--twenty-seven on the hike +and the rest going to and from the village. You have done enough +camp cooking to win a bead. You will receive these beads next +Monday night. If you are sharp you can have enough to get your +Woodgatherer's ring. Ask Nakwisi to tell you star lore; also get +her to take you into the woods and help you identify trees. You +can get enough beads very soon to take away your reproach of +being undecorated." + +While Nyoda was instructing Gladys in the mysteries of symbolic +decoration, Sahwah and Hinpoha, finishing their tennis game, +strolled into the woods beyond the court, looking for berries. +"Let's make a leaf cup and fill it for Migwan," said thoughtful +Hinpoha. + +"Poor Migwan," said Sahwah, "she certainly is having a time with +that knee. I don't see how she can be so patient. I'd die if I +had to sit in one place all day. She's a dead game sport, +though, and never complains. She does bushels of Craft work, and +studies. I'm proud to be in the same group with her." + +"All our girls are good sports," said Hinpoha. + +"All but one." + +"Which one?" + +"You know." + +"You mean Gladys?" + +"Yes." + +"She isn't a good sport, now," said Hinpoha, "but she may develop +into one before the summer is over. Let's hope so." Then she +added, "She surely has it in for you for some reason." + +"I know it," said Sahwah, "and that's what gives me a pain. I +never touched her bed the night it fell down, but I might as well +have." + +"But you did paint her face that night at Balsam Lake," said +Hinpoha, with a giggle at the remembrance. + +"Yes, but I thought it was Migwan, and anyhow I apologized." + +"Well," said Hinpoha with a burst of altruism, "it's this way. +Gladys is as shallow as a pie-tin and a big cry baby and all +that, but if she hadn't been like that her father wouldn't have +wanted her to be a Camp Fire Girl and we never would have come to +this camp. It's an ill wind, you know. Anyway, she's a +Winnebago now, and we have to make something out of her." + +"You're so good-natured, 'Poha," said Sahwah. "I wish I could +like everybody the way you do." + +Hinpoha opened her mouth to reply, but instead uttered a +prolonged "Ow-oo-oo-oo!" They were sitting on a log when the +above conversation took place, and Hinpoha had poked her hand +into the hollow end. Now she drew it out hastily and began to +dance around, shaking her hand violently. + +"Oh, what is it?" cried Sahwah. + +"Bees!" shrieked Hinpoha. "Run for your life!" + +An angry buzz sounded from the log and the bees began crawling +out at the end. Hinpoha fled through the woods with Sahwah close +at her heels. By the time they reached camp Hinpoha's hand was +swelled all out of shape. It was all she could do to repress a +cry of pain. Nyoda rose quickly when she took in the situation. + +"Get some moist clay at once," she commanded. "There is some in +the woods behind the shack." + +Sahwah sped after the clay and returned with a large lump. "Now +you make mud pies until the inflammation is drawn out of your +hand," said Nyoda. + +Hinpoha dutifully sat down beside Migwan and played in the clay. +After she had rolled it around in her hand awhile it became a +beautiful consistency for modeling, so she began making +statuettes of the different girls. She had a great deal of +aptness in modeling and managed to make her figures resemble +somewhat the girls they were supposed to represent. She became +so absorbed in her new occupation that she forgot the burning +pain in her hand, and gradually the swelling went down. + +Sahwah came along to see how she was feeling and exclaimed in +delight at the statuettes. Hinpoha held up her hand warningly, +for Migwan was asleep. Sahwah promptly fell to making hand signs +of admiration. Hinpoha laughed at her antics, and falling into +her mood, arrayed her figures in a semicircle on the ground, and +sitting cross-legged behind them, made a gesture to intimate that +they were for sale. Sahwah sat down and signalled that she had +come to buy. She indicated several that she would like to have +and Hinpoha held up fingers for the price. Nyoda came along and +watched them with keen amusement; Gladys looked on uncomprehendingly. +Sahwah purchased the Winnebagos in effigy, paying for them with +pebbles, and making hand signs to the effect that she considered +them a bargain at the price. Finally there was only one left. +This was Gladys. Sahwah refused to purchase. Hinpoha lowered her +price step by step, but Sahwah waved her away. The other girls, +crowding around to see the fun, caught on and giggled. + +"What's the joke?" asked Gladys. Nobody answered. Finding the +eyes of several girls fixed on her, Gladys flushed. "It's +something about me," she cried passionately. "I know it's +something about me. You know I can't understand your old signs +and motions and you can talk about me all you want. I hate you!" +she cried, bursting into tears. "I'm going home to-morrow!" + +Sahwah sprang to her feet, the realization of what she had done +knocking her speechless. One look at Nyoda's pained and +surprised face upset her completely and she rushed off to the +woods by herself. With rare tact Nyoda smoothed over the +difficult situation confronting her. It was no use to pass the +thing over as a misunderstanding on Gladys's part, for Sahwah's +flight condemned her. Putting her arm around Gladys, she led her +down to the dock and into the launch. She set the engine going +at full speed, sending the small craft through the water like a +torpedo, the spray dashing over the bow and drenching them both. +The excitement of this mad flight through the water made Gladys +forget her hurt feelings. She watched Nyoda, fascinated. Nyoda +was of a decided athletic build, tall and broad-shouldered, with +black hair and dark eyes, and high color. She was the picture of +health and joyousness as she stood at the wheel of the launch, +her hair streaming out in the wind, her eyes sparkling with +excitement. Gladys had a real admiration for Nyoda, which was +developing into a "crush," and liked to be alone with her. Nyoda +could not help seeing this, and with her deep insight into girl +nature knew that the solution of the problem which had worried +her so at first was in her hands. + +By and by she slackened the speed of the boat, and calling Gladys +up into the bow with her, she showed her how to steer, and gave +the wheel into her hands. She made no mention of the occurrence +of the afternoon, not being clear in her mind just how to begin. +Gladys finally relieved her of the task by asking: "What was it +Sahwah was saying about me this afternoon when she was talking +with her hands?" + +Nyoda eyed her calmly. "She wasn't saying anything about you at +all. She and Hinpoha were playing a game, a very clever and +original game, by the way, having an auction sale in sign +language. Sahwah bought all the figures but one, and then, +wishing a diversion, refused the last one. It just happened to +be the one representing you." + +"I see," cried Gladys, breaking into Nyoda's explanation, "she +wouldn't buy me." + +Nyoda felt weak inside and tingled with a desire to shake Sahwah, +but she never changed countenance. "I don't believe that ever +occurred to her," she said loyally. "You are so quick to jump at +conclusions, Gladys. Just because you couldn't understand what +they were doing you thought it must be something unpleasant about +you. Your outburst at that time frightened Sahwah so she +probably thought she had done something dreadful. Now Sahwah +feels badly and so do all the girls. You don't want her to go on +feeling that way, do you?" + +Gladys said nothing. Nyoda slipped her arm around her and smiled +down at her. "You know that the girls are not trying to make it +unpleasant for you, don't you, now?" + +Gladys smiled faintly. It was impossible to withstand Nyoda's +pretty pleading. Nyoda, watching her face, saw that she had +gained her point. "And you'll like Sahwah and let her like you, +won't you?" she said, hugging Gladys to her. + +Sahwah was nowhere to be found when Nyoda returned to camp. +Neither did she appear when the supper bugle blew. Hinpoha +drooped visibly without her side partner, but Nyoda refused her +permission to go out and look for Sahwah. When it began to grow +dark Nyoda took her lantern and went into the woods by herself. +She soon found Sahwah crouching on the ground at the foot of a +tree, her face buried in her hands. "Sahwah, dear, look up," +said Nyoda gently, setting her lantern on the ground and seating +herself beside Sahwah. Sahwah uncovered one eye. "Oh, Nyoda," +she exclaimed tragically, "what will I do? I never dare show my +face in camp again. What ever possessed me this afternoon, and +what must you think of me?" + +Nyoda could not help smiling at the depth of Sahwah's +self-abasement. "Cheer up, sister," she said kindly, "it's not +as bad as all that. You were thoughtless, that was all, for I +will not believe that you were slighting Gladys intentionally." + +"That's it," cried Sahwah eagerly. "I never stopped to think +what I was doing, and I never dreamed that she would catch on." + +Nyoda nodded sympathetically. "I know just how it is," she said. +"We never mean to do unkind things, and yet we do them right +along, without thinking. The only remedy is to get a habit of +thinking before we do anything." + +"Not thinking is my besetting sin," said Sahwah, dolefully. + +"Yes," said Nyoda frankly, "I believe it is. You do so many +things impulsively that you never would have done on second +thought. Take the time, for instance, that you jumped off the +tower into the canoe and upset it. That was a very dangerous +thing to do. You might have landed on top of one of those girls +and hurt her badly, or been hurt yourself. Even granting that +you were so sure of yourself that you could do it successfully, +you set a bad example. Some of the other girls might be tempted +to try it sometime with disastrous results." + +"I never thought of it in that way," said Sahwah seriously. "I'm +awfully sorry I hurt Gladys's feelings, and I'll apologize to her +this very night." + +"I don't believe an apology would help matters any," said Nyoda +slowly. "There are some things you can't make right with an +apology any more than you could mend Migwan's dislocated knee by +saying you were sorry it got fallen on. It takes special +treatment." + +"What shall I do then?" asked Sahwah. + +"Be especially nice to Gladys from now on. Offer to help her +learn to swim, and go out with her in the sponson until she may +go out in a canoe. Let her see by your actions that you want to +be her friend, and then she won't suspect you of saying unkind +things about her. Put yourself in her place. She feels just as +strange among you strong, self-reliant, outdoor-loving girls as +you would among her friends. You know a great deal that she does +not, and she undoubtedly knows a great deal that you do not. She +has been abroad several times, and spent a whole year in school +in France, while her father was there on business. She paints +china beautifully, sings well and does fancy dancing. In fact, +she dances so well that various people have tried to persuade her +father to allow her to take it up as a profession." + +This last statement did not make such an impression on Sahwah as +Nyoda expected it would, for Gladys had boasted of her dancing to +the girls ever since she had come to camp, and had made fun of +the simple folk dances the girls did among themselves. Sahwah, +however, was still deeply ashamed of her performance of the +afternoon and eager to atone for it and regain her standing in +Nyoda's eyes, so she made up her mind that Gladys was a superior +being whose superiority would be unveiled by constant effort on +her part, and promised to devote her entire time to teaching her +the delights of camping. + +Then hand in hand she and Nyoda returned to the tents. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RAIN BIRD SHAKES HIS WINGS. + +True to her promise, Sahwah began the very next morning +"cultivating" Gladys. "Have you any middies you want washed?" she +asked, as she dumped her own into the kettle over the fire. + +"Every one I own is soiled," replied Gladys. + +"Bring them along, then," said Sahwah, "and we'll do them +together." Gladys brought her middies and Sahwah popped them +into the boiling soapsuds, stirring them around with a stick. +When they had boiled a few minutes she fished them out into a +pail and carried them down to the lake for rinsing, Gladys walked +along, but she did not offer to help carry the pail. Sahwah +rinsed the soapy pieces in the clear water and was spreading them +out on the rocks in the sun when she noticed that the _Bluebird_, +which had been making its morning stop at Wharton's Landing, was +headed their way instead of passing out through the gap. "Who +can be coming to see us?" she said to Gladys. "The boat wouldn't +stop unless it had a passenger, for our supplies came yesterday." + +It was not a passenger, however, that was left on the Winnebago +dock, but a wooden box from the express company. The girls +crowded around to get a look at it. It was addressed to the +"Winnebago Camp Fire Girls, Camp Winnebago, Loon Lake, Maine." +Sahwah ran and got a hammer and soon had the box open. + +"What is it?" cried the girls. + +"It's a sail!" exclaimed Sahwah, looking at it closely, "the kind +you put on canoes." + +Attached to the lid of the box was a card which read: + +"To the Winnebagos, to save them the trouble of harnessing +themselves to their canoe to make it go. In remembrance of a +delightful day spent in their camp. + + "EMERSON BENTLEY, + FRANK D. WHEELER." + +"O joy!" exclaimed Sahwah, clapping her hands. "Maybe we won't +have some fun now! Just wait until I get it adjusted." She +spent most of the day hoisting that sail on one of the canoes, +but finally had it finished, and went darting around on the lake +like a white-winged bird, taking the other girls out with her in +turn. "It's too bad you can't go out in a canoe," she said to +Gladys with real regret, "I should love to have you go sailing +with me." There was no help for it, however, and Gladys had to +stay on shore. + +"Won't you let me help you?" she asked Gladys at the next +swimming period. "I'll hold you up if you'll try to float." But +Gladys would not let any one touch her in the water except Nyoda. +When Nyoda was directing the other girls Gladys stood out on the +beach. "How am I going to help Gladys learn to swim if she won't +let me?" thought Sahwah in despair. + +"Don't go too far out on the lake," Nyoda warned Sahwah that +afternoon, her eye on a bank of clouds that was rolling up in +the west. + +"I know there's a storm coming, and I'll be careful," promised +Sahwah, mindful of her new resolution to think before she acted, +"but the wind is so strong now it's great fun to be out sailing. +I'll stay near shore." + +The storm that had been threatening broke loose about supper +time, and the girls ran to fasten down their tents. "Whew!" said +Sahwah, struggling with a tent flap, "listen to the wind." The +great pines were roaring deafeningly, and the lake, lashed into +fury, was dashing high against the cliff. "Where are you going?" +said Nyoda imperatively, as Hinpoha started down the path to the +lake in her bathing suit. "To bring in the flag," answered +Hinpoha. "It'll be torn to pieces in that gale." It was all she +could do to stand upright on the dock. The rain was coming down +in slanting sheets that closed round her like a fog. She untied +the ropes that held the flag and tried to lower it. But it would +not come. Something was wrong with the pulley. The flag was +flapping in the wind and straining at the ropes like a spirited +horse. + +"No help for it," said Hinpoha to herself, "I'll have to go up on +top." The tower swayed in the wind as she mounted the ladder, +and the rain dashed in her face, blinding her. Great crashes of +thunder sounded in her ears, and the lightning flashed all around +her. Up on top it was worse yet. The wind whipped her long hair +out and threatened to hurl her from the little platform, so she +did not dare let go of the railing with one hand while she +released the pulley with the other. "Glory," she whispered as she +cautiously descended the ladder, "but the Thunder Bird has it in +for us!" + +She sped up the path with the precious flag held against her +bosom, and found the girls gathered in the shack. Nyoda was +kindling a fire in the big open fireplace, and the girls were +seated in a circle before it. Then Nyoda, raising her voice +above the patter of the raindrops on the roof, read aloud while +the girls did Craft work by the light of lanterns. The evening +wore away pleasantly, but the rain continued. At bed time they +wrapped their ponchos around them and ran for the tents. The +hollows between the rocks were veritable rivers, and in the inky +darkness more than one girl stepped squarely into the flood. + +"I'm soaked to the skin," panted Sahwah, running into the tent +and quickly closing the flap behind her, "and I stepped into a +puddle up to my knees." + +"So am I," said Hinpoha, who was divesting herself of her clothes +in the middle of the tent. "Did you ever see such a downpour?" + +"Cheer up," said Migwan, who had gone to bed early in the evening +with a headache and stayed in during the storm, "the tent doesn't +leak, anyway. We'll be perfectly dry in here." + +"It'll be all right if the tent doesn't blow over," said Sahwah. +"Whew! Listen to that!" The girls held their breath as a +particularly fierce blast hurled itself against the canvas sides +of their shelter. Gladys, terror-stricken, sat on the bed and +trembled. Sahwah hastened to reassure her. "It probably won't +blow down," she said cheerfully; "these tents are made pretty +strong, and the ropes on this one are all new, but there is +always the possibility. Do you mind if I take your laundry bag +down? It is pinned to the side of the tent and will lead the +water through." + +The girls slept very little that night, although the tent +withstood the storm and remained standing. The rain still fell +with unabated vigor at dawn. At about six o'clock Nyoda put her +head into the tent and called Sahwah. Sahwah was alert instantly. +Nyoda had on her bathing suit and cap. "What is it?" asked +Sahwah. + +"One of the canoes has broken away, and is floating off," Nyoda +said in a low tone, so as not to disturb Gladys and Migwan, who +were still sleeping. Hinpoha sat up and listened. "I am going +after it in the launch," continued Nyoda, "and will need help. +Put on your bathing suit and come." + +"Let me come, too," begged Hinpoha. + +"All right," said Nyoda, and the three crept out of the tent and +down the path to the lake. The water had risen at least a foot, +and the floor of the dock was flooded. About half a mile out in +the lake they saw the runaway canoe, now standing on end, now +floating bottom up. + +"Wouldn't it float in by itself?" asked Sahwah. + +Nyoda shook her head. + +"It might float in all right," she said, "but it would be dashed +to pieces on the rocks on the other side. You notice it is being +carried farther away from us all the time. If we want that canoe +for the rest of the summer we'll have to go after it." + +That was the most exciting launch ride the two girls had ever +taken. The little boat rode up and down on the waves like an egg +shell, the water going over her constantly, drenching the girls +and threatening to swamp the engine. The wind whirled the rain +against their faces. Nyoda stood up in the bow handling the +wheel as calmly as if she were pouring tea at a reception. +Nyoda's strong point was her composure; it was next thing to +impossible to get her excited. They caught up with the canoe and +Sahwah and Hinpoha managed to right it and fasten it to the +launch with a rope. They got back to the dock without mishap and +pulled the canoe high up where it could not be washed away a +second time. Sahwah and Hinpoha returned to the tent red as +roses from their exposure to the wind and rain and recounted +their early morning adventure to Migwan and Gladys. + +At breakfast time they had to put on their ponchos again and pick +their way through the puddles to the shack, where they ate their +breakfast. The "Mess Tent" was leaking merrily in a dozen +places. By noon there was still no let up in the downpour. Rest +hour was spent on the floor in the shack. When Nyoda came in in +the middle of the afternoon from a tour of inspection she +announced that both the Alpha and Omega tents were leaking badly +and the bedding was getting wet. She made the girls bring their +blankets, rolled up in their ponchos, into the shack and spread +them out before the fire. + +The shack was pretty well crowded before the afternoon was over. +Besides all the girls and the bedding and the partially painted +paddles that stood around everywhere, Nyoda brought in a large +supply of fire wood. It was all damp and had to be dried out +before it would burn. The rain whirled against the windows, as +if seeking entrance by force, but the girls inside, safe and dry, +made merry before the fire. Nyoda taught them a new game, called +"Johnny, Where Are You?" She blindfolded Hinpoha and Sahwah and +set them on the floor. Then each one in turn had to call, +"Johnny, where are you?" and upon the other one's answering, +"Here!" whacked in the direction of the voice with a rolled-up +newspaper. Both had to keep one hand on a pie-tin on the floor +between them. Sahwah and Hinpoha both gave and received some +sounding whacks, and kept the watchers in a roar of laughter with +their efforts to dodge each other. Towards the end Nyoda slipped +up and removed the bandage from Hinpoha's eyes and let her whack +Sahwah with her eyes open, and poor Sahwah wondered why she could +not dodge the attacks any better. + +After supper Nyoda proposed playing "Aeroplane." She shooed all +the girls but Hinpoha out into the kitchen. One by one they were +blindfolded and led in. Sahwah was the first. She was led into +the center of the room and there brought to a halt. "Step up," +commanded some one. Sahwah did as she was told and her feet were +planted on something that felt like a platform. "Now hang on!" +they ordered. She hung. It seemed to be hair she was hanging on +to. "Up with her!" Sahwah felt herself rising, up, up. The +hair sank out of her grasp. The board wobbled under her feet. +Straight up toward the ceiling she went, past the rafters and on +up, until her head struck the roof. The board wobbled much +worse. "Jump!" they shouted. Sahwah gathered her forces for a +mighty leap, determining to strike the floor with knees bent so +as to break the shock. She struck solid ground before she had +fairly started. The bandage was taken from her eyes. She was +standing on the floor in front of the fireplace. Beside her was +the "Aeroplane." It was a plain wooden board. When she had +stood on it they had lifted it up, and Hinpoha, whose head she +had seized upon to support herself, had gradually stooped down, +to enhance Sahwah's sensation of going up. To complete illusion +they hit her on the head with a book to make her think she had +struck the ceiling. She had risen about six inches from the +floor in all, although she was sure she had gone up six feet at +least. Her mighty leap caused the "conductors" much merriment. +Gladys did still better. She fell off without jumping. + +When bedtime came there was no thinking of going to the tents, so +the beds were made up on the floor in a circle about the +fireplace. "Does this count toward our honor for sleeping five +nights on the ground?" asked Sahwah. "It ought to," said +Hinpoha, "it's harder than the ground." + +Morning found the rain still unabated. "This is getting +monotonous," said Migwan, looking out at the grey skies and the +lake shrouded in mist. + +"Can't we take our dip even if it is raining?" asked Sahwah +anxiously. + +"I don't see why not," said Nyoda. But when they were in their +bathing suits and ready to start they found they could not open +the porch door of the shack. "What's the matter?" said Nyoda, +lowering one of the windows and looking out. "Oh, look at the +porch floor!" she cried. The flooring had warped up into a great +hump before the door, preventing its being opened. + +"It looks like a roller coaster," said Migwan. The girls were +obliged to make their exit and re-entrance through the window. + +"Hurray! No tent inspection to-day!" cried Hinpoha, picking up +her blankets from the floor to make room for Craft work. + +"It'll take more than inspection to fix your tent up again," said +Nyoda, looking out of the side window of the shack. + +"Why?" said Hinpoha. + +"Come here and look," said Nyoda. + +"Why, it's fallen down!" cried Hinpoha, looking over Nyoda's +shoulder. The girls pressed to the window to see the heap of +canvas that had been the Omega tent. + +"Is Alpha still standing?" asked the inhabitants of that tent, +craning their necks. + +"Yes," answered Nyoda, "which proves its superiority once for +all." The Alphas swelled out their chests and made triumphant +grimaces at the Omegas. + +"I don't care," declared Sahwah, "I'd rather be an Omega any day +than an Alpha. We have a better view of the lake." + +"But we keep our tent neater," said Chapa, "and so it looks +better." + +"Like fun you keep yours neater," returned Sahwah. + +"We get higher marks than you right along," said Chapa, "and that +goes to show." + +"Well," flashed Sahwah, "we'd get higher marks if it wasn't +for--." Just in time she remembered her promise and broke off +abruptly. + +"If it wasn't for what?" asked Chapa. + +"For the wind blowing our things around so," she finished lamely, +and fell to carving her wood block furiously. + +"Let's sing something," said Nyoda hastily. + +"Migwan and Hinpoha, sing 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat,'" cried the +girls in chorus. Thus urged, the two mounted the piano bench and +acted out the romantic tale as they sang the words. + +"Now let's all sing something," said Nyoda, when the amorous owl +and the impassioned pussy had danced themselves off the bench. +"What were some of those songs we sang on the hike?" + +"Let's sing Migwan's latest song, 'O We Are Winnebagos,'" said +Hinpoha. + +"That has a good swing to it," said Nyoda when they had sung it +several times. "Sahwah, dear, follow the tune more closely with +your tenor, you put us out." + +"Well, I'm _willing_ to sing, anyhow," said Sahwah, "even if I +can't and that's more than some people do." This last was a +direct reference to Gladys. Although she was supposed to have a +very good and well-trained voice and had done much solo singing +in her time, Gladys steadfastly refused to sing along with the +other girls in chorus. Once or twice, after much coaxing on +Nyoda's part, she had consented to sing a "solo" on Sunday +morning or on "stunt night," but sing mornings in the shack with +the others she would not. They laid it to the fact that she +considered herself better than themselves and did not want to mix +in their doings, and it put a damper on their own, singing +because they thought she was criticising them. This was not +exactly the case. Once an enthusiastic teacher of hers had +pronounced her voice "different" from others and told her that +chorus singing would spoil it, so from then on she refused to +blend her voice with others. She knew well enough that this was +ridiculous, but it pleased her vanity and she kept it up. She +would not come right out and tell why, however, but simply said +she "didn't feel like singing." Naturally the girls thought her +reason a personal one and it made bad feeling all around. Her +refusal to sing puzzled and grieved Nyoda more than anything else +she did. The Winnebagos were known as a "singing group," and the +addition of a trained voice was very welcome. Nyoda thought of +course that Gladys would lead the singing in great shape and her +disappointment at her attitude was very keen. + +"Yes, Sahwah," said Nyoda warmly, "your willingness to use the +talents you have is one of the reasons why we love you so." + +"I think that any one who can sing and won't isn't--isn't a +sport," said Hinpoha emphatically. + +"Maybe I have a reason for not singing," said Gladys in a lofty +manner. + +"Well, what is it?" said Sahwah, exasperated into sharp speech. +Gladys pursed up her lips but did not reply. + +Nyoda saw that a storm was brewing. It was the inevitable result +of the girls having been pent up so close together for over two +days. She pulled out her watch. "It's time for folk dancing," +she announced briskly. The girls looked out of the window. The +rain was still teeming down. "Who's game to put on her bathing +suit and dance in the rain?" asked Nyoda. + +"I, I," cried all the girls. They followed her to the tennis +court, where they did such dances as they could without music and +ended up with a lively game of "Three Deep," the water running +down over their faces. "Let's play 'Stump the Leader,"' said +Nyoda, when they had grown tired of "Three Deep."; "Follow me." +She led them a wild chase all over the camp, over rocks and +stumps, around trees and through puddles, then down on the dock. +She dove into the lake, swam around the dock, climbed out on the +rocks, out on the dock again and climbed the tower, from which +she jumped, the girls keeping close behind her, all except +Gladys. By the time swimming hour was over the girls had let off +enough steam to dwell together again in peace and amity. + +Late that afternoon the rain ceased and the sun peeped out, pale +and wan from his long imprisonment. At the first beam that shone +through the girls were out of the shack with a whoop and began +putting up the Omega tent. "Let Hinpoha and me do it alone!" +shrieked Sahwah, pushing the others away, "if only two do it we +get an honor, if more help we don't!" + +"Right-O," said Nyoda, stepping back, "do your worst, you two." + +The tent was re-erected, and the girls scrambled around looking +for their scattered possessions. + +"And the looking glass didn't even break!" said Migwan, picking +it up from one of the beds where it had landed when the tent went +down. + +The next morning the sun shone in splendor and the sky was deep +blue and cloudless, while a high wind did its best to dry up the +ground. "Isn't it fine to be dry again?" said Migwan, looking +approvingly at her canvas shoes. "For the last three days I've +felt like a water-soaked sponge." + +"Goodness, but the lake is rough," said Nyoda, watching Sahwah +out in a canoe, which was nearly standing on end. Her hair stood +out straight behind her in the wind and she reminded Nyoda of the +picture of the girl going over the falls in the "Legend of +Niagara." "There! I knew she would tip! For goodness sake, what +is she doing now?" For Sahwah had climbed on top of the +overturned canoe and was trying to paddle it in wrong side up. + +She kept her eyes on Sahwah, watching her rather slow progress +through the waves, and did not see a party of people who were +coming up the path from the road until they were right beside +her. Her attention was attracted by a cry from Migwan. She +turned and saw a man and woman with a little boy about three +years old. + +"Why, that's _my_ little boy!" said Migwan. "The one I saw in +the woods that morning." + +"Then you are the young lady we are looking for," said the man, +coming forward. "We have you to thank that we have our boy with +us to-day. It was you who put us on the track of the men who had +kidnapped him." + +"He _was_ kidnapped, then," said Migwan. + +"Yes," answered the boy's father, "he was taken from our camp by +those two men whom you saw. Thanks to your picture of them we +put the police on their trail and caught them in Portland. We +are just coming home with him now and wanted to see you. This is +Mrs. Bartlett, my wife, and our son Raymond, whom you have +already seen." + +"Come right up and sit down," said Nyoda cordially, "and tell us +all about it. We have been curious to know whether the little +boy was ever found or not." + +They told how the little boy was missed from their camp that +Thursday night, and of their frantic search along the shore, +thinking he had fallen into the lake. Then some one found a toy +sailboat of his in the woods and they came to the conclusion that +he had either wandered off or been carried away. No trace of any +abductor could be found, however, and it would have been hard +work running the men down if it had not been for Migwan's picture +of them with the boy and her report that they were headed for the +Loon Lake boat. When found, little Raymond was dressed in girl's +clothes and effectually disguised. Then Migwan told the story of +her fall down the cliff and her night in the woods and her seeing +the three on the path in the morning. It was just like a fairy +tale. + +"By the way," said Mr. Bartlett when she had finished, "did you +know that I had offered a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars +to any one giving information which would lead to Raymond's +recovery?" + +"No," said Migwan, "I didn't." + +"Well," said Mr. Bartlett, "that's what I did, and I don't see +that any one is entitled to it but yourself. You gave us the +only definite clue we had to work on. It gives me great +pleasure, madam, to pay my just debts," and he handed Migwan a +check. + +Migwan stared at the slip of paper in a dazed fashion. She could +not comprehend the good fortune that had suddenly come to her. +Then she handed the check back to Mr. Bartlett. "I can't take +your money," she said. "I really didn't do anything, you know." + +"That's all right," said Mr. Bartlett, waving her back. "You did +a whole lot more than you know, young lady. Just think of the +worry and anxiety you have saved us! It's worth the money, every +cent of it. I only wish I could offer a larger reward." + +So Migwan, still protesting, was forced to accept the check, and +the Bartletts rose to go. "Come over and see us sometime," said +Mrs. Bartlett cordially, "and bring all the girls along. You +might have a sleeping party on our lawn." + +"That will be fine, and I accept the invitation in behalf of my +girls," said Nyoda, as she accompanied them to the road where +their car stood. + +Up on the shack porch Migwan was the center of an excited group, +and the check was passed from hand to hand. Sahwah sighed +enviously and wished with all her heart that she might be the +heroine of the hour. + +"What are you going to do with all that money?" asked one of the +girls. + +"It looks," said Migwan in an awed tone, hugging the precious +check in her hands, "as if I were really going to college, after +all!" + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SAHWAH THE SUNFISH. + + +Migwan sat on a rock on the beach making notes in her journal, +now and then lifting her eyes to the lake to watch the shadows +gliding across the water, as the clouds floated by overhead. +Sometimes the sunlight was darkened for a few minutes and the +lake looked gray and cold, but on the opposite shore a tiny +village nestled at the foot of a mountain, and over there the sun +was shining, and the white houses gleamed brightly against the +dull brown background. "It looks like a mirage," said Migwan to +Hinpoha, who had dropped down on the sand at her feet. + +Hinpoha glanced across the lake at the fairy scene and then back +at Migwan. "What are you always writing in that book of yours?" +she asked curiously. + +"Wouldn't you like to know, though!" replied Migwan, closing it +up. + +"Oh, let me see some of it, won't you, Migwan, dear?" said +Hinpoha coaxingly. "I love to read what you write and I never +make fun of it, you know that. Please do." After a little more +coaxing Migwan relented and handed Hinpoha the page she had just +written. Hinpoha spread it out on her knee and read: + +"I was sitting in the woods rather pensively the other day when I +suddenly became aware of two merry eyes fixed on me from the +ground beside me. There was something so irresistibly roguish in +their expression that my sadness leaked out of me unceremoniously. +As I looked the eyes disappeared behind a leaf, only to appear an +instant later on the other side, and a tiny, round red face nodded +cheerfully at me. Visions of wood sprites went through my head and +I sat perfectly still, so as not to frighten him away. He had +retired behind his leaf after that last nod, but as I made no sound +he soon looked out again to see if I was still there. This time I +got a good look at him. He was no elf, but a berry; a brilliant +round red berry with two little holes in him that looked just like +eyes. 'Such a cheerful berry, I thought, 'deserves a whole face,' +so I made him a nose and mouth with my pencil. When last I saw him +he was still playing peek-a-boo among the leaves, enjoying the world +for all he was worth." + +"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Hinpoha, when she had read that far, +"you must let the other girls read this. Wouldn't you like me to +illustrate it for you? I'm just itching to paint that little red +berry." + +"That will be fine," said Migwan, and Hinpoha sped after her +paint box. Hinpoha could not have written that little sketch if +her life depended upon it, but her talent with the brush was +unmistakable. With a few deft strokes she pictured Migwan +sitting in the woods and beside her the little red berry with its +comical face. Now it was Migwan's turn to admire. Hinpoha went +on to the next paragraph: + +"I walked on through the wood, admiring the little green moss +stars that twinkled up from the ground. 'Oh, I must get a closer +view,' I said, half aloud, and immediately my wish was granted, +for a pine tree put out his foot and tripped me and I fell with +my face right in the moss." + +"How I should like to have seen you!" laughed Hinpoha as she +painted Migwan sprawling on the ground. "Haven't you some more +stuff I can illustrate? There's such a lot of paint mixed up. +Oh, here's another one," she said, turning over the pages: + +"I am sitting in the woods near Sandy Beach. Have been gathering +blueberries and my cup runneth over. The sun has turned the +beach into a Sahara, but here in the woods it is dim and cool and +pleasant. I am leaning against a big tree with my feet stretched +out in front of me. There is a spider weaving a web from one +foot to the other. I hate to break down his handiwork, or +rather, his footiwork, but I can't stay here forever, much as I +would like to. He ought to have been more careful about getting +a clear title to his property before building. This will teach +him a lesson, I think. + +"Just now a tiny red squirrel ran down a tree, paused beside me, +gave an impertinent whisk of his tail and disappeared. 'Lazy +girl,' he seemed to say, 'idling away this beautiful summer +weather when you ought to be storing nuts for the winter. You'll +repent when the snow begins to fly. Idle in summer, hungry in +winter.' With a disapproving cough he disappeared. + +"There is a blueberry bush nearby hanging full of large luscious +berries. I never saw blueberries in their native wilds before. I +had a sort of hazy notion that blueberries grew in quart boxes in +market stalls." + +"That reminds me," said Hinpoha suddenly, "it must be getting +near time for our promised trip to Blueberry Island." She +painted a bush with berries nearly as big as marbles and read on +eagerly: + +"I have surprised an acorn in a gross neglect of duty. He is +lying on the ground where he fell last fall and hasn't sprouted +in the least. I thought all acorns aspired to be oak trees. +Think of being a nut half an inch long, and in that half inch to +have the power of becoming the King of the Forest, and then let +that power lie unused! If I were an acorn I would feel eternally +disgraced if I hadn't sprouted." + +Hinpoha duly portrayed the delinquent acorn. "I'll tell you what +we'll do when we grow up," she said, leaning back and surveying +her work critically, "you write books and I'll illustrate them!" + +All this time Nyoda and Sahwah had been working on a canoe a +little farther up the beach. Sahwah had crossed the lake in the +dark the night before and had grounded on a sharp rock that +jutted up just underneath the surface, ripping a hole in the +bottom of the canoe nearly a foot long. Now she and Nyoda were +repairing the damage. "Don't anybody take this canoe out for a +couple of days," said Nyoda to the girls, "the pine pitch we put +on isn't hard yet." + +Hinpoha showed Nyoda the leaves from Migwan's journal which she +had illustrated and Nyoda was delighted. "You two had better +form a permanent partnership," she advised. "You will produce +something worth while in time." Then she added: "Wouldn't it be +a fine idea for you to make an illustrated book of the camp +doings and send it to Professor Bentley and Professor Wheeler? +As long as they are so much interested in Camp Fire Girls nothing +would please them better." Migwan and Hinpoha were enthusiastic +over the idea and promised to begin that very day. + +Sahwah, having determined not to clash with Gladys again, and to +make a friend of her at all costs, lost no opportunity to do her +service. She filled Gladys's water pail in the morning, she hung +up her wet bathing suit when Gladys had gone off and left it +lying on the tent floor, she paddled her out in the heavy sponson +when she was dying to skim over the lake in the sailing canoe, +and in short, sacrificed herself at every turn for Gladys. And +Gladys in time began to look on her as a sort of serving maid, +who would do any unpleasant task she happened to want done. +Nyoda could not help noticing this and wondered how long Sahwah +would stand for it, but she said nothing to either one of them, +preferring to watch matters take their course. + +Things finally came to a head one afternoon during rest hour. +Sahwah was out of sorts that day. The night before she had +stayed out on the lake after she had promised to come in and as a +result had injured the canoe in the darkness. While Nyoda had +not scolded her for staying out so long she knew she was +disappointed in her and it made her cross with herself. Then the +first thing that morning she had received a letter from her +mother chiding her for not having written home for two weeks. +That made her crosser yet. During the folk dancing hour she could +not keep her mind on her feet, and blundered so many times that +Gladys, who was her partner, left the ring in disgust. Sahwah +was sensitive about her dancing, which did not come very easy to +her, and tried especially hard when dancing with Gladys, who did +the figures with wonderful grace and skill, and Gladys's conduct +on this occasion filled her with unutterable mortification. + +Sahwah rushed away to her tent and got into her bathing suit and +sat down on the dock, impatiently waiting for Nyoda's "All in!" +In swimming hour she managed to get herself into disfavor again. +Hinpoha was taking her test for towing a person to shore and was +swimming with Nakwisi in tow. She was just nearing the dock +where Nyoda stood watching to see if she could land her burden +when Sahwah dove off the high tower, right on top of her and +Nakwisi, carrying them both under the surface and breaking up the +test. Nyoda uttered an impatient exclamation and sent Sahwah out +of the water as a reminder to look before she dove the next time. +Sahwah's heart was nearly broken and she could hardly eat her +dinner. She and Gladys were washing dishes that day, but when +the time came Gladys pleaded a headache and went to the tent to +lie down, leaving Sahwah to do them alone. It seemed that every +dish in camp had been used that day. She finished at last, all +tired out, and flung herself on her bed, resolved not to move +until rest hour was over, and not then if she didn't feel like +it. She was just sinking off into a delicious doze when Gladys +reached over and pulled her by the foot. + +"What do you want?" said Sahwah drowsily. + +"Come on, take me for a ride in the sponson," said Gladys. + +"Can't, it's rest hour," answered Sahwah. + +"What of it?" said Gladys, "Let's go anyway. Everybody's asleep. +They'll never know the difference." + +Sahwah looked at her with an expression of horror. "It doesn't +matter whether any one knows it or not," she said stiffly. "It +isn't a custom of the Winnebagos to go boating in rest hour." + +"It doesn't seem to be a custom of the Winnebagos to do anything +they want to," said Gladys sneeringly. "You girls let Miss Kent +lead you around by the nose as if you were six years old! It's a +pity if girls as old as we are have to take a nap after dinner +like babies. I for one won't stand for it. I don't want to lie +down for an hour every afternoon and I'm not going to do it, so +there! If you had any spirit you'd rebel, too. But you haven't. +You're just like wax in her hands. If she told you to go bed at +four o'clock in the afternoon and stay there, you'd do it! I +dare you to slip out and go for a boat ride with me now, I dare +you! I dare you!" + +Sahwah's hair nearly stood on end with fury at this attack on her +beloved Nyoda. "Dare all you like," she said in a choking voice, +"I'll not break a camp rule to please you." + +"Very well, then, don't," said Gladys, "and see if I care. If +you would rather abide by silly old rules than have a good time +it's your loss, not mine. I wouldn't be such a baby." She went +back to her bed and lay down with the air of a martyr. Every few +seconds she would look over at Sahwah and pronounce the word +"baby" in a taunting tone. + +Sahwah closed her eyes resolutely and pretended not to hear her. +She was filled from head to foot with contempt for Gladys. +Sahwah was heedless and hot-tempered and undiplomatic, but in +matters where honor was concerned she was true blue. All her +admiration for Gladys vanished when she tried to lead her into +dishonor. As she lay there thinking over her attempts to win +Gladys's friendship she saw clearly how Gladys had been working +her all this time, getting her to wait on her hand and foot and +in return treating her in a patronizing manner as if she were an +inferior being from whom such service was no more than due. Her +rage rose at the very thought of Gladys. "Catch me doing +anything for her again!" she muttered to herself. + +She lay very still with her eyes closed for a long time, feigning +sleep. After a while a stealthy rustle from Gladys's bed caught +her ear. She opened one eye slightly and then opened both very +wide in surprise. Gladys was in the act of drawing a box of +candy from under her blankets. Opening it, she proceeded to eat +one piece after another. Sahwah was so astonished that she could +not repress an exclamation. + +Gladys looked in her direction. "Have a piece of candy?" she +said mockingly, holding out the box, "or are you afraid to do +that too?" + +Sahwah disregarded the taunt. "Where did you get that candy?" +she asked sternly. + +"I bought it down in the village, Miss Simplicity," answered +Gladys. + +"Did you know that we weren't to buy candy and eat it between +meals, or didn't you?" continued Sahwah. + +"Certainly, I knew it was against the rules," said Gladys, "but I +don't intend to have any one dictate to me whether or not I shall +eat candy. I've eaten candy all my life and it's never hurt me. +If I can't eat it openly I'll eat it on the sly, but I will eat +it!" + +"Didn't it occur to you that it's dishonest to do things on the +sly like that?" said Sahwah in a husky voice. If she had held +Gladys in contempt before there was no name for what she thought +of her now. + +"Who says it's dishonest to break silly rules?" said Gladys, +putting another piece into her mouth. "Such rules were made to +be broken." + +"What would Nyoda say?" asked Sahwah. + +"I don't care what she says," said Gladys recklessly. + +"I thought you admired her so much," said Sahwah, remembering how +Gladys was constantly fawning on Nyoda. + +"I do admire her, more than any of you," said Gladys loftily, +"but that's no sign she can order me around. Go and tell her if +you like, old busybody!" + +"Tell her what?" asked Nyoda, appearing in the door of the tent. + +"That I buy candy in the village and keep it in my bed to eat +during rest hour!" said Gladys brazenly. + +Nyoda opened her eyes very wide. "That you do what?" she asked. +Gladys held up the box. Nyoda said nothing, but merely looked at +her, and before the expression in her eyes Gladys wilted and was +covered with confusion. + +"I don't care, I want some candy," she said, looking ready to +burst into tears. + +"Why didn't you wait until supper time and pass it around?" asked +Nyoda quietly, but there was a note in her voice that robbed +Gladys of her air of bravado. + +"Because I wanted it now," she said sulkily. + +"Gladys," said Nyoda, trying to conceal her disgust at this +untrustworthy trait revealed in the character of her charge by +the episode, "have you any idea why that candy rule was made?" +Gladys shook her head. "It was made," said Nyoda, "to keep me +from dishonor." Gladys looked at her uncomprehendingly. "It is +a very responsible thing," continued Nyoda, "to take a group of +girls so far away from home. Many of the girls' mothers were +unwilling to have them go, and I promised every one of them, on +my honor, that no harm should come to their girls that I could in +any way prevent and that we should all come back in better health +than we went. Now, a change of climate and drinking water is hard +on any one, and you girls have enough to do adjusting your +systems to the new order of things even with a carefully +regulated diet. Eating candy between meals is one good way to +produce an upset stomach, and up here we can't take any chances. +It would be inconvenient to take care of a sick person in camp, +and besides, think of all the fun you would lose! So when we +were discussing the difficulties of camping out for so long we +all agreed, willingly and cheerfully, to live on a strict +schedule recommended by experienced campers, and to run no risks +by eating candy between meals. So you see that the rule, which +you probably consider merely a piece of tyranny on my part, is +not my rule at all, but was adopted by unanimous consent at a +meeting of the group. If I were to allow you to eat candy +between meals I would be breaking my promise to your parents, and +you know that we Camp Fire Girls have taken a vow to be +trustworthy." + +Gladys flushed and hung her head, although Nyoda had made no +reference to her breaking of trust. Nyoda continued: "You, of +all the girls here, have need to be the most careful. You are +the least robust of them all, and enter into our sports with the +least vigor. Your racket stroke is weak and your paddle stroke +is weak, and exertion which does not affect the other girls at +all leaves you exhausted. That is a condition of which you +should be ashamed, inasmuch as you have no definite ailment. +'Hold on to Health' is only another form of 'Be trustworthy,' for +it means taking good care of the body which has been given into +our keeping. I know you never thought about it in just that way +and broke the rule because you saw no reason for it, not because +you have no sense of honor. + +"And now about this candy you have on hand. I will ask you to +put it in the kitchen where it will keep dry and pass it around +to the girls at meal time as long as it lasts. After that I must +request you not to buy any more, even to eat with meals. We have +home-made candy three times a week and that is sufficient." + +Nyoda withdrew from the tent, leaving Gladys feeling very small. +Hinpoha and Migwan had waked in time to hear the last of Nyoda's +speech and saw the candy, and while they were too polite to make +any remarks their attitude plainly showed their disapproval, and +this state of things galled Gladys more than Nyoda's chiding. +Sahwah, with a fine sense of charity, had left the tent when +Nyoda appeared. Her generous nature forbade her to crow over a +fallen foe. + +A nature walk was on the program for the afternoon, but Gladys +feigned a headache and remained at home. "Somehow I don't feel +like going on a nature walk, either," said Sahwah, when they were +ready to start. This was so unusual from Sahwah, who was +generally enthusiastic about everything that was proposed, that +Nyoda looked at her in some anxiety. + +"Don't you feel well, dear?" she asked. + +"Yes, I feel perfectly well," said Sahwah. "That's the trouble. +I feel too well to go on a nature walk." + +"Feel too well to go on a nature walk!" repeated Nyoda. "What do +you mean by that?" + +"I don't know," said Sahwah. "I feel so full of--of something +that I'd like to wrestle with an elephant!" + +Nyoda understood the feeling. She had watched Sahwah's growing +irritation all day long and knew that in her case the only relief +would be strenuous activity. "Then perhaps it would be better +for you to stay at home," she said lightly. "You might do some +damage to us peaceful citizens. By the way, have you ever swum +as far as Blueberry Island? It's a mile, I think. That ought to +work off some of your superfluous energy. You have special +permission to go in this afternoon. When you get there wait +until I come for you in the launch. We can keep our eye on you +from the road while you are swimming." Sahwah jumped for joy and +ran to get into her bathing suit. + +The cool water closed around her limbs like the caress of a +loving hand and her irritation vanished like magic. Water was +Sahwah's element, and as she propelled herself gracefully across +the sparkling lake, feeling the absolute mastery of her muscles, +changing regularly from left to right in her side stroke, she +might have been taken for a mermaid by some Neckan of the deep. +She reached Blueberry Island in good time and, climbing up on the +rocky shore, sat down in the sun to dry. + +Meanwhile Gladys was not having anywhere near such a glorious +time. She tossed on her bed for a long time, feeling more sorry +for herself every minute. She still thought Nyoda's explanation +of the candy rule a weak excuse for an act of tyranny, and was +furious at the thought of having been caught in an undignified +position. The tears, which she had managed to hold back in front +of Nyoda, came now, and she cried herself into a genuine +headache. But it was all self-pity; there was no real sorrow for +her fault. She considered herself the most abused girl in the +world; deserted by her parents, disliked by girls whom she +considered beneath her, and deprived of her rights by a young +woman who had no real authority over her. + +"I bet the other girls eat candy between meals too," she said to +herself viciously, "only they're too clever to get found out. I +wouldn't have been found out either, if it hadn't been for that +snippy little Sahwah making a fuss!" She worked herself into a +perfect fury, and blamed Sahwah for all of her troubles. "I'd +give a whole lot to get even with her," she said to herself, and +immediately began looking around the tent for something of +Sahwah's which she could damage. The only thing in evidence was +her tennis racket, and Gladys took it out and deliberately put a +stone through it. Then, frightened at what she had done, and +thoroughly homesick and miserable, she sat down and began a +letter to her father, begging him to send for her immediately. + +"Dear Papa," she wrote, "if you only knew what a dreadful place +this is you would not leave me here another day. The girls are +very rude and horrid and low class; they are continually fighting +and playing rough jokes on each other, and especially on me. I +don't like Miss Kent as well as you said I would. She makes me +go in bathing until I'm all tired out and cold and tries to make +me swim when it's impossible for me to learn. She takes me out +beyond my depth and ducks me under when I don't make my hands go +right. She treats me as if I were a baby and won't trust me out +of her sight. It seems they have a rule here about not eating +candy between meals and I didn't know it and I bought some and +ate it and she called me a sneak before all the girls and made me +throw the candy into the lake. I am very miserable and sick most +of the time as we don't get enough to eat, and what we do get +isn't good. I'm always cold at night and they often let it rain +right in on our beds. If you don't send for me right away I may +get sick and die before very long. + + "Your miserable daughter, + + "GLADYS + +"P.S.: Aunt Sally is going to Atlantic City in August; may I go +with her?" + +She gave the letter to the captain of the steamer when he stopped +to bring the supplies and then sat down on the dock and stared +moodily out over the lake. She was lonesome; and in spite of the +fact that she had stayed home of her own accord she resented the +fact that the girls had gone off and left her. The canoes lay +side by side on the beach and Gladys was seized with a fancy to +get into one and go gliding out over the smooth surface of the +lake. + +She was not allowed in a canoe because she had not taken the +swimming test, but she considered this another piece of tyranny +on Nyoda's part. She could paddle pretty well, as Sahwah had +taught her to handle the sponson, and she saw no reason at all +why she couldn't enjoy a quiet canoe ride up and down the beach +while no one was around to interfere. + +"I'll stay near shore," she told herself, as she laid hold of one +of the canoes and launched it as she had seen the girls do. She +managed to seat herself in the right end and pushed off from the +shore. It was more fun even than she had imagined, and the canoe +seemed so light in comparison to the sponson that she sent it +flying through the water with little effort. "I'll bet they're +keeping me out of the canoes on purpose, so they'll have more use +of them themselves," she thought ungraciously, "and it's not +because I can't swim at all. That was a safe rule to make when +I'm the only one who can't swim. And they're my own father's +canoes!" + +Gladys edged a little farther out from the shore, then a little +farther and a little farther. The end of the canoe swung around +until it pointed directly out across the lake, and Gladys kept on +paddling in the way it pointed. When she had reached a distance +about halfway between Blueberry Island and the dock she noticed +with terror that the canoe was leaking. She had not been in the +group when Nyoda had warned them about not using the one canoe +for several days, and as luck would have it, the canoe she picked +out was the very one which Sahwah had grounded on the rock. The +gash was opening again and the canoe was filling with water. +Helpless from fright, Gladys dropped her paddle overboard and +buried her face in her hands after one wild look at the distant +shore. It seemed to her like a swift judgment from heaven for +her outrageous conduct that day. + +Sahwah, grown weary of sitting in the sun doing nothing, fixed +her eyes on the camp dock to watch for the putting out of the +launch. No launch was forthcoming, but she saw a canoe gliding +out from the dock. "Something must be the matter with the launch +and Nyoda's coming for me in a canoe," thought Sahwah. "How +slowly she is paddling, it will take her an age to get here!" +Sahwah waited a little while and then slid off the rocks into the +water. "I'll swim out and meet her," she said to herself. When +she had gone about half the distance she saw that it was not +Nyoda in the canoe, but Gladys, and an exclamation of astonishment +escaped from her lips. Coming nearer yet she saw that Gladys was +in distress and had dropped her paddle overboard, and she doubled +her speed, shooting through the water like a speed boat. Raising up +her head once, she shouted to attract Gladys's attention. Gladys +evidently did not hear her, for she did not turn around. When she +was nearly there Sahwah saw that the canoe was sinking, and with a +mighty spurt she reached it just as it settled to the water's edge, +and Gladys, with a wild scream, fell into the lake. + +Sahwah caught her by the hair as she came up and held her head +out of water. "What did you take a canoe out for, you goose?" she +sputtered. "You deserve to drown." The canoe had not sunk +entirely yet, and Sahwah thought that if she could turn it over +keel up it would be all right until they could come for it. So, +turning Gladys over on her back, she bade her float while she +kept one hand on her to keep her above water and reached out for +the canoe with the other. Gladys struggled and choked, but +Sahwah paid no attention to her, for she knew that she was safe +and could not get a strangle hold on her. Grasping one end of +the canoe she tried to turn it over. At first it would not move, +and so Sahwah exerted all her strength in a mighty push. The +canoe stood partly on end, and then came down with a crashing +thud on her outstretched arm. + +An instant of numbness was followed by the most excruciating +pain, and the arm sank limply through the water. Sahwah knew +that it was broken. But even then her presence of mind did not +desert her. Shoving Gladys out ahead of her with her good arm, +she propelled herself with her legs, swimming on her back, and +slowly they began to move toward the distant shore. The half +mile that was nothing to Sahwah ordinarily now became an endless +stretch. The pain in her arm made her feel faint, and her limbs, +tired from her long swim, seemed suddenly to have turned into +lead. The clouds above turned black, then blood red, then every +color of the rainbow. Strange lights and shadows danced in front +of her eyes, and there were strange noises in her ears. Her +breath came in long, sobbing gasps. The arm that was holding +Gladys became cramped and weak, but there was no relief. "Draw, +kick, close! Draw, kick, close!" The monotonous rhythm beat +itself into her brain. "Draw, kick, close!" Throb! Throb! +Throb! Would the nightmare never come to an end? Through the +sound of strange voices that were echoing in her ears Sahwah +heard a cry that sounded like Nyoda's, and then darkness settled +around her and her efforts ceased. + +Nyoda, coming down to untie the launch, reached the dock just as +Sahwah and Gladys came alongside of it, and held out her hand to +help Gladys up. She thought she was being towed for fun. +"Sahwah, you naughty girl, what did you swim all the way home +for?" she began, and then gasped in astonishment as Sahwah +stiffened out in the water and went down. She grasped her by the +collar as she came up and pulled her out on the dock, limp and +dripping. "What does this mean?" she asked Gladys. + +"She towed me in when the canoe went down," said Gladys, her +teeth chattering with fright. "She broke her arm and held me up +with the other while she swam with her legs." Gladys's knees +gave way and she sank down on the dock, burying her face in her +hands. + +And Sahwah the Sunfish, the lover of maiden bravery, the envier +of heroines, was the greatest of them all, and knew it not. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A SERENADE. + +"Is she dead?" cried the girls, gathering around with frightened +faces. Gladys caught the word "dead" and her heart turned to +water within her. The horror of the afternoon's experience had +made her see herself in her true light and she was overwhelmed +with shame at the sight. This Sahwah whom she had twitted as +being a coward and a baby because she would not break her word, +was made of the stuff that heroes are made of, and had probably +given her brave life to save her worthless one. Looking back +over the weeks she had spent in camp, she could not remember one +instance where she had done anybody a favor or entered with +enthusiasm into their plans, while Sahwah's unselfish devotion to +her during these last days smote her with sharp remorse. In the +new light she suddenly saw the vast difference between herself +and these other girls. Verily, they were not of her class, +because they were far above it. How could she ever take her +hands from her face and look at them again? "If Sahwah dies," +she sobbed to herself, "I'll kill myself too." + +Meanwhile Nyoda was working hard to bring Sahwah around. It was +not a case of reviving a drowned person, for Sahwah had swallowed +no water. She had fainted from exhaustion. Nyoda rubbed her and +held salts to her nose and Sahwah finally opened her eyes. "Did +I jump off in my sleep?" she asked dreamily. + +"No, my dear, you did not," said Nyoda. "You're a real, +wide-awake heroine this time, and no mistake." + +"Where's Gladys?" cried Sahwah wildly, starting up suddenly, and +falling back with a groan. + +"She's all right," said Nyoda, without looking around. Sahwah +was carried up the hill and rolled in warm blankets and put to +bed with a hot drink, while Nyoda sped the launch across the lake +for the nearest doctor. + +"Vell, vich von of de ladies has been celebrating dis time?" he +said with his German accent, as he entered the tent. He was the +same doctor who had come to look at Migwan's knee. "A broken +arm? Ach, so," he said, patting the injured member. "And for vy +did you not set it right away yourself, like dat Missis Migvan +did?" he asked. "She vas a hustler, now!" He talked on jovially +all the while he set the bone, and Sahwah stuffed the corners of +the pillow into her mouth so that no sound should escape her. +"Vell, vell," he continued, "dropped a canoe on her funny bone +and kicked herself all de vay across de lake, now. And pushed +anoder lady by de neck! I gif it up! And now, Missis Sahvah," he +said, holding up one finger at her, "you lie on de bed until I +say you should get out. You could get a fever, pushing ladies +around by de neck!" + +"_And_ now," he said, looking around, "de lady vot got drowned, +vere is she?" The girls searched through the camp for Gladys, but +she was nowhere to be found, and he was obliged to depart without +seeing her. Far out in the woods Gladys wandered about +distractedly until her anxiety regarding Sahwah drove her back to +camp to face the girls and find out bow she was. Near the tent +she stumbled against something on the ground, and stooping to see +what it was, found the racket on which she had vented her fury +that afternoon. The sight of it nearly made her ill. "I'll get +her another," she resolved, "the best that money can buy. Hers +was only a cheap one, after all." + +It was a long time before she could make up her mind to enter the +tent, but she finally crept in, hoping to remain unnoticed and +hear how Sahwah was getting along. Nyoda looked up as she came +in, and pitied her from the bottom of her heart. "Come in, +Gladys," she said softly, and Gladys approached. + +"How is--" she began, and then her voice broke. + +"Fine and dandy," said Sahwah herself, rather weakly. The fever +that the doctor had predicted was rising, and her lips were dry. +Nyoda feared that the presence of Gladys would excite Sahwah, and +led her out of the tent. + +"Now Gladys," she said, sitting down on the steps of the shack, +"I want you to tell me everything that happened this afternoon. +How did it come that you were out in a canoe and had to be +rescued?" + +Gladys told a straight story, not sparing herself in the least. +She told about the dreadful mood she had been in that afternoon +after the girls had gone away; how she had broken Sahwah's +racket, and then, filled with a very devil of rebellion, had +taken out one of the canoes. It happened to be the leaky one and +her punishment overtook her swift as the wings of a bird. She +had given up all hope when Sahwah had appeared magically from +somewhere and towed her in, in spite of her broken arm. Gladys's +face was crimson with shame when she told how she had tried to +make Sahwah take her out in the sponson during rest hour, and had +called her a coward because she refused. She told Nyoda +everything except the letter she had written to her father. She +could not bring herself to tell that. It lay on her conscience +like a lump of lead. + +Nyoda said very little about the matter and did not upbraid her +at all. She saw that Gladys's sins had come down on her head in +a manner which would make a very deep impression, and that Gladys +would emerge from the experience a sadder and wiser girl. + +"I haven't been a very good camper, Nyoda," said Gladys humbly, +"but I'm going to try to be after this." + +"I know you will," said Nyoda, putting her arm around her, "and +you are going to succeed, too. And now let's go and see how +Sahwah is." + +Sahwah was tossing on the bed and muttering when they came in. +She had a high fever and was living over again her strenuous +escapade of the afternoon. She cried aloud that the shore was +running away from her, that the clouds were tumbling down on her, +that a big fish had a hold of her arm. "This rock I am pushing +against," she moaned, "is so heavy, I shall never get around it." +Nyoda gave her the fever medicine left by the doctor and she sank +into a heavy sleep. All that night and all the next day she +alternately raved and slept. + +Nyoda fetched the doctor again the next day and he predicted that +Sahwah would soon be better. "She is a strong von, dat Missis +Sahvah," he said. "She has bones like iron! A weak von vould +maybe haf brain fever, but not she, I don't tink!" Nor did +Sahwah disappoint him. She had a constitution like a nine-lived +cat, and her active outdoor life kept her blood in perfect +condition, and it was not long before she began to get the upper +hand of the fever. + +During the second night she woke up feeling delightfully cool and +comfortable. The fever had left her sometime during sleep. The +moon was setting over the lake, making a long golden streak +across the water. Sahwah smiled happily at the peaceful scene. +Then she became aware of a figure crouching on the floor beside +her bed. It was Gladys, sitting on a low stool beside her, +keeping watch. + +"Hello, Gladys," she said, weakly but cheerfully. + +Gladys started up. "Do you really know me?" she said joyfully. + +"Sure I know you," said Sahwah. "Why shouldn't I?" + +"You didn't yesterday, you know," said Gladys. + +"Did my arm make me so sick?" asked Sahwah, feeling gingerly of +the white bandage, and moving her feet to make sure that they +were not similarly adorned. Gladys nodded. "Have you been +sitting here all night?" asked Sahwah. + +"Yes," said Gladys. "Nyoda sat up last night, but I made her go +to bed to-night. She is here in my bed, and I'm to call her if +she's needed." + +"Let her sleep," said Sahwah softly. "And you go back to bed, +too. I won't need anything to-night, really I won't, I feel fine +now." + +Gladys shook her head resolutely. "I promised to sit up with you +to-night, and I'm going to keep my promise. You see I can be +trustworthy sometimes. O Sahwah," she cried, burying her face in +the blankets, "how can I ever repay you for what you have done?" + +"Don't try," said Sahwah cheerfully. + +"What a miserable sneak you must think me!" continued Gladys. + +"O shucks!" said Sahwah, who hated scenes. "Forget it. Let's +start all over from the beginning." + +"Are you really willing to give me another chance?" said Gladys +joyfully. + +"Sure," said Sahwah. "Here's my hand on it." She slid her hand +out from under the covers and caught Gladys's in a warm clasp. +She fell asleep soon after that and did not waken again during +the night, but Gladys sat beside her until morning, watching her +slightest movement. And the Camp Fire leaven was beginning to +work in her, and she was learning to fulfil the Law, which says, +"Give service." + +The girls were filled with delight the next morning to hear +Sahwah calling for her breakfast in her natural voice and +clucking to the chipmunks as of old. Migwan sped to the woods +for a bouquet of the brightest flowers she could find to adorn +the tent, while Hinpoha clattered around the kitchen concocting +delicacies. Gladys hovered over her like a fond grandmama, +brushing her hair, washing her face and plumping up the pillows, +and the rest of the Winnebagos looked in every five minutes to +see how she felt. Sahwah had never had so much attention before +in her life. Her slightest want was attended to as soon as +expressed. The suffering of the last two days was more than made +up for by the joys of being a heroine, and Sahwah drank deep of +the cup that was offered her. + +"This tent is getting famous," said Hinpoha, as she moved about +setting it to rights, "there are already two heroines in it. +We'll have to change the name from 'Omega' to 'Heroine's Lodge.' +Quite a good idea, that," and picking up a piece of birch-bark, +she painted the name on it in large letters and tacked it to the +tent pole. "Now,", she continued, "we'll name your bed +'Rescuer's Roost' and Migwan's 'Clew-givers' Cradle,'" and she +made two more signs, and hung them on the foot rails of the beds. + +Sahwah sat up for an hour in the afternoon and Gladys danced for +her amusement. The girls gasped with wonder and delight, for +they had never seen anything like it. She was as light on her +feet as thistledown and as graceful as a swaying rose. Nyoda +watched her with keen pleasure, but it was not her twinkling +feet, nor the artistic posing of her limbs that held her +attention, but the new expression on her face. The old selfish, +blase' look was gone, and her features were lit up by an eager +smile that sparkled in her eyes and curved up the corners of her +pretty mouth. Again the leaven was at work in her, and she was +fulfilling the Law of the Camp Fire, which is to "Seek beauty." + +Sahwah slept again after that and Gladys called all the girls +together around the piano in the shack, where they stayed until +supper time, singing softly under Gladys's direction. Sahwah had +finished her supper and had been made comfortable for the night +and lay staring out into the gathering darkness and wondering +where the girls were. Not a soul was in sight, neither could she +hear their voices. Then all at once she heard the sound of +singing, wafted up from the lake. It was "Stars of the Summer +Night," sung exquisitely in three parts. Sahwah could hardly +believe it was the Winnebagos, so perfect was the harmony. This +was followed by "I Would That My Love," sung by Gladys and Nyoda. +Sahwah drew a long, rapturous breath at the beautiful blending of +alto and soprano. She was passionately fond of music. Then +Gladys sang "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming," her clear high +voice ringing over the water like a flute. The notes died +lingeringly away, and the silence was broken by the soft chugging +of the launch as it bore the serenaders back to shore. + +Sahwah composed herself to sleep, the melodies she had just heard +still echoing in her ears. A soft rustling outside the tent door +made her open her eyes, and she started in surprise at the fairy +scene which was being enacted there. In the open grassy space +before the tent figures were passing back and forth and winding +in and out in the mazes of a dance. So silently they moved they +scarcely seemed flesh and blood, but rather a band of woodland +nymphs performing their nightly revels. There was one figure +among them who was lighter and airier than all the rest, and she +darted in and out between the lines, and round and round them, +like a butterfly fluttering around a bed of tossing flowers. At +last, after joining hands and whirling madly in a circle, they +broke ranks and vanished among the trees. + +Sahwah tried to applaud, but could not manage it single-handed, +and shouted her appreciation at the top of her lungs, which +brought the whole troupe to the edge of the tent to bow and +curtsey. Nyoda drew them away again immediately, however, +declaring that it was high time Sahwah went to sleep. + +Long after the other girls lay motionless in their beds Gladys +was wakeful and restless. In spite of the fact that she had +spent the entire day in the service of others she had no peace. +Nyoda had praised her warmly for arranging the serenade and +dance, but this only aggravated the trouble she was having in her +mind; namely, the letter which she had written her father, the +horrid, lying epistle in which she had cruelly wronged kind-hearted +Nyoda and all these wonderful girls. He must have it by now, +and would undoubtedly send for her immediately. And furthermore, +he would probably make all the others go home too. At this +thought her heart almost stopped beating. There was only one +thing that could prevent it, and that was for her to write him +another letter, contradicting the first. It sounded easy to say +it, but it would mean that her father would know she had told an +untruth, and she shrank back miserably from the revelation. She +admired her father and cared much for his opinion of her, and to +be branded as a liar in his sight was more than she could bear. +He would never believe her again. + +On the other hand, the thought of breaking up this jolly summer +camp and sending the girls home unhappy made the chills run down +her back and the perspiration start out on her forehead. Sahwah +and her swimming--could she have the heart to separate them? Her +other indebtedness to Sahwah she dared not even think of. +Wherever she turned her face she saw Nyoda's trusting eyes +looking into hers with a smile as they had done that very +evening. Could she bear to cloud them over with grief and +disappointment? She was just beginning to rise in Nyoda's good +graces. Could she bear to fall forever? + +The hours dragged wakefully and her thoughts tortured her like +searing irons. In all her life Gladys had never done the hard +thing when there was an easier alternative, and the struggle +between the two forces in her was a mortal one. But the constant +example of unselfishness which the girls had set for her all +summer had had its effect, and by morning the balance had swung +over to the side of self-sacrifice, and she was fully resolved to +write the letter which would make her father despise her. She +rose as soon as it was light, brought out her writing materials, +and with an unfaltering pen wrote the sentences which branded her +with dishonor. It was the most difficult letter she had ever +written, but she kept on steadily to the end, and sealed and +addressed it as the rising bugle blew. + +When it was all over a load seemed lifted from her heart, and +breakfast was the jolliest meal she had eaten for some time. For +the last three days her meals had been nightmares. The happy +chatter of the girls nearly maddened her when she thought that it +would soon be hushed and she had done the deed which was to +silence it. She could not look a single girl in the face and her +food choked her. But this morning all that was over. She joined +in making plans for future trips with enthusiasm, for she felt +that she had a right to. Whatever would be the consequences of +her confession to her father, all the suffering would be borne by +her alone, and she had nothing more on her conscience. Feeling +curiously light-hearted, she ran down to the dock to give the +letter to the steamer captain. + +Nyoda had already received the incoming mail and was distributing +it. "Here, Gladys, something for you," she said, handing her an +envelope. At the sight of it Gladys stood as if rooted to the +dock. It was the very letter she had written to her father on +that memorable afternoon. It had missed her father in his +travels and been returned to her. + +"What's the matter, Gladys, have you seen a ghost?" asked +Hinpoha, as Gladys stood staring open-mouthed at the envelope. + +"Nothing," said Gladys, and sped up the path clutching the two +letters in her hand. "I didn't deserve it," she panted, as she +reached the shelter of the woods. "Some good angel had me under +its wing that time for sure." She tore both letters into bits +and then burned them and scattered the ashes to the winds. Then +taking her knife she cut a letter L in the bark of the tree under +which she stood, and pierced it with an arrow, to signify that a +letter can do as much harm as an arrow. Every time she passed +that tree she saw the mark and renewed her vow never to write +another letter in anger. + +The next mail did carry another letter to her father, but its +composing cost Gladys no pain. It contained an enthusiastic +account of her rescue by Sahwah, and then she went on to tell +what a good time she was having and what wonderful girls the +Winnebagos were. She ended up with the statement that they had +such good "eats" here that she never knew when to stop, and had +already gained five pounds. + +She also sent to Portland for a new racket for Sahwah, paying +eight dollars for it. She did not ask her father for the money, +but took the whole amount out of her own allowance. Sahwah was +up now and running around the camp as lively as ever, in spite of +her splinted arm. "Isn't it blessed luck that it's my left one," +she declared over and over again, "and doesn't interfere much +with what I want to do?" She insisted on taking her morning dip +with the rest of them, although of course she could neither swim +nor dive. She waded out to her waist and with her good hand +managed to splash the water over her chest and head. This +proceeding generally filled her with profound disgust when she +saw the others jumping in with a grand gurgle and splash, but it +was better than staying out of the water altogether. + +But the greatest phenomenon in the water just now was the way +Gladys was learning to swim. Thoroughly ashamed of her +backwardness in this matter, she made up her mind once for all +that she was going to overcome her fear of the water and let +herself be helped. Of late the girls had about given up trying +to teach her. She confided her determination to Nyoda and asked +her to be patient with her a little while longer. Nyoda, +overjoyed at this sudden show of spirit, took her under her wing +immediately. Gladys struck out bravely; lost her balance and +went under; came up blind and strangling; blew the water out of +her nose and laughed, and then went at it again. She repeated +the performance more than a dozen times and every time she went +down she came up more determined than ever to master that stroke. +At the end of the swimming hour she had taken six strokes in +succession with Nyoda just barely supporting her. The next day +Nyoda began by holding her up and then when her arms and legs +were working rhythmically slyly withdrew her hand and let her go +alone. Gladys went a dozen strokes before she perceived that +Nyoda had let go of her. She progressed so much that day that +the next swimming period Nyoda considered it unnecessary to help +her at all, and let her swim up and down the beach by herself and +practise for distance until she could take the test. + +Sahwah no longer had the doctor come over to see her, as this +took a great deal of his time, but went across the lake in the +launch to his office to have the splints looked after. + +"Vell, Missis Sahvah," he would always say on these occasions, +"how many ladies haf you pushed by de neck across de top of de +lake to-day?" He always exclaimed in delight at the progress her +arm was making. "Such bones!" he would say, waving his hands +eloquently. "Dey can knit faster dan my grandmama could, and she +was de fastest knitter in Hamburg! If only my son Heinrich could +see dose bones! You vould like to see my son Heinrich, yes?" He +took down a photograph from the top of his medicine cabinet and +showed it to her and Nyoda. "Dot is my son Heinrich. He now +studies medicine at de University of Berlin in de Staatsklinick. +He is going to be a great surgeon doctor. Next year he comes to +America to practise mit me in dis office. Den you can break both +of your arms at vonce, for dere will be two doctors to tie dem +up!" His deep laugh boomed out pleasantly at his own joke. + +On another occasion he led them with an air of great mystery into +the kitchen of his house and showed them a basket wherein five +kittens were lying on a soft bed. He sat down and took all five +of them into his lap. They scampered all over him, up and down +his arms, on top of his head, up and down his legs, while he +laughed heartily at their antics. He shouted with glee when one +of them darted a furry paw into his open mouth. "You vould like +von of de liddle cats, yes?" he said to Sahwah. "I vould like to +keep dem all, but Missis Schmitt, de lady who keeps house for me, +she says no, and I haf to mind vot she says." + +"May I take one, Nyoda?" asked Sahwah. Nyoda assented and Sahwah +picked out the liveliest one, which was coal black from his nose +to the tip of his tail. + +"Vait a minute," said the doctor when they were about to start, +and after fumbling in a drawer he produced a red ribbon with a +little bell attached. "Dere, now, you can find him in de dark," +he said, tying it round the kitten's neck. The girls were +enchanted with the new pet and promptly christened it "Kitty +Wohelo." Playing with it whiled away many a tedious hour for +Sahwah when she could not join in the sports with the other +girls. + +One morning the steamer stopped at the dock and unloaded two +express packages of enormous size, both addressed to Sahwah. +"What on earth can it be?" she said. "I don't know a soul who +would be sending me anything by express." There was a letter for +her in the mail and she opened this first. It was from Gladys's +father and read: "I am sending you by express a few trifles I +picked up among the Indians here, in gratitude for the service +you rendered my daughter Gladys on the 30th of July. May you +live a hundred years, and wear every one of them out!" + +The first of the "trifles" was a pair of Indian moccasins, made +of finest doe skin and elaborately beaded. Then came a variety +of reed and birch baskets of different shapes and sizes. Most of +these were filled with strings of wampum, arrow heads, pieces of +bead work and other Indian curios. Under the baskets was an +Indian girl's costume made of doe skin, with leggings to match. +The next thing that came to light was a large muff of finest +black fox fur, and another package contained the neckpiece. In +the bottom of the box were a sealskin cap, a hunting knife in a +soft leather case, a small Winchester rifle and a pair of fine +hockey skates with shoes attached. Sahwah, rendered speechless by +this sudden rain of presents, could only hop up and down for joy +as each new treasure was brought to light. + +But if the contents of the first box took her breath away, when +she saw what was in the other her delight knew no bounds. It was +a long narrow crate, built of wooden slats, and careful opening +revealed a birchbark canoe, big enough to paddle on the lake. +Its sides were decorated with Indian craft work and in it lay two +paddles. It took almost physical restraint to keep Sahwah from +launching it right then and there, one-handed as she was, and +trying it out. Only the promise of a grand ceremony of launching +when she could use her arm again comforted her for the delay. + +One morning not long afterward Gladys announced modestly that she +thought she could take the swimming test to-day. Nyoda and +Hinpoha got into the sponson and the three set out, Gladys +swimming alongside the boat. All fear of deep water had left her +now and she moved along easily and swiftly. The first half of +the distance was covered without difficulty, and then she began +to tire. Even a vaulting ambition cannot supply a powerful body +on short notice. Her breath grew short and the water began to +run into her throat and choke her. She struggled on valiantly +for some time until Nyoda, seeing that she was going beyond her +strength, reached out and pulled her into the boat. Gladys +crouched in a disconsolate heap in the bottom of the sponson, and +refused to be comforted by the assurance that she had done +wonderfully well, all things considered, and that a number of the +other girls had failed their first test. "I'll do it to-morrow," +she said, clenching her hands, "or die." + +And she did. The old weakness overcame her at the same distance +out, but this time she had the presence of mind to turn over on +her back and rest, and went on again when she had her breath +back. Nyoda noted this manoeuver approvingly. It indicated good +sense. Gladys covered the last twenty-five yards by sheer grit. +Every breath was a gasp, the shore line wavered dizzily before +her, and it seemed that she was pushing against an immovable +wall. Nyoda watched her closely, and saw her rear up her head +and set her teeth and battle on against wind and wave. "She'll +do," she said to herself joyfully, "she has physical courage as +well as the others. She will uphold the honor of the Winnebagos!" + +"That will do," she said gently, as the boat grounded noiselessly +on the sloping beach. Gladys's feet struck solid ground and she +opened her eyes in surprise. "Is it all over?" she asked +wonderingly. + +"All over," said Nyoda. "Congratulations!" + +She was borne back to the dock in triumph, to be praised and +patted on the head by all the girls, like a conquering hero. +Sahwah was particularly pleased at her success. "When you first +came I didn't think you had it in you," she said, "but now I +believe you can do anything you want to!" + +"When may I go out in a canoe?" asked Gladys. + +"Right this very minute," said Nyoda, and took her out for a ride +in the sailing canoe. + +The morning song hour had now become a time of keenest pleasure, +for Gladys threw herself into the work with heart and voice. Her +strong, sure soprano led the girls through many a difficult +passage which they could not have attempted without her help, and +she taught them much about expression. She took great pleasure +in singing solo parts and having the girls hum the accompaniment. +This last arrangement was particularly effective on the water, +and the hills echoed nightly with "Don' You Cry, Ma Honey," +"Mammy Lou," "Rockin' in the Wind" and other negro melodies, +besides boating songs galore. Migwan won a local song honor by +writing a lullaby, beginning: + + "Over the water Night steers her canoe, + She's coming, she's coming, for me and for you." + +But the favorite canoe song was, and always would be, "Across the +Silver'd Lake," and the girls sang it first and last every night. +The moon was in full glory at that time of the month, and the +glittering lake closed in by high dark pines made a scene of +indescribable beauty. It was harder each night to break away and +go to bed. + +"O dear," sighed Migwan one night, "why do we have to go to bed +at all? I'd like to stay up and serenade the moon all night!" + +"I don't know as I care about wasting songs on that old dead +moon," said practical Sahwah, "but there is one thing I'd like to +do, and that is serenade the doctor." + +"That's a good idea," said. Nyoda, "and one which we must carry +out." + +So the next morning they gathered around the piano to practise a +song to sing under Dr. Hoffman's window. "We ought to sing a +German one," said Sahwah, "that would please him more than +anything." They picked out the "Lorelei" and began learning the +German words. + +The night was one of magic splendor and the lake was without a +ripple as the two long, dark canoes glided silently over the +water toward the opposite shore. The doctor's house, which was a +summer cottage, stood close to the beach, and a light on the side +where his office was assured them that he was at home. Gladys +started them off, and the beautiful strains rose on the still +air: + + "Ich weiss nicht wass soll es bedeuten + Dass ich so traurig bin--" + +Inside the office the doctor sat with his head in his hands, his +whole body bowed in grief and despair. On the table beside him +lay an open letter and in his hand he clasped a small iron cross. +"Heinrich," he cried brokenly, "my Heinrich!" The letter told +the story. When the war broke out the young man had been called +from his studies in the University to take up arms for his +country and fell in the very first battle at the storming of +Liege'. Not before he had distinguished himself for bravery, +however. He received the bullet which caused his death while +carrying a wounded comrade off the battlefield in the face of a +murderous fire from the enemy, and wounded and suffering, had +borne his friend to safety. He lived just long enough to be +decorated with the Iron Cross, which he begged the captain to +send to his father, as his last message. + +It was a heavy blow for the old man, who was counting the days +until his son should come to America and go into partnership with +him. The world became a dark and sad place for him and he had no +ambition to go on living. The only consolation he had was the +thought that his son had died a hero and his last act had brought +honor to his family. He gripped the Iron Cross tightly and +wished passionately that Heinrich had lived to wear it. As the +lonely, broken-hearted old doctor sat there with his head in his +hands trying to realize the misfortune which had crushed him he +heard strains of music floating up from the lake. + + "Ich Weiss nicht wass soll es bedeuten + Dass ich so traurig bin--" + +The sweet girlish voices rang out in fine harmony. The doctor +raised his head to listen. "Bless dere liddle hearts," he +murmured, "dey are bringing me a serenade to please me." A tiny +ray of pleasure visited his sad heart. "Tell dem," he said to his +housekeeper, "dat de old doctor has too much sorrow to speak to +dem to-night, but he tanks dem for de song and hopes dey will +come again." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WHITE MEN'S LODGES. + +"Don't stand so stiffly, Sahwah," said Gladys. "Bend your knees +a little. Let yourself go in the air the way you were always +telling me to let myself go in the water. See, this way." She +took a few graceful dancing steps back and forth in front of +Sahwah. Sahwah did her best to imitate her. "There, that's a +little better," said Gladys, "but there is lots of room for +improvement still. Now, one, two, three, point, step, point, +turn, point, step, point, turn, point, slide, slide, slide, +close." Sahwah struggled to follow her directions, poising her +free hand in the air as Gladys did. "You handle your feet fairly +well," said Gladys, "but you ought to see your face. You look as +if you were performing the most disagreeable task, and were in +perfect misery over it. Smile when you dance, and incline your +head gracefully, and don't act as if it were glued immovably onto +your shoulders." Sahwah dutifully grinned from ear to ear, and +Gladys shook her head again. "No, not like that, it makes you +look like a clown. Just smile slightly and naturally; act as if +you were enjoying yourself." Thus the lesson proceeded. Gladys +had undertaken the task of teaching Sahwah fancy dancing, and +drilled her every morning in the shack. Sahwah was eager to +learn and practised the steps until her feet ached with +weariness. "There," said Gladys, as Sahwah succeeded in +memorizing a number of steps, now we'll try it with the music. +Remember, you are impersonating a tree swaying in the wind, and +bend from your waist line. That's the right way. + +"Now, everybody up for the 'Hesitation,'" she called, when +Sahwah, flushed and panting, sat down in a corner to rest. The +girls lined up briskly for their lesson. Nearly all of them knew +the correct steps of the modern society dances, but few of them +danced really well, and it was the little fine touches and graces +that Gladys was teaching them--lightness of foot, stateliness of +carriage, graceful disposing of arms and hands. Gladys had taken +charge of the entire dancing hour now, and it was the most +popular class in the whole schedule. Nyoda was a little +breathless at the way Gladys was developing into a leader. She, +who a few weeks before was not able to reach the standards which +the Winnebagos had set for themselves, was now calmly leading +them on to greater heights! + +Now that Gladys had learned to swim, the next thing for her to do +was to get used to jumping into deep water. She stood out on the +end of the low springboard a long time trying to make up her mind +to go off, and finally shrank back, thoroughly disgusted with +herself, but unable to bring herself to make the leap. "Shall I +hold your hand the first time?" said Nyoda. Holding tightly to +Nyoda's hand, Gladys jumped from the board, and sank down, down +through the glassy, translucent depths, holding her breath and +trying to keep her eyes open as she had been bidden. At first +all was darkness, then a mass of bubbles became visible, then +light shone through the water and the next moment her head shot +out above the surface, and Nyoda pulled her up on the dock. It +had all happened so quickly that she had no time to be frightened. + +"Why, it's _fun_," she said in amazement. All the girls laughed +at the comical expression on her face. + +"Now do it alone," said Nyoda, "and this time try to right +yourself and begin to swim." Again Gladys jumped into the +depths, and as soon as her head was clear of the water struck out +of her own accord and swam around the dock. "Now come up, and +turn over on your back and float," said Nyoda. Gladys accomplished +this also. She could not overcome her astonishment at the feats +she was able to perform in the water, now that she had lost her +fear of it. She became bolder and bolder with each new trial and +finally took every one's breath away by announcing that she was +going off the top of the tower. And she did it, too, without a +moment's hesitation. There was one trick she had which caused +them all great amusement. She _would_ hold her nose when she +jumped, which Nyoda laughingly explained, was _very_ bad form +indeed. It was a sight to see her going off the tower, feet +together like a statue, one hand held straight above her head and +the other tight over her nose. + +Sahwah's arm had fully healed by this time and the splints were +taken off. The old doctor tried hard to be cheerful when she came +to him the last time, but his heart had gone out of his work. He +told Sahwah about his son and showed her the Iron Cross. Led on +by her sympathetic manner, he talked a long time about Heinrich, +told her little incidents of his school days, and dwelt with +pride on the record he had made in the class room, in the +gymnasium, in the Klinik. When he spoke of the brave deed which +had won him the Iron Cross his voice sank into a reverent whisper +and his stooped figure straightened up into the bearing of a +soldier. It was no light thing to be the father of a hero! Then +he added, "But I forget, Missis Sahwah, you haf also done a brave +deed and brought honor to your family. You should also haf de +Iron Cross!" + +Sahwah smiled at the idea of being decorated for "pushing a lady +by de neck across de top of de lake" as the doctor had expressed +it. She and the doctor had become great friends while he was +taking care of her arm. He had taken a great fancy to her from +the start. Sahwah had no German blood in her; she was straight +Puritan descent and knew only the few words of the German +language she had acquired in school, and pronounced them badly. +She reminded him of nothing in the Fatherland, and he was unlike +any one she had ever associated with, and yet between these two +there had sprung up the warmest kind of friendship. He opened up +his cabinet and let her handle the instruments, a thing it would +have been worth his housekeeper's life to have tried; he pulled +out old pipes and pieces of pewter and told her their stories; he +showed her pictures of his wife and little Heinrich. And Sahwah +in turn took his breath away recounting the escapades of the +Winnebagos. She made him promise to come over to camp to see her +new canoe launched. Promptly at the time appointed he came, in +his own launch, with a big straw hat shading his face and his +surgical case in his hand, "in case von of de ladies should break +her a bone." + +Sahwah had named her new canoe the "_Keewaydin_," or "_Northwest +Wind_," and the launching proceeded ceremoniously. The seven +girls carried it down to the water's edge, its sides decorated +with balsam boughs, saluted it by raising it three times above +their heads at arm's length, and then held it while Migwan +recited a poem in honor of the launching: + + "Out o'er the shining lake, Glide thou, my bark canoe, Out + toward the purple hills, Lovely _Keewaydin_! Swift as the + seabird's wing, Light as the ocean's foam, Speed o'er the + dancing wave, Lovely _Keewaydin_!" + +The canoe was lowered to the water's edge and Sahwah and Gladys +got in and paddled out from shore, followed by the cheers of the +girls. + +When the _Keewaydin_ had returned from her maiden voyage Hinpoha +and Migwan were ready with a stunt to amuse the audience. They +dramatized that classic argument between the man and his wife as +to whether the crime was committed with a knife or a scissors. +Migwan, as the husband, stoutly maintained that it was a knife, +and Hinpoha, as his spouse, fiercely declared it was a scissors. +Arguing hotly, they went out in a canoe, and soon came to blows +about the point in question. The man threw his wife overboard, +and hit her with a paddle every time she poked her head up. She +kept coming up and saying, "Scissors!" while he insisted, +"Knife!" As the story goes, the wife finally drowns, and the +last minute her fingers come up making a scissors motion. +Migwan, however, after Hinpoha went overboard, hit out so +energetically with her paddle that the canoe went over and the +climax was lost in the splash. + +The girls did everything they could think of to cheer up the +doctor and made a great feast in his honor. Sahwah baked her +feathery biscuits; Migwan stirred up a pan of delicious fudge; +Hinpoha made her famous slumgullion; Nyoda broiled fish, while +the rest of the girls gathered blueberries in the woods. The +cooking must have tasted good to the doctor, for he passed his +plate three times for slumgullion and ate so many biscuits he +lost count. Hinpoha, too, throwing her vow of abstinence to the +winds, ate until she groaned, and while she was clearing away the +dishes finished up all that was left of the fudge and the +blueberries. The doctor took his leave in the afternoon, +declaring he had never eaten anything so good as Sahwah's +biscuits. "She can make," he said impressively, "better biscuits +dan my grandmama, and she made de best biscuits in Hamburg!" +Strange to say, the girls were not very hungry at supper time, +and ate nothing but wafers and lemonade. + +"Where are you going with your blankets?" said Nyoda, stopping in +surprise as she met Migwan coming out of her tent with all her +bedding in her arms. + +"I'm going to sleep in the tree-house," answered Migwan. + +"Sleep in the tree-house?" echoed Nyoda, "isn't there room enough +in the tent?" + +"Oh, there's room enough," said Migwan, "that isn't the reason. +I just want to do it for the experience. I was lying awake the +other night, listening to the wind singing through the treetops, +and I thought of all the little birds sleeping up in the trees, +and decided I would try it and see what it was like." + +"Her poet's soul spurns the common earth, and she seeks the +treetops to be nearer the sky," said Nyoda banteringly. "If I +may intrude such a material question among your ethereal +desires," she continued, "how are you going to get your blankets +up there?" + +Migwan stopped, a little taken aback. The tree-house was more +than thirty feet from the ground and in order to get into it the +girls had to climb up the limbs of the tree. Some of the +branches were far apart and it was quite a stretch to make the +distance, while the long space from the ground to the first +branch was notched to assure a foothold. It was easy enough +climbing empty-handed, but scrambling up there with an armful of +blankets was another matter. Nyoda watched the expression on +Migwan's face with keen amusement. This was the sort of thing she +was always doing--her poetic fancy would be kindled to a certain +idea without ever stopping to consider the practical side. But +Migwan was resourceful as well as romantic. She took in the +situation at a glance, laid her blankets at the foot of the tree, +and repaired to the kitchen, whence she presently emerged with a +long rope, made of sundry short ropes tied together and pieced +out with strips of cloth. Winding this around her waist, she +climbed the tree and fastened one end of it to the railing of the +Crow's Nest. Then she let the other end down, asked Nyoda to tie +her bedding to it, and hauled it up with the greatest ease. The +floor struck her as being far from soft when she spread her +blankets out, and by dint of much labor she also hauled up her +mattress. Then she had a further inspiration and laid the +mattress across two poles, which kept it up off the floor and +made it softer yet. + +The moon and stars seemed very close, when she finally had the +bed fixed to her satisfaction and stood looking around her. In +fact, it seemed as if she could put out her hand and grasp the +Great Bear by the tail. Jupiter was just at her left hand, +peeking impudently through the branches while she undressed. +Down below the tents gleamed ghostly in the pale light. + +What an airy cradle it was, after she was rolled in the blankets +and fixed comfortably for sight seeing! The breezes fiddled +through the twigs, making elfin music, and the tree-house swayed +gently. It was too beautiful to sleep through, and Migwan lay +awake hour after hour in wonder and delight, watching the moon +steer her placid course across the sky. She saw Jupiter +culminate and incline to westward; saw Arcturus sink behind the +hills, and watched the Dipper go wheeling round the pole like the +hand of an enormous clock. + +Off somewhere in the woods a whip-poor-will was lamenting; the +waves splashed against the rocks below; a cricket chirped at the +foot of the tree. Migwan turned over to get a look at the view +on the other side and her pillow went overboard with a soft plop. +She leaned over the edge to see where it had gone and the poles +slid gently apart, letting the mattress down flat on the floor. +She adjusted herself to the new position and continued looking +up. + +When all the stars had traveled to the morning side of the sky +she finally dropped off to sleep, only to waken again with the +first faint gray light of dawn. A frowzy, cocky-looking bird +flew into the tree just above her head and balanced himself on +the limb. He had evidently been out all night and was sneaking +home in the wee sma' hours, much the worse for dissipation. He +teetered back and forth for a moment, then began unsteadily +climbing the stairs up the branches. Migwan hoped his wife was +waiting for him at the top step, and listened to hear the curtain +lecture he would receive. She heard no uproar, however and +concluded he was a bachelor and could go and come when he +pleased. + +In contrast to Migwan's peaceful night, Hinpoha lay tossing in +dire distress. She was no sooner in bed than the biscuits she had +gobbled for dinner started to make war on the slumgullion, and +the lemonade began to have words with the blueberries. The fudge +was a power unto itself and made war on all the rest. Hinpoha +tried to get up and get something to relieve herself, but she was +so dizzy she couldn't stand. A great monstrous biscuit was +sitting on the pit of her stomach, squeezing the breath out of +her, and she sank back on the pillow. Sahwah finally heard her +groan and got up and brought her some hot water, which settled +the dispute going on in her stomach. + +Gladys and Sahwah were coming home from the village in the launch +one afternoon, where they had been to get the milk. It looked +like rain and they were hastening to get back to camp. Great was +their vexation, therefore, when the engine wheezed a few times +and then stopped dead still. Investigation revealed that the +gasoline had given out. "Why didn't I think to fill her up +before we left?" said Sahwah impatiently. "Here we are, out in +the middle of the lake with never an oar or a paddle, and not a +bit of breeze blowing. Why, we aren't even drifting!" To all +appearances it looked as if they were becalmed there for the rest +of the afternoon, until they would be missed from camp, and +Gladys said so, resignedly. + +"I should say I won't stay here all afternoon," said Sahwah. +"I'll swim ashore first. The girls are waiting for this milk. I +wonder if anybody would see us if we ran up a distress signal?" + +"What could we use for one?" asked Gladys. + +Sahwah looked around for a moment and then calmly took off her +middy and waved it around her head by one sleeve. They were +hidden from camp by a bend in the shore line, but they hoped to +attract the attention of some of the other campers along the +lake. Besides waving the middy, both girls called and yodled +until they were hoarse. At last they had the satisfaction of +seeing a launch coming across the lake toward them, with a flag +waving in answer to their signal. Sahwah hastily put on her +middy again. There were two boys of about sixteen in the launch +and they stopped alongside of the _Sunbeam_ and inquired the +trouble. + +"We have run out of gasoline," said Sahwah. + +"Would you like us to tow you in so you can get a fill-up?" asked +the boy who was running the launch. "We're from the Mountain +Lake Camp over yonder, and have plenty of gasoline to spare." +The girls agreed and the boys threw them a tow line and off they +went toward the shore. Upon landing they found themselves in a +large summer camp for boys. Boys of every age and size from six +years up to eighteen were swarming around the dock, waiting to +see who the distressed sailors were, and the girls became the +center of interest. The two boys who had brought them in, and who +had introduced themselves as "the Roberts brothers, Ed and Ned," +called one of the senior Counsellors and told him the trouble, +and he willingly agreed to sell Sahwah and Gladys a quantity of +gasoline. Great interest was aroused when the girls said they +were from Camp Winnebago, for the fame of some of their doings +had gone about the village, and their singing on the lake at +night had been heard by more people than they knew. + +"Didn't one of your girls tow in another one with both her arms +broken?" asked one of the boys standing near. Sahwah and Gladys +laughed outright at this version of the story. When Gladys +announced that Sahwah was the heroine in question and she the +nearly drowned maiden a ripple went went through the camp. + +"I don't see how you ever did it," said another of the boys, +"you're so little!" Sahwah was sorely tempted to do one of her +famous dives right then and there, only she knew that such an +exhibition would be entirely out of place, and so restrained +herself. It began to rain while they were waiting for the +gasoline and the Counsellor insisted upon their remaining until +it stopped, and took them up into one of the bungalows in which +the boys lived. + +Before they left he showed them all over the camp. The boys +lived in little wooden lodges called Senior and Junior Lodges, +the younger ones on one side of the camp and the older ones on +the other. They were divided into three classes according to +their swimming ability, namely, minnows, perch and salmon, and +the different groups had different swimming hours. + +"Do you have different grades in swimming, too?" asked Ned +Roberts. + +"No," replied Sahwah, "we're all salmon!" Ned looked at Gladys +expressively and Sahwah read his meaning. "Oh, she swims +beautifully now," she said loyally. + +"At any rate, I wouldn't have to be rescued any more, even if I +don't classify as a salmon," said Gladys. + +Sahwah could not help noticing how much Gladys was at her ease +among these boys. Her eyes sparkled and her lips smiled and she +displayed a lively interest in all that they showed her. One of +the Roberts boys, Ed, was quite taken with her and determined to +see more of her before the summer was over. When they took their +departure these two boys asked permission to call on her and +Sahwah. "Wouldn't you like to bring some more of the boys, and +come and see all of us?" said Gladys. + +"I'll bring the boys over sometime," promised the Counsellor. + +The very next morning a twelve-year-old boy wearing the uniform +of the Mountain Lake Camp came in a launch and presented a note +to Nyoda. It read: + +"Mountain Lake Camp sends greetings to Camp Winnebago and begs +permission to send a delegation to call and pay its respects." + +Nyoda wrote in answer: + +"Camp Winnebago heartily returns Mountain Lake Camp's greetings +and begs to say that it will be at home this very sundown." + +What a flutter of excitement there was after the envoy had gone! +Gladys and Sahwah were overwhelmed with questions about the boys +and conjectures as to how many and which ones were coming. Tents +were cleaned and put in such order as they had never known +before; the shack was decorated with grasses and wild flowers; +canoe cushions were brushed; songs were practised and lemons +squeezed, that everything might be in readiness for the visitors! +Skirts which had not been worn since the beginning of summer were +brought out of trunks and the wrinkles pressed out. Then there +rose such a chorus of exclamations that the birds stopped their +own chattering to listen. + +"Oh, I can't get my skirt shut!" "Why, I can't either! Not by +two inches!" "Oh, fudge! There goes the button!" From every +side came the same wail. Not a girl there who had not gained from +five to fifteen pounds, and the tight skirts, made to fit in +their slenderer days, were a sorry sight. "What _will_ we do, +Nyoda?" they groaned to their Guardian, who was in the same +plight herself. + +"The only thing we can do," said Nyoda, "inasmuch as we haven't +time to make them over, is for all of us to wear our white linen +skirts with our middies outside, so it won't show how much they +gap. And let this be a solemn warning to every girl to look over +her clothes before it is time to go home!" + +Promptly at sundown four canoes appeared around the cliff, each +manned by two paddlers, and drew up alongside the Winnebago dock, +where the girls stood to welcome them. The Counsellor who had +shown Sahwah and Gladys around the boys' camp was there, and the +Roberts brothers and five more of the senior campers. Ed Roberts +looked around for Gladys the first thing, and his brother for +Sahwah, while the rest paired off with the other girls as they +went up the hill to the shack. Nyoda was not very fond of having +her company sitting around in pairs and immediately started them +to playing games which took them all in, and followed the games +up with a Virginia Reel. Ed Roberts was filled with impatience +at this method of entertainment, for it gave him no chance to +monopolize Gladys as he would have liked to. He saw that she was +a good dancer and was eager to try a new Hesitation step with +her. + +By and by Gladys slipped from the room and returned dressed in a +fancy dancing costume. Poising on her toes as lightly as a +butterfly, she did some of her choicest dances--"The Dance of the +Snowflake," "The Daffodil," "The Fairy in the Fountain." The +admiration of the boys knew no bounds, and she received a perfect +ovation. + +"Now, Sahwah, do your dance," commanded Nyoda. Sahwah shrank +back and did not want to, saying that after Gladys's performance +anything she could do would seem pitifully flat. But the boys +all urged her to try it, and at last she allowed herself to be +led out on the floor by Gladys. She was still in an agony of +embarrassment and wished the floor would open and swallow her, +but it was a rule of the Winnebagos that if they were called on +to perform for the entertainment of visitors they must do the +thing called for to the best of their ability, and Sahwah knew +that if she refused to dance the reckoning with Nyoda would be +worse than the embarrassment of dancing, so she swallowed hard +and went to work. She got through it very creditably indeed and +was rewarded with hearty applause, which made her more fussed +than ever. + +Then boys and girls alike clamored to be allowed to "just dance" +and Ed Roberts had plenty of opportunity to try his new +Hesitation with Gladys. But after she had danced three or four +times with him in succession she left him for another partner. +This made him cross and he would not ask any one else to dance +until a quiet word from his Counsellor sent him rather unwillingly +on to the floor again. "Mayn't I have this one?" he pleaded +every time after that, but Gladys smilingly declined, saying she +had promised every one of the boys a dance and would not get +around if she gave him any more, to which he assented politely, +fuming inwardly, and wanted Gladys to himself more than ever. +"Bet I don't get another dance with her to-night," he thought +crossly, and this was exactly the case, for Nyoda presently +suggested lemonade and the dancing stopped. + +It was nearly nine o'clock by this time, but the boys pleaded so +hard for a ride on the lake in the canoes that Nyoda yielded and +granted fifteen minutes extra. Ed Roberts took immediate +possession of Gladys and led her into his canoe before she had +time to say a word. He pushed off before there was time to put +any one else in with them, for some of the canoes had to carry +four. As they paddled through the moonlit water the girls sang +"Across the Silver'd Lake" and by and by the boys added a few +bass and tenor notes to it. Fairly in tune now they sang song +after song in time to the dipping of their paddles. + +"How much better any song sounds with a bass to it!" said Nyoda +to the Counsellor in the canoe with her, which remark, though +merely an effort to start a conversation on Nyoda's part, caused +the Counsellor to flush to the roots of his hair and get +completely out of stroke. + +Sahwah, up at the head of the procession with Ned Roberts, was in +her element. He was a fine paddler and his stroke matched hers +exactly. They were in her own little canoe, the _Keewaydin_, and +as it was so much lighter than the others they were continually +getting ahead. She taught him the "silent" paddle of the +Indians, which they used to hide their approach, twisting the +paddle around under the surface to avoid the sound of dipping. +She told him about the rifle which Gladys's father had sent her, +and he promised to teach her to shoot it when the boys made the +all-day visit which Nyoda had suggested. + +Ed Roberts managed to keep himself and Gladys at the tail of the +procession. He was continually stopping to let the canoe drift +and gradually widening the distance between them and the others. +When they rounded one of the little islands he stopped so long +that the first canoes got out of sight around the bend, leaving +them hidden behind the island. Gladys would have paddled on, but +he begged her to stop and talk awhile. "Let's land on the island +and sit on the rocks in the moonlight," he proposed. Gladys +refused. + +"Nyoda wouldn't like it," she said, "and it's past our bed time +already. The other canoes have started for home." + +"O bother bed time!" said Ed petulantly. "Who could bear to go +to bed on a night like this? Besides, you can tell Miss Kent +that I broke my paddle and we had trouble getting home." + +Gladys shook her head indignantly. "I'll do no such thing," she +said. "You take me home immediately, Ed Roberts, or I'll send +out a call for Nyoda." Sulkily he picked up his paddle and dipped +it in the water. Gladys paddled so energetically that they soon +came up with the others and landed at the dock with them, and as +the rest had been so occupied with their own affairs the +disappearance of the one canoe for several minutes had gone +unnoticed. The boys shook hands all around and departed in their +canoes, singing until they disappeared around the cliff. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BLUEBERRY ISLAND. + +Gladys sat poring over the list of honors in the Handbook, +looking for new worlds to conquer. She had been a Wood Gatherer +for several weeks and was hoping to be made a Fire Maker before +the end of the summer. With considerable pride she painted in +the pictographs on her record sheet which stood for the honors +already won. "Swim one hundred yards"--was it really true? At +the beginning of the summer this honor had seemed as unattainable +as flying the same distance in the air. She was also learning to +recognize the different birds, trees and flowers that she found +in the woods and along the roads. She was a very much surprised +girl indeed when Nyoda pointed out at least a half dozen +different varieties of ferns and grasses on one afternoon's walk. +"Are there different kinds of ferns and grasses?" she asked in +astonishment. "I thought grass was just grass and ferns were just +ferns, and that was all there was to it." Winning honors had +become a fascinating game, and she read carefully through the +list, putting a mark opposite those she thought she could +accomplish before the next Council Fire. + +Sahwah, sitting near her similarly occupied, suddenly called to +Nyoda. "How about all of us winning this honor for planning an +outing to include as many boys as girls?" she asked. "We have +never had our trip to Blueberry Island, and it would be fun to +have the boys along for a whole day." All the girls immediately +shouted their approval and Nyoda said it would be a fine idea. +"We'll have to go in a couple of days, though, for the blueberries +will not last much longer," she said. "We'll ask them this very +day." Nyoda delivered the invitation in person. Sherry, the +Counsellor, who had escorted the boys the other night, was +mending the dock when she approached in the _Sunbeam_, and was +very much surprised and delighted to see her. He received the +idea of a joint excursion with enthusiasm, but said he would have +to wait until the camp director returned from a day's trip with +three of the older boys before he could accept definitely. He +would let her know in the evening. Now Sherry knew well enough +that there was no question about accepting the invitation, but he +had a sudden feeling that a visit to Camp Winnebago that night +would benefit his health considerably, and so delayed his answer. + +Nyoda returned to camp and reported the result of her mission, +and the girls settled down to wait for definite news. "Ned +Roberts told me he wished they could come over every night;" said +Sahwah, poising her woodblock in the air preparatory to stamping +it down on the table cover she was decorating. + +"Gracious!" said Migwan, "what a bore that would be! We'd never +get anything done for ourselves, because we'd spend all day +getting ready for them." Migwan begrudged every minute that she +lost from the book she was making for Professor Bentley. + +"It's impossible anyway," said Gladys in a tone of finality, +"because we haven't enough skirts to last. I'll have to let out +the belt of mine before I can wear it again. It was so tight +last night I nearly died! That reminds me," she went on, "has +anybody seen that yellow scarf I had last night when I was +dancing the 'Daffodil'? I don't seem to be able to find it this +morning." Nobody had seen the scarf, but all promised to look +through their belongings to see if it had accidentally been put +in among them. "I thought I left it hanging on the railing of +the shack," said Gladys. + +"I might as well fix my skirt right away," said Sahwah, when +conjectures about the whereabouts of the scarf had ceased, "I'll +never have any more time than now." She rose and went to her +tent but returned in a few moments looking mystified. "I can't +find my white skirt," she announced. "I hung it on the tent +ropes last night because it got splashed with water in the canoe. +Has somebody taken it for a joke? Hinpoha," she cried, pointing +her finger at her, "you did it!" + +Hinpoha shook her head in all seriousness. "Not guilty this +time," she said. "The funny part of it is that I saw that skirt +hanging in the moonlight after I was in bed and thought what a +good joke it would be to throw it up on top of the tent, but I +was too sleepy to get up and do it." Sahwah still suspected +Hinpoha and Hinpoha went on declaring her innocence, when the +arrival of a messenger from the Mountain Lake Camp put an end to +the discussion. "He's bringing the answer to our invitation," +cried the girls, as the young lad came up the path from the dock. + +But instead of approaching Nyoda with his message as they +expected, he asked for "Miss Gladys" and handed her the envelope. +Gladys opened the note and read: + +"Dear Miss Gladys: The lateness of the hour kept us from having a +pleasant talk on the island the other night, but I hope we may +have an opportunity some other time. If I come for you to-night +will you go out canoeing with me, just you alone? And please get +permission to stay out as long as you like, as the Counsellor in +our lodge will be away to-night and if I'm not in when 'Taps' +blows nobody will know the difference. + + "In hopes, + + "ED ROBERTS." + +Gladys flushed painfully and all the girls crowding around teased +her and asked if it was a love letter. She wrote an answer and +gave it to the boy: + +"Dear Mr. Roberts: To-night is our Council Fire and naturally I +would not care to leave camp. I do not think I care to go any +other night, either, as a Winnebago could never take advantage of +a Counsellor's absence to stay out after hours. I am surprised +and disappointed in you." + +The boy departed and she threw Ed's note into the fire, simply +telling the girls that he had asked her to go out canoeing that +night and that she had refused. She said nothing about the +underhand business he had proposed or the episode of the other +night. The Camp Fire leaven had done its work thoroughly, and +Gladys had fulfilled that part of the Law which reads, "Be +trustworthy." + +Sherry, the Senior Counsellor, left the Mountain Lake Camp in the +gathering dusk, heading his canoe in the opposite direction from +Camp Winnebago. Far out in the lake he turned right about face +and pulled rapidly toward the Winnebago dock. A steady rain was +falling and he drew the canoe up on the sand and turned it upside +down carefully before mounting the path. He thought of course +the girls would be in the shack, and bent his steps thither, but +it was deserted; neither was there a sign of any one in the +tents. He looked into the Mess Tent and into the kitchen end of +the shack, but found no one. "Must be off for a ride," he +reflected. "No, that can't be, either, because all the boats are +in. They must have walked to the village." And with disappointment +showing in every line of his face he turned his steps back toward +his boat. Just then he heard the sound of singing coming from +somewhere. + + "Burn, fire, burn, + Burn, fire, burn, + Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flame!" + +With ears strained to listen he began to walk toward the sound. +Soon he saw the soft glow of a fire shining through the distant +trees and hastened toward it. + +"The torch shall draw them to the fire--" The wind carried the +words distinctly to his ears. Through the wet loneliness of the +woods the flame drew him like a magnet. Drawing nearer he saw a +bright fire burning high in the middle of an open space, +unchecked by the rain, and around it moved a number of black-robed +figures. He recognized the Winnebagos, clad in bathing suits and +bathing caps, and covered with their ponchos, calmly having their +Ceremonial Meeting in the pouring rain. The song over, they sat +down in a circle and went through their ritual with the water +streaming over their firelit faces. A play was enacted, which he +made out to be a pantomime presentation of "Cinderella," and he +recognized Nyoda in the guise of the fairy godmother. Hinpoha +was the prince and Migwan Cinderella. In the teeming rain she was +rescued from her ashy seat by the fireplace and borne to the +ball. As the prince bent over to fit the slipper to her foot a +perfect torrent rolled off his poncho into her lap and threatened +to swamp the romance. They plighted their troth with one hand +and held their ponchos around them with the other. + +Sherry pulled his sou'wester down over his ears and standing +under the shelter of a pine tree watched the performance to the +end. "Glory, what a bunch of girls," he muttered to himself. +"Having fun out in the wet woods while our boys are sticking +around in their dry bungalows!" The Council Fire came to an end +and the girls filed out among the trees singing the goodnight +song. Of course Sherry didn't know the difference, but instead +of singing the regular words, "May the peace of our firelit +faces," most of the girls were singing, "May the peace of our +dripping noses!" Nyoda was the last to come, as she had lingered +to extinguish the fire, and Sherry placed himself directly in her +path and stepped out from behind a tree as she came along. She +started violently and flashed her bug light in his face. "Don't +be afraid," he said, embarrassed and blushing, "it's only I, come +to tell you that the boys can accept your invitation to go to +Blueberry Island next Wednesday." + +"Oh," said Nyoda, lowering her bug light and laughing, "that's +very good news indeed. The girls will be glad to hear it. I +must tell them right away!" + +Sherry thought to himself that the news might keep awhile, as he +had several other topics of conversation which would have +beguiled the way up to the tents, but Nyoda called out to the +girls and they came running back and swarmed all over her, and +there was no chance for the poor man to say a word. After +standing around for a few minutes he took his leave and paddled +back to Mountain Lake Camp, looking rather drenched and forlorn. + +The girls spent the next day in preparation for the picnic, full +of joyous anticipation, but Gladys was filled with secret +trepidation. She knew Ed Roberts would be there, and would try +to force himself upon her, and she was afraid her pleasure would +be spoiled. She said nothing about it, however, for she feared +Nyoda would take some decisive action which might result in none +of the boys being allowed to go. + +Migwan came along in the midst of the preparation and announced +that her red middy tie had disappeared. The words were hardly +out of her mouth when Hinpoha came in declaring that her bathing +cap must have evaporated, for it was gone from the tent ropes +where she had left it. The girls looked at one another with +consternation in their faces. If some one wasn't playing a joke +there must be a thief in camp! That one of the Winnebagos should +be taking the other girls' things was inconceivable. They were +bound to each other by bonds stronger than sisterhood; they knew +each other's very thoughts, almost, and to suspect one of their +number of stealing hurt worse than a blow; and yet here were +their things disappearing almost under their hands! No, the +thing was impossible. What would one Winnebago gain by taking +the other girls' clothes? She could not wear them without +instant detection and they would be worth nothing if sold. A +scarf, a white skirt with a seam burst open, a tie with a spot of +ink in it, a half-worn bathing cap--what could induce any one to +take them? The thing became uncanny. + +Nyoda wondered uncomfortably how long Sherry had been in camp the +previous night before he had made himself known, and Gladys +shuddered at the possibility of Ed Roberts having a hand in it. +Each time things had disappeared some one from Mountain Lake Camp +had been over. The girls had been in the habit of leaving all +their belongings open and spread around, with never a thought for +their safety, but now they began putting them away carefully. +They all felt uncomfortable doing it and each one hoped she was +unobserved. There was an air of restraint about the camp that +had never existed before, and it reacted in a general crossness. +The singing in the evening seemed all out of tune and the fire +smoked because the wood was damp and everything had a false note +in it. Nyoda was glad when it was time to blow the bugle. + +Even then there was no immediate peace. No sooner were they +settled in bed than from the lake below came the sound of a manly +voice raised in song, accompanied by the strumming of a guitar. +"There's your lover, Gladys," giggled Sahwah, "I recognize his +voice. He plays the guitar, his brother told me so." Gladys hid +her face in the pillow and the girls kept on teasing her. +"Aren't you going to reward your gallant troubadour by tossing +him a flower or a glove, or something?" called Nyoda from the +other tent. + +"I'd like to toss him a rock," said Gladys savagely to herself. +Finding his efforts unrecognized, the serenader finally desisted, +and they heard the dipping of his paddle as he departed. + +The girls were at work bright and early the next morning, for +they were to be ready to leave for Blueberry Island by nine. +With a great waving of paddles the boys arrived promptly on the +dot and jumped out to help stow the empty baskets for berries and +the full baskets of lunch into the boats, together with the cups +and kettles. + +Gladys had been wondering all morning how she should treat Ed +Roberts and stood around so quiet and pensive that Nyoda rallied +her on her lack of spirits. "Are you so anxious to see your +troubadour that you forget to talk?" she asked. + +Gladys, suddenly grown weary of all this teasing, said +vehemently, "I don't like Ed Roberts and I wish you would stop +talking about him to me." + +"Don't you really like him?" said Nyoda, grown serious in an +instant. + +Gladys shook her head. "He thinks I shouldn't talk to any one +but himself, and he's forever trying to get me off into corners +away from the others. All he talks is nonsense; calls me 'kid' +and 'girlie,' and actually tried to hold my hand when we were +going down to the canoes that night. It makes me tired! I wish +I didn't have to go to-day." + +Nyoda puckered her brows, but thought best not to treat the +matter too seriously, and merely said, "Stay near me all day and +I don't think he will act that way." + +There were sixteen of them altogether and only seven canoes, +counting the _Keewaydin_, so one canoe had to carry four. When +Nyoda got in with Sherry, Gladys got in right after her, and Ed +Roberts, who was trying to get a canoe for himself, either had to +get in also or let some one else have the place. He chose the +former and was placed as bow paddler with his back to the others +and Nyoda between him and Gladys. + +The day was perfect and every one in high spirits. The berries +were thick on the Island and the baskets were filled with little +trouble. Gladys kept close to Nyoda. After a courteous greeting +she had paid no further attention to Ed, and during the picking +he stayed in the background, sulky and chagrined. When the +berries were picked Gladys went to help Nyoda make the blueberry +pudding, which was to crown the feast. Sherry sought out Ed +Roberts. "You big boob," he said, "why don't you take that +Gladys girl away from Miss Kent and keep her entertained? She's +sticking so close beside her I have no chance to talk at all. +Where are your manners, anyway, leaving her without a partner?" +Ed looked at him sourly, and then he brightened at the prospect +of having Sherry for an ally. + +"If you can manage to lose her somewhere near me I'd be +delighted," he said. But Gladys steadfastly refused to be "lost" +and Nyoda was constantly requiring her assistance, so the two +were never very far away from each other. + +Sahwah and Ned were having a glorious time. He was teaching her +to shoot her rifle and she was proving a very apt pupil indeed, +hitting the paper three times out of five the first round. Not +so Hinpoha, who was also being taught. She took aim with her +left eye and pulled the trigger with her right hand and the +result was that she could not even hit the tree on which the +paper was fastened. She screwed her face up into a frightful +grimace and turned her head away when she fired, as if she +expected the explosion to blow her head off. But Ned gallantly +assured her that she would be a good shot in time and never made +one remark about "the way girls do such things." Hinpoha +persisted until she had hit the paper once and then left to put +her slumgullion over the fire, assisted by Lane Allen, who had +followed her around since the first night he visited the camp. + +Soon dinner was ready and the hungry crowd spread out on the +rocks to be served with good things cooked over the open fire. +"Leave room for blueberry pudding!" Gladys cautioned every one, +viewing with alarm the quantities of slumgullion and sandwiches +that were being consumed. "No danger!" laughed Ned. "I could eat +everything in sight and still have room for all the blueberry +pudding you have. Bring it on!" Gladys served every one with a +heaping big dish, and with "'Ohs" and "Ahs" of enjoyment they +sent it the way of the rest of the feast. + +"Now we must heat water to wash the dishes," said Nyoda, when +every one had reached the limit of eating. + +"You let us fellows attend to that," said Sherry decisively, +"it's enough that you got the dinner." He calmly took her big +cook's apron away from her and put it on himself. The boys fell +to with a will and the dishes were soon off the scene. In the +afternoon they divided the company into two parts and had a +shooting match with Sahwah's rifle. Some of the girls surprised +themselves by hitting the paper the first time, and more than one +hit the bull's eye before her round was over. Ed Roberts called +out the wrath of Sherry because he would point the gun at people, +and lost his turn in consequence, which did not improve his +temper. Later he received a sharp rebuke from Sahwah because he +wanted her to shoot at a song sparrow, and retired to the beach +by himself to mope. He was no more like his frank, courteous, +sunny-hearted twin brother than day is like night, and Nyoda +understood fully Gladys's aversion to him. + +They went paddling home in the rosy sunset singing "A Perfect +Day," which it had been to every one but Ed Roberts, all vowing +that they must get together again before the camps broke up. +Long after the others were wrapped in slumber Sahwah lay staring +into the moonlight. She was never more wide awake. The night +was hot and the blankets seemed to stifle her. "I can't sleep!" +she declared to herself as she thumped her pillow for the +twentieth time, "I'm going to get up awhile." + +She stepped softly out of bed, slipped on her sweater and stood +at the door of the tent looking out into the night. By and by +her feet began to move as by their own impulse and carried her +down the path to the lake. The _Keewaydin_ lay on the beach +bathed in moonlight, and scarcely knowing what she was doing she +drew it down to the water's edge, launched it and got in. She had +no thought of disobeying Nyoda by going out after bedtime; she +was not thinking at all; she was moving in a sort of wide-awake +dream. It was one of those strange wild fancies that seize girls +in their teens and she was going out to play in the moonlight +like an elf. The lake exerted its magic influence over her and +drew her to itself when awake as it had done once before in her +sleep. Straight across the lake she paddled, following the path +of the moonbeams, to where the rocky shore reared its steep +cliffs on the other side. At the base of one of the highest +cliffs there was a tiny cave and into this Sahwah steered the +_Keewaydin_. Inside it was as black as ink and so low that she +had to bend her head. + + "Chaos and ancient night--" + +The words came aimlessly into her mind. From afar off in the +depths of the cave came the sound of water falling. She +shuddered at the awfulness of it and backed the canoe out. + +During those minutes she had spent in the cave a change had come +over the moon. It was fast becoming veiled and a heavy mist was +settling on the lake, closing around her like a mantle. She had +not the slightest idea where she was, nor in which direction she +was going. The spell of the moonlight was gone and she was wide +awake. She felt chilly and very much afraid. She lost her sense +of direction and dared not steer out toward the middle of the +lake, but kept close to the shore, following the sound of the +waves as they dashed on the rocks. A strong breeze sprang up and +the light canoe tossed like a blossom in the wind. On and on +around that great curve of the shore line she paddled, until her +arms ached from the strain. + +The waves flung themselves upon the rocks with a horrible moaning +sound that chilled the marrow of her bones. Then came the +weirdest sensation that something was swimming after the boat. +It was really only the swirls made by the rocks below, but in +that queer light every wave seemed topped by a head that twisted +its neck after her and then started in pursuit. Her teeth +chattered, and her hands trembled so she could hardly hold the +paddle. Thus passed the night--fearful, unreal, endless. When +morning came the mists began to lift and she could see where she +was. She was quite close to camp, still very near to shore. She +had paddled halfway around the circumference of the lake, a +distance of nearly twelve miles. In the hush of dawn she beached +the _Keewaydin_ and crept up to bed, falling asleep immediately +from exhaustion. + +No one knew that she had gone out, and she never told any one, +not even Nyoda. It was not that she was afraid to tell Nyoda +that she had broken bounds, but the whole experience seemed so +unreal to her that she did not see how she could ever explain it +at all. She knew it was not her fault and at the same time she +knew that she would never do it again, and so it remained a +secret. In fact, in a few days she was not at all sure that she +had not dreamed the whole thing--except for her shoulder, which +was lame for a week. + +The morning after Sahwah's nocturnal journey the camp was thrown +into consternation by the discovery that Nyoda's sweater was +gone. The last time she remembered having it was coming home +from Blueberry Island, when she had given it to Sherry to hold +while she unpacked the cups from the canoes. This was the first +thing of value that had been taken, but it might not be the last, +and Nyoda was really worried. Sahwah's fine furs were in a trunk +in the shack, along with the rest of her presents, and she +remembered with a start that Sahwah had shown them all to the +boys when they were over. Since yesterday a distrust of Ed +Roberts sprang up in her mind, and she wondered if there could be +any connection between his determined hanging around the camp and +the disappearance of the articles. Might not the taking of the +unimportant things at first be a deliberate blind? Calling +Sahwah she made her put all the things from Canada in the trunk +and locked it securely, after first weighting it down with stones +so that it could not be carried away bodily by less than six men. + +A short time later Sahwah came in in a high state of excitement. +Her bathing suit was gone! Here was trouble indeed. Sahwah would +have been sorry if the furs had been stolen, but it would not +have roused her half so much as the taking of her bathing suit. +Sahwah without a bathing suit was like a horse without a head. +"I'm going to sit up all night and watch," she declared. + +"We'll all sit up, I think," said Nyoda. "If the thief comes +again he'll find a bivouac." Accordingly that night they all +stayed up, sitting in the shadow of the shack. The tents were +plainly visible in the moonlight. The place was as calm and +still as a churchyard, and did not look as if it could be the +scene of such mysterious doings. Hour after hour passed and +nothing happened. The thief had evidently changed his mind +to-night. The girls yawned and dozed and wished they were in +bed. Suddenly there was a crashing in the underbrush that made +the girls sit up as if an electric shock had passed through them. +With a rapid snapping of dry twigs and waving of tall grass the +bushes parted and a great St. Bernard puppy dashed up the path to +the tents. Seizing a bath towel that hung on a rope he worried +it for a moment with his jaws and then made off with it in the +direction he had come. + +For a moment astonishment held them speechless, then Sahwah broke +into her giggle and they all screamed with laughter. The thought +of the weighted trunk overcame them and they doubled up weakly on +the shack floor. Ten minutes later the puppy was back again, +looking for something else to chew. They drove him off with +switches and he ran yelping with his tail between his legs. He +never came again. "I don't doubt but what we'll find all our +belongings scattered through the woods," said Nyoda. Which was +exactly the case. A search by daylight disclosed all the missing +articles, strewn through the various paths and hollows, all more +or less chewed, but still recognizable. Thus the specter of +suspicion that had been hovering over the camp vanished into thin +air. + +In spite of the fact that Gladys had made her feeling toward Ed +Roberts perfectly plain, the nocturnal serenades continued. +Nightly at about half-past nine, they would hear a canoe scrape +on the rocks in the shadow of the great cliff, and then the voice +and the guitar would begin. For fifteen minutes or more the +songs would float up to the occupants of the tents, and then the +serenader would paddle away. The girls never gave any sign of +hearing, but this did not seem to discourage the singer any. +They had ceased to tease Gladys about Ed and were no longer +thrilled at the serenades. The business was getting monotonous. +Nyoda thought of sending word over to the head of the boys' camp +and having him put a stop to it; but this course struck her as +ridiculous and she determined to go down herself the next night +and send Ed about his business. + +Accordingly, when the first strains rose from the lake the next +night, she went down the path to the foot of the cliff, while the +girls above listened breathless for what would happen. She saw +the dim figure in the canoe outlined against the tall rock and +crossed the beach toward him. "Roberts!" she called sharply, "Ed +Roberts!" The singer ceased his song at the sound of her voice +and looked around. Nyoda stopped in confusion. The youth in the +boat was not Ed Roberts. It was Sherry, the Senior Counsellor. +"You came down at last?" he said joyfully. + +When Nyoda returned to the tents the girls eagerly demanded to +know "what he had said." But she waved all their questions and +sent them back to bed. Only to Gladys's, "Will he stop serenading +us now?" she returned a short, non-committal "Yes." + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ON SHADOW RIVER. + +The long awaited canoe trip, which had been put off "until Gladys +learned to swim," had at last become a reality, and bright and +early one morning the Winnebagos started off on a fifteen-mile +paddle up the Shadow River. Sahwah led the procession in the +_Keewaydin_, uttering shouts which she fondly believed to be in +imitation of an Indian warrior. Her new hunting knife hung at +one side of her belt, her own hatchet on the other, while the +rest of the space was decorated with her Wohelo knife and a +string of enormous safety pins with which to pin her blankets +together. In the bottom of the canoe reposed her rifle. Nyoda +had to turn her head away to hide a smile when she saw the +outfit. Sahwah looked like a floating cutlery store. Just why +she should elect to impersonate a brave instead of an Indian +maiden was not clear to Nyoda, but this was only another +illustration of her whimsical temperament. Part of the time the +stay-at-home duties appealed to her; the care of the hearthfire, +the cooking and cleaning and hand-craft; and then again her +imagination was kindled by tales of scouts and warriors and she +longed for the wild life of the hunter. + +Migwan, on the other hand, was the picture of shy, dreamy +girlhood, as she sat in the bottom of the canoe and let herself +be paddled along by two other girls so she might have her hands +free for writing down her impressions of the trip. Describing it +in a letter to her mother, she wrote: + +"I am packed in like a sardine between the ponchos and supplies. +Can you imagine me sitting in an inch of water, with one foot +straight up in the air, the other doubled under somebody's +poncho, and scarcely daring to breathe for fear of disturbing the +balance, placidly doing beadwork? It is quite an accomplishment +to thread a needle in a pitching canoe, but every one has +mastered the art." + +The trip up the Shadow River was ideally beautiful. The scenery +was still wild and natural, and the foliage very dense. Many of +the trees along the banks had four or five trunks, and leaned far +out over the water, making the shadows which gave the river its +name. A crane, startled by the approach of the canoes, rose in +wheeling flight over their heads. The willows waved their +feathery boughs in the sun and gleamed bright against the dark +background of the pines. Migwan noted down the different +contours of the trees, how the elms spread out wide at the top, +how the pines tapered to a point, how the maples spread out +irregularly. A flock of wild ducks passed them. In some places +the banks of the river were honeycombed by the holes of bank +swallows. A turtle, sitting on a half-sunken log, stretched his +neck and looked after them as long as he could see them. All +these things Migwan saw and set down in her book with a quiet +enjoyment. + +A ripple of excitement ran through the girls as they saw, far in +the distance, the big river steamer approaching. "Shall we land +until it has passed?" called Sahwah. + +"We can't land here," answered Nyoda, "the banks are nothing but +mud and slime. Come in as close to shore as possible, and keep +paddling so the waves from the steamer won't swamp you." The big +passenger boat nearly filled the river from bank to bank, but she +came very slowly and the waves she made did not amount to much +after all. The people on board ran to the rail with their +cameras to snapshot the three canoes full of girls--a birchbark +canoe ahead bearing the huntress with her rifle; a big green +canoe next packed with ponchos and supplies, followed by a canoe +with sails, at the top of which floated the Winnebago banner. +Sahwah saluted with her paddle as she passed; the other girls +waved their handkerchiefs in friendly greeting. + +Farther up the river there were rapids and the paddling became +strenuous indeed. The sails had to come down from the sailing +canoe, and the crew, who had been having an easy time, of it, had +to bend to their paddles with all their might. Going through a +rapid requires short, hard strokes in swift succession, to make +any headway at all, and more than once a canoe was whirled around +in the rushing water and hurled back downstream. Sahwah was +having a great time. She pretended that she was in the rapids of +the Niagara, paddling for her life, and put forth such strenuous +efforts that she soon left the others behind. + +The girls were so tired by the time they reached calm waters +again that Nyoda ordered them to land on a low green bank and +rest for an hour. They built a fire and cooked their dinner and +then stretched themselves in the shade of a large oak tree for a +nap. As far as the eye could see on every side there was no +trace of a human being; no house, no boat, no cultivated land. +It was as though they had stepped back a hundred years and were +in the midst of the primeval forest of song and story. Migwan +lay on her back in lazy contentment, watching the sunshine filter +through the leaves. Idly she drew out her pencil and began +scribbling words in her notebook: + + "Underneath this spreading tree, + Let us rest luxuriously; + And caressed by breezes mild, + And with song of birds beguiled, + Interweave our bright day dream + With a tale of wondrous theme." + +"Up, up, comrades," cried Nyoda, rising and returning to her +canoe. All through the lovely golden afternoon they paddled +steadily upstream, and just about sunset landed on a low green +meadow that ran down to the water's edge. Behind the tiny plain +the woods grew high and dark. Sahwah, watching the other girls +picking out their sleeping sites for the night, had an inspiration. + +"May I sleep out in the _Keewaydin_ to-night?" she asked Nyoda. + +"Why, yes," said Nyoda, "if you will tie it securely to a tree. +The current is pretty strong." They lingered long around the +camp fire that night, telling stories and watching the moon rise +over the treetops. None of them had ever experienced that +feeling of being so absolutely by themselves. Quiet and +unmolested as Camp Winnebago was, it seemed the center of +civilization compared to this. Migwan, who was in a poetical +mood, made up a new Camp Fire song and taught it to the girls: + + "Lofty pine tree, old and grim, + With the horned moon hooked round the topmost limb, + And the owl awatch on the branch below, + What is the song of the winds that blow + Through your boughs so mysteriously? + + They sing a song of the wide green world, + Of the leaves in the merry breezes whirled, + And rustle and murmur and moan and sigh + Of the storm that darkened the sunny sky, + And the ship that was lost at sea. + + Lofty pine tree, lone and grim, + With the moon peering over the topmost limb, + And the owl asleep on the branch below, + What is the song of the winds that blow + Through your twigs so caressingly?" + +Before rolling into their beds they all went for a moonlight swim +in the river, which each girl declared to be the most wonderful +experience of her life. No outdoor bed is quite so comfortable +as a grassy meadow and the Winnebagos settled themselves with +sighs of contentment. In her letter to her mother, Migwan wrote: + +"I have never seen such cloud pictures as I saw that night. Once +it looked as if a black-robed priest were holding the moon before +him like a basin, while a polar bear stood upright beside him, +his paws resting on a carved pillar. Once it seemed as if the +moon were about to enter a vast cavern, at the door of which +stood the figure of a youth with hands outstretched in welcome. +The moon paused before the door but did not enter. The youth +slid to the ground and crouched with head on knee in an attitude +of despair. A gigantic figure stood out in the light. Before +him danced a circle of elves. The figure in the doorway leaned +back and slept. Watching this strange panorama, I fell asleep." + +Nyoda awoke before sunrise and sat up to see if the rest were all +right. All those girls sleeping on the ground looked like an +army. She could not help wondering--would it ever come to that +in earnest? Was this semi-military training of the Camp Fire +girls all over the country a prophetic flash? She looked fondly +around at her charges. Hinpoha and Migwan were sleeping together +and the bed would hardly hold them. Both were still sound asleep +and both mechanically swatting mosquitoes in their sleep. At the +foot of her own bed the Winnebago banner was stuck into the +ground, keeping silent guard. Gladys's bed had come apart and +her bare feet were sticking out between the ponchos. + +Nyoda lay back for another nap to waken when the rising sun shone +in her face. She sat up again and this time she beheld a curious +sight. One of the ponchos, tied up in a long roll, suddenly rose +in the air, and after waving back and forth like a pendulum, +slowly descended. Smothered giggles burst from the beds about. +Again the phenomenon occurred. Nyoda jumped up suddenly. +Seizing the poncho, she shook it, and a head appeared at the +bottom end. It was Hinpoha. The girls had rolled her into her +poncho and tied it up, and she was lying on the ground with her +legs in the air when Nyoda first spied her. It was two hours +before rising time but the girls were all wide awake and ready +for larks. They sat up in bed and began to throw shoes at each +other, until Nyoda, in sheer self-defense, blew the rising bugle. + +The river was hidden from the girls by a heavy fringe of willows, +and Sahwah had not joined in the early morning frolic. When she +did not appear at the sound of the bugle Nyoda went down to call +her. There was no sign of the _Keewaydin_. Nyoda knew well that +Sahwah would not have paddled off by herself without saying +anything. The canoe had broken away and floated downstream while +she was asleep! Calling Hinpoha to come and paddle bow, Nyoda +launched a canoe and started in pursuit. A great fear tugged at +her heart. The rapids! The first one was not three miles down. +What if Sahwah should not wake up in time to see her danger! +With powerful strokes she sent the canoe flying downstream. +Fifteen anxious minutes passed and then they saw the _Keewaydin_ +floating merrily along ahead of them, with the rope trailing out +behind it and Sahwah still sound asleep in the bottom. They +caught the runaway and Sahwah sat up in great surprise. "Sahwah," +said Nyoda severely, "is that the best hitch-knot you can tie? +You come back to camp and tie fifty secure hitch-knots before you +get a bite of breakfast!" + +Migwan, fully dressed, stood on the bank of the river admiring +the scenery. Without moment's warning the ground gave way under +her feet and she tumbled headlong into the water. It was only up +to her waist, but the suddenness of the slide took her breath +away and she blinked dazedly at the laughing girls. Recovering +herself, however, she asked them to throw her her toothbrush, as +she might as well finish her toilet while she had the water so +handy! + +An instant later Gladys was in trouble. "Watch me dive!" she +called, and sprang from the bank. The water was shallow and the +bottom soft, and her head stuck fast in the mud while her feet +waved in the air. She was rescued from her uncomfortable +position, her face and hair plastered with mud. Next, Hinpoha, +swimming under water with the swift current, struck her head +against a log and emerged with a great bruise. Nyoda, trying to +get the pancake batter ready for breakfast, was nearly distracted +with this swift succession of accidents. "Every one of you come +here and sit in a row beside me," she commanded, "and the first +one that causes any excitement until breakfast is over will get +spanked!" + +"What a lovely cave!" exclaimed Migwan later when they were +exploring the woods. "It's a regular witch's cave. Nyoda, won't +you dress up like a witch to-night and tell our fortunes?" Nyoda +consented and the girls scoured the woods for hanging moss to +decorate the cave, and for pine cones to build a charmed fire. +They were busily transforming the bare rocks into a green +tapestried chamber, when Sahwah came up, crying as if her heart +would break, carrying in her arms a dead wild duck. + +"What's the matter?" asked Nyoda in alarm. + +"I shot it!" sobbed Sahwah. + +"But that's nothing to cry about," said Nyoda, "don't you know +that wild ducks are game birds? It's a bit out of season and you +mustn't shoot any more, but I must congratulate you on your aim." +Sahwah was a living riddle to her. Fearless as an Indian in the +woods and possessing the skill with a rifle to bring down a bird +on the wing, she was so tender-hearted that she could not bear to +think of having killed any living thing! Nyoda bade her cheer up +and pluck the fowl for roasting, and the girls danced for joy at +the thought of the feast in store for them. They left off +decorating the cave and went to constructing a stone oven in +which to cook the bird. It was a bit scorched on the outside +when done, but the meat was so tender it nearly fell apart. +Sahwah, who at first wanted to bury the martyr with full honors, +changed her mind when she smelled the savory odor and enjoyed the +dinner as much as the rest. + +When night fell the girls repaired one by one to the cave in the +woods to have their fortunes read. Nyoda, clad in her gray +bathrobe in lieu of a witch's cloak, trimmed with streamers of +ground pine, and with a high-peaked hat with a pine tassel on +top, was a weird figure as she bent over the low fire stirring +her kettle and muttering incantations. She read such amazing +things in the extended palms that the Truth Seekers' eyes began +to pop out of their heads. The grinning, toothless old hag +(Nyoda had blackened all her teeth but one), was so realistic +that they had to look closely to make sure that it was their +beloved friend and not a real witch. + +Near by Sahwah and Hinpoha were conducting a "Turkish Bath" for +the entertainment of the girls who were through having their +fortunes told. They had built a shelter of ponchos and had a fire +going. They heated small stones red hot and then plunged them +into a pail of water. The resulting steam heated the tiny +chamber and threw the patients into a dripping perspiration, +which limbered up their muscles, which were stiff from paddling. +They took the "Turkish Bath" in their bathing suits and went into +the river immediately afterward so as not to take cold. Nyoda +was the last customer, and helped take down the ponchos, and as +Sahwah and Hinpoha had their beds to make up she sent Migwan to +put out the fire. Instead of putting it out immediately Migwan +sat down to dream fire dreams, until Nyoda called her to come to +bed. Hastily scattering the fire brands with her feet she ran in +obedience to Nyoda's call, and the camp was soon wrapped in +slumber. + +In the place where the fire had been a tiny spark lay on a dry +leaf. Soon there was only a little curl of smoke where the leaf +had been, and the spark looked around for another leaf to eat up. +He found it and then put his teeth into a pine cone. From a tiny +spark he had grown to a hungry flame. The pine cone crackled and +snapped and jumped into a dry pine tree that lay nearby. In a +few minutes the twigs were burning merrily and the flame was +twice as big as when Sahwah was heating stones. Then the wind +came along and carried a flock of sparks into another dry tree, +and that one outdid the other and made a still bigger blaze! The +ground was covered with dry sticks and pine cones and the fire +leaped along with giant strides. Then it did a cruel thing. It +caught hold of a living pine tree and thrust its fiery tongues +deep into its bark. After that it took no heed whether a tree +was living or dead. Whole families of tender green needles +blazed up together, and when they fled into the arms of their +relatives for shelter started them blazing too. + +Nyoda, waking suddenly from a dream, sat up and saw the glare in +the woods, and blew the alarm call on the bugle. In an instant +the girls were awake and saw what was the matter. Getting +quickly into their bloomers and sweaters instead of white middies +they dipped into the river to get wet all over and then ran for +the blazing woods. The fire was spreading alarmingly through the +underbrush, and Nyoda set half the girls to clearing away the dry +wood in the path of the flames while the others threw water into +the blazing trees and beat the fire with wet ponchos. Sahwah +worked like a Trojan with her hatchet, cutting down young trees +bodily and hurling them out of the way. Every now and then a +shower of blazing pine needles would envelop the workers and if +it had not been for their wet clothes and hair they would have +been in constant peril of blazing up themselves. It took several +hours of the liveliest fighting before the last spark was +extinguished and the danger past. + +"Now then," said Nyoda when they had washed their blackened hands +and faces, "who had charge of putting out the camp fire last +night?" + +"I did," said Migwan in a small voice. + +"You, a Fire Maker!" said Nyoda, unbelievingly. That was all she +said, but Migwan crept away, overwhelmed with shame. The +privilege of tending the fire was counted an honor among the +Winnebagos. To let a fire go out that you had been set to watch, +or to leave a fire not properly extinguished was a disgrace. +Migwan learned an effective lesson that night about the +consequences of dreaming when she should have been doing. + +Nyoda thought that the girls would be tired out the next morning +after their strenuous midnight exercise, and planned to let them +sleep several hours later than usual. But at the first +appearance of the sun on the river they were wide awake and +impatient to get up. Pulling downstream seemed like play after +having come up, and going through the rapids with the current was +a delirious delight. All that was necessary was to keep the +canoe headed straight. Migwan paddled on the trip home and +Hinpoha sat in the bottom of the boat doing beadwork. "Hi, you, +up in front," called the girls in the sailing canoe, "look at the +way the wind is filling out our sails." Hinpoha turned to look, +and shifted her weight, which was considerable, to the side of +the canoe. The result was inevitable and in a moment the three +girls were in the river. The water was not very deep here and +they were able to touch bottom. Migwan and Gladys set to work +righting the canoe and fishing out the ponchos. The current +caught Hinpoha's bead loom and it went sailing merrily downstream, +with Hinpoha in hot pursuit. The girls shouted as they watched her. + +"How did you happen to tip over?" asked Nyoda, when they were +back in the canoe and the line had proceeded again. "I just +looked back to see your sails," said Hinpoha, "like this." She +craned her neck back to show Nyoda what she had done, and Presto! +over went the canoe again. "Isn't the water delicious?" she +cried, lazily swimming in with a poncho in tow. + +"Let's all go in," said Sahwah, "we have our bathing suits on +anyway." Nyoda gave the word, and the girls hopped into the +water like frogs, swam around for a while and then got back into +the canoes, where the sun soon dried their bathing suits. + +And so they paddled on, mile after mile, singing, laughing, +talking, following the winding course of the river down to its +mouth, and back into the wide waters of Loon Lake, toward the +camp which they had come to speak of as "home." The boys of +Mountain Lake Camp, having their swimming hour, saw the three +canoes passing out in the lake and heard the song of the girls +floating in on the wind, as their voices kept time to the dipping +of their paddles: + + "Oh, the laughing life, + Oh, the joyous strife + As my paddlers, struggling, bend low, + And the big rocks sing + To the River King, + And the waters forever flow!" + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +NOW OUR CAMP FIRE'S BURNING LOW. + +"It doesn't seem possible that the summer is nearly over and we +are going home next week," said Migwan. "It seems like only +yesterday that we came. And yet, somehow I feel as if we had +always been here together. Won't it seem queer, not to be eating +and sleeping together any more?" The Winnebagos were taking a +walk down the road that ran along beside the woods, seeking +specimens of flowers and weeds. They could not help noticing the +changes in the trees and flowers along the way. Many of the +leaves were already crimson, and the wild asters were blooming in +profusion everywhere. The air had the cool, crisp clearness of +autumn. The sky had become that deep blue which marks the +passing of summer, and the clouds seemed thicker in texture. The +girls drank in the air in great draughts like strong new wine, +rejoicing in the glorious weather, yet it made them feel sad, +because it meant that this most wonderful of all summers was very +near its end. This would probably be their last nature walk, and +the girls were taking a sample of every growing thing that looked +in the least promising, and snapshotting all the dear familiar +scenes, to be taken home and shown to friends, and the events +connected with them lived over again in the telling! + +Nyoda and Sahwah, covering the ground with their swift stride, +soon left the others far behind. "We really ought to wait for +the girls," said Nyoda, coming to a halt when she discovered that +they were so far in the lead, and seating herself on a stone +fence she helped herself to the blackberries which grew against +it, and held out a handful to Sahwah. Opposite them was an old, +tumble-down house, weatherbeaten and bare of paint, its empty +window sashes gaping like eyeless sockets. The girls had named +it the "Haunted House," and wove many a tale of mystery about it. +Beside it was an apple orchard, its trees dying of old age, and +under one of them was a grave with a headstone. Nyoda swung her +heels against the stone wall and contemplated this gaunt remnant +of other days. She glanced down the road to see if the girls +were coming. They were not yet in sight. + +"Sahwah," she said in a tone that proclaimed a sudden +inspiration, "I 'stump' you to go into the haunted house and make +ghostly noises when the girls come along." Sahwah needed no +urging to undertake a mission of this kind. Hand in hand the two +stole across the road and climbed in one of the windows of the +house. The door, locked years ago, was still holding its ground +against intruders. The room they stepped into was empty save for +an old spinning wheel, thick with dust and cobwebs, which stood +in the corner. The floor echoed hollowly to their footsteps and +instinctively they rose up on tiptoe, to stop the noise. Thus +they walked cautiously about making believe that they were +followed by ghostly footsteps, and clinging to each other in mock +terror. There was a closed door at one end of the room and Nyoda +whispered dramatically: "In one minute that door will swing open +and a ghostly hand will be thrust in." + +She had hardly finished speaking when the door did swing open, +and a hand clutching a paint brush came through. Nyoda gave a +fine shriek and fell over backwards as if fainting. The hand was +followed by a body and a head. "What the devil!" said a voice. +"Excuse me, ladies, what the devil!" Finding that the haunted +house was haunted by a painter they returned to the road and +resumed their seat on the fence to wait for the girls. + +Thus the days slipped by, each more lovely than the last, filled +to the brim with joyous incidents that would linger in the +memories of the girls as long as they lived. One of the big +events of this last week was the dancing party given for them by +the Mountain Lake boys. The boys' big assembly hall was +decorated with flags in honor of the occasion, in addition to the +trophies and banners lining the walls, which Mountain Lake Camp +had won in athletic and aquatic contests with other camps. +Hinpoha and Gladys were easily the belles of the ball, and had so +many partners to choose from that it was hard choosing. Sahwah +said afterward that she was glad she was not so popular, because +she did not have to spend so much time splitting dances up, and +consequently had more time to dance! Now all the girls were glad +indeed for Gladys's rigorous coaching, for they were complimented +on every side upon their "different" way of dancing. + +Nyoda fell in love with little Manuel, a nine-year-old Spanish +boy from Cuba. It was his first visit to America and his first +experience with American boys, and he often felt very homesick. +Nyoda, with her dark hair and eyes, reminded him of the young +women at home and he warmed to her like an old friend. "I like +not the baseball," he confided when she inquired as to his +favorite sports, "I like the high joomp." He and Nyoda danced +together so much that Sherry regretted his intercession with the +camp director that the little boys be allowed to stay up all +evening. + +Gladys had arranged a fancy dance taking in all of the girls, +which they presented during the course of the evening. The music +for it was the "Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz" and the girls +impersonated in their dance the Danube River, winding through its +green valley. The girls, dressed in light green, were the river +itself, while Gladys, in a filmy white dress with water lilies +twined in her long yellow hair, was the Spirit of the Danube, and +frolicked among the rhythmically swaying girls like a real river +nymph on the rocking waves of the mighty stream. Their dance +brought down the house, and the girls were obliged to do it three +times before they would stop applauding. + +Ed Roberts watched with jealous eyes as Gladys glided off with +one or another of the boys, but beyond the one dance she granted +him for politeness' sake she paid no further attention to him, +and he retired to the side lines to scowl upon the gay scene. +The evening drew to a close all too quickly and the boys and +girls parted, with many regrets and promises to write. + +The next day the Mountain Lake boys broke camp and departed for +their homes, and the girls gathered on the dock to see the +steamer go by. There was a great waving of handkerchiefs when +the _Bluebird_ rounded the cliff. "O look what they're doing!" +gasped Sahwah, as a commotion rose on the deck of the boat. The +boys had seized one of their number and were dragging him to the +rail in spite of vigorous resistance. Superior forces won out +and he went overboard with a mighty splash, in accordance with an +immemorial custom of the Mountain Lake Camp, that at least one +boy be thrown into the water with his city clothes on. The boy +didn't seem to mind it in the least, but climbed aboard again +perfectly good-natured, and waved his dripping hat at the girls +until a bend in the shore line hid them from sight. + +"O dear," cried Migwan, "to think that the next time the +_Bluebird_ comes we'll get aboard her and sail out through the +Gap and leave dear Camp Winnebago behind forever!" + +But Nyoda would not let them be sad even though it was all coming +to an end, and kept up such a perfect whirl of merrymaking that +they did not have any time to think of the evil day so near at +hand. Seeing Sahwah sitting pensively on the dock one day she +fastened a rope to the launch and bade her hang on to it and then +drove the launch around in swift circles. Sahwah shot through +the water like a torpedo, holding on for dear life and shrieking +with excitement. The other girls came running at the sound and +demanded to be towed likewise, and soon the launch had a tail +like a kite, that swished along at a fearful rate, leaving a long +foaming ridge in its wake, until one by one the joy riders +dropped off and swam ashore. + +The nights were very cool now and the girls required sweaters and +sometimes blankets when they sat on the high rocks after sundown +and watched the stars rise over the lake. Nakwisi was in +constant demand in those star watches to introduce the girls to +their brothers and sisters in the sky, and under her guidance +they soon learned where to look for Corona, Arcturus, The Twins, +Spica, Vega, Regulus and all the gentle summer stars. The wide +open spaces of the sky over the lake were a constant delight to +Nakwisi, and she kept saying, "What a joy it is not to have your +favorite constellation cut in half by a chimney or a telegraph +pole!" + +Willingly she told over and over again the story of Castor and +Pollux, of the Great Bear and the Little Bear, of Cassiopeia, and +Corona Borealis. They were thrilled night after night when +Scorpio sprawled his great length over the hilltops, with fiery +Antares glowing like a jewel in his shell. They traced out the +filmy scarf of the Milky Way and recalled the Indian legend of +this being the pathway of the departed spirits. Nakwisi told +another tale about two lovers who were separated in death and +placed on different spheres, and who built the Milky Way as a +bridge so they could communicate with each other. Nyoda had +taught the girls the three ways the Indians had of testing +eyesight, namely, by reproducing the spots on the rabbit, +counting the Pleiades, and spying out the little companion star +to the one in the handle of the Big Dipper, the pair which the +Arabs call the Horse and Rider, and the girls would not rest +until they, too, had caught sight of the tiny point of light. +And in learning to know the stars they were doing much more than +just that; they were making friends whom they would always keep +and love, and who would greet them with the same cheery twinkle +wherever they were, rich or poor or joyful or sad, as surely as +the seasons came round! + +The camp book was finished, and sent off to Professor Bentley +with its clever descriptions and cunning illustrations, bound in +a leather cover with the Winnebago symbol on the front. The +"doings" and adventures recounted in it made it very thick and +heavy, and yet there were so many things they had planned to do +that were left undone! "We never had our sleeping party on the +Bartletts' lawn," said Migwan regretfully. + +"Don't you remember," said Sahwah, suddenly grown reminiscent, +"when we were waiting for Gladys to come, you said she was going +to be your affinity, and I was afraid she would never look at me +at all?" And Sahwah smiled happily, for if Gladys had any +"affinity" at all it certainly was Sahwah herself. + +Meanwhile Gladys and Nyoda were sitting up on the Sunset Rock, +looking out over the water and enjoying their own thoughts. The +lake was absolutely calm, except for a few long ripples like +folds in satin. A motor boat cutting through left a long, +fan-shaped tail like a peacock. There was a faint rosy tint on +the water, as if the lake were blushing at the consciousness of +her own loveliness. Nyoda noted idly that the rocks under the +water looked warm and green; those above cold and gray. + +"Nyoda," said Gladys. + +"What is it, dear?" answered Nyoda, taking her eyes from the +lake. + +"I've been thinking a great deal of late," went on Gladys, "about +what I shall do this winter. You know mother has her heart set +on my finishing at Miss Russell's school, but the more I think of +it the more I see what I have lost by not going to the public +high school. So in my last letter to papa I asked him if I might +not go to public school the last two years, and I now have his +answer." She spread out a letter and handed it to Nyoda. It +read: + +"My dear daughter: Nothing could please me more than your +request to take the last two years of your high school work in +the public school instead of at Miss Russell's, although I must +say your mother made a considerable fuss at first on account of +the various classes of girls you would be thrown with. However, +she thought better of the plan when she heard that your little +friend Sahwah is a Brewster of the Samuel Brewsters, and this +Hinpoha person you are so fond of is Judge Bradford's granddaughter. +As long as Miss Kent is a teacher in the High School and takes +such an interest in you there is no objection on our part to your +going on to school in the company of your new friends. You are +old enough to choose your companions, so from now on it's going +to be 'up to you.' + + "Lovingly, + + "YOUR DADDY." + +"My dear child," said Nyoda, "this is certainly good news! I +have wanted very much to have you continue in the Winnebago group +this winter, but thought of course this was impossible, as you +were going away to school. How glad I am!" Their hands met in a +warm clasp, setting a new seal on their friendship. + +The girls, who had begun to dread the separation from Gladys, +were overjoyed at the prospect of having her in school with them. +"To think," said Sahwah, "that I have lived in the next block to +you for fifteen years, and never knew you until now!" + +Dr. Hoffman was very sorry indeed to say goodbye to Sahwah. "You +vill write to me, yes?" he begged. "In vinter I lif in Boston in +such a street," and he scribbled the address on the back of an +envelope. "And, if you should break any more bones, you let me +know, and I vill come and tie dem up!" + +Then came the last Council Fire at camp. With misty eyes they +rose to sing "Mystic Fire" once more under the spell of the +forest. + + "With hand uplifted we claim thy power, + Guide and keep us as we go, + True to Wohelo. + Thy law is our law from this hour, + Thy mystic spirit flame will show + Us the way to go--" + +The glow of their faces was not entirely from the fire which +flickered over them as they danced, but was mingled with the +light of that inner flame of Wohelo which had been kindled in +their hearts, and which would mould and color their whole lives. + +Gladys was to be made a Fire Maker at this Council, and when the +time came for the bestowing of rank Nyoda called for "Kamama the +Butterfly" to stand and present her qualifications. Gladys +stood, and before the initiation began asked if she might make a +request. Nyoda nodded and Gladys asked if it would be possible +for her to change her Camp Fire name. "State your reason," said +Nyoda. "If it is a plausible one the change is permissible." + +Gladys spoke in a firm, clear voice. "When I was choosing my +name I took 'Kamama the Butterfly' because it was such a pretty +design to put on my dress, and not because it meant anything to +me. I do not wish to be known as 'Kamama the Butterfly' any +longer. If I may, I would like to take the name Geyahi, which +means 'Real Woman.'" + +"Your reason is a good and sufficient one," said Nyoda, "and you +may make the change." Then followed the pretty ceremony of +taking a new Camp Fire name. The old one was written on a piece +of birchbark and put in the fire to signify that it was to be in +existence no longer, and as it burned the girls all pronounced +the new name in concert, and promised to forget the old one. +Proudly Gladys displayed her fourteen required honors and her +twenty others, and passed her examination admirably. She stepped +back into the circle a full-fledged Fire Maker, with flushed face +and downcast eyes, her new rank filling her with a great sense of +responsibility. + +Nyoda then awarded the special honors for which the girls had +been trying all summer. Sahwah and Nakwisi won the banner for +keeping up the best form on the Hike; Migwan and Hinpoha had made +the best nature count; the Alphas were the best housekeepers and +had planned their menus the most economically; Gladys had learned +the greatest number of birds, flowers and trees; Migwan had +written the most songs. Each girl thus honored felt prouder to +wear the bit of painted leather bestowed upon her than if it had +been a crown jewel. + +After the summer honors had all been given out Nyoda rose again +and said there was one more honor to be awarded before the +Council was over, and called on Sahwah to stand. Sahwah rose +wonderingly. "Sahwah the Sunfish," said Nyoda impressively, "on +the thirtieth day of the Thunder Moon you rescued from drowning, +at considerable inconvenience to yourself, the maiden we now know +as Geyahi. Through some mysterious agency which we will not +mention, our good friends, Professor Bentley and Professor +Wheeler, heard of your little escapade, and made it known to a +National Society which takes delight in hearing such tales. This +Society has sent you a little badge for a keepsake. It gives me +great pleasure to bestow upon you this Carnegie Hero Medal 'for +distinguished bravery."' + +"A which?" stammered Sahwah, abandoning both ceremonial etiquette +and grammar in her amazement. + +"Yes, it's true," laughed Nyoda. "Stand forth and be decorated!" + +"Speech!" cried the girls, when the medal had been fastened on +Sahwah's ceremonial gown. But instead of making a speech Sahwah +sat down on the ground and burst into tears, and had to be patted +on the back before she was herself again. So the last Council +Meeting ended with a great feather in the cap of the Winnebagos, +and the fire sank to embers and the girls filed out softly to the +tune of their good-night song: + + "Now our camp fire's burning low, + Wohelo, Wohelo, + Off to slumber we must go, + Wohelo, Wohelo." + +And the next morning they all stood on the dock waiting for the +_Bluebird_ to come and carry them off, laughing at each other's +funny appearance in city clothes, and winking the tears back +whenever they thought of what they were leaving behind. Gladys, +who had never seen the other girls in "suits," scarcely knew them +at all. The _Keewaydin_ was crated up and ready to be taken +along to the city, and Sahwah's bathing suit, still wet, was tied +to the outside of her suitcase, for she had stayed in the lake +until the very last minute. "Good-bye, dear, beloved lake," +Nyoda heard her whisper as she rose from the depths for the last +time. And Gladys, who had been so loth to come to camp with the +Winnebagos, was still more loth to go, and her only consolation +was that she could be with the girls during the winter! + +And by and by the _Bluebird_ came and they got aboard and went +sailing out through the Gap, and left the lake and mountains and +islands and forest behind them forever. But the strangest part +was that they took with them as much as they left behind! + +THE END. + + + + * * * * * * + + + +The next volume in this series is entitled "The Camp Fire Girls +at School; The Wohelo Weavers." + + +[Advertisement] + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES + +By HILDEGARD G. FREY. The only series of stories for Camp Fire +Girls endorsed by the officials of the Camp Fire Girls Organization +PRICE, 40 CENTS PER VOLUME. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos Go +Camping. + +This lively Camp Fire group and their Guardian go back to Nature +in a camp in the wilds of Maine and pile up more adventures in +one summer than they have had in all their previous vacations put +together. Before the summer is over they have transformed +Gladys, the frivolous boarding school girl, into a genuine +Winnebago. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers. + +It is the custom of the Winnebagos to weave the events of their +lives into symbolic bead bands, instead of keeping a diary. All +commendatory doings are worked out in bright colors, but every +time the Law of the Camp Fire is broken it must be recorded in +black. How these seven live wire girls strive to infuse into +their school the spirit of Work, Health and Love and yet manage +to get into more than their share of mischief is told in this +story. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden. + +Migwan is determined to go to college, and not being strong +enough to work indoors earns the money by raising fruits and +vegetables. The Winnebagos all turn a hand to help the cause +along and the "goings-on" at Onoway House that summer make the +foundations shake with laughter. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads +the Way. + +The Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip. The "pinching" of +Nyoda, the fire in the country inn, the runaway girl and the +dead-earnest hare and hound chase combine to make these three +weeks the most exciting the Winnebagos have ever experienced. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price +by the publishers + +A. L. Burt Company, 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE +WOODS*** + + +******* This file should be named 18606.txt or 18606.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/0/18606 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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