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diff --git a/38934.txt b/38934.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa6734c --- /dev/null +++ b/38934.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6870 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls' Larks and Pranks, 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' Larks and Pranks + or, The House of the Open Door + +Author: Hildegard G. Frey + +Release Date: February 20, 2012 [EBook #38934] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS, PRANKS *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + The Camp Fire Girls' + Larks and Pranks + + + OR + The House of the Open Door + By HILDEGARD G. FREY + + AUTHOR OF + The Camp Fire Girls Series + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + Publishers New York + + + + + THE + Camp Fire Girls Series + + A Series of Stories for Camp Fire Girls Endorsed by + the Officials of the Camp Fire Girls Organization + + + By HILDEGARD G. FREY + + + The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods + or, The Winnebago's Go Camping + + The Camp Fire Girls at School + or, The Wohelo Weavers + + The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House + or, The Magic Garden + + The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring + or, Along the Road That Leads the Way + + The Camp Fire Girls' Larks and Pranks + or, The House of the Open Door + + The Camp Fire Girls on Ellen's Isle + or, the Trail of the Seven Cedars + + The Camp Fire Girls on the Open Road + or, Glorify Work + + The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit + or, Over The Top With the Winnebago's + + The Camp Fire Girls Solve a Mystery + or, The Christmas Adventures at Carver House + + The Camp Fire Girls at Camp Keewaydin + or, Down Paddles + + + Copyright, 1917 + By A. L. Burt Company + + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS + + + + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' + LARKS AND PRANKS + + + + + CHAPTER I + THE HOUSE OF THE OPEN DOOR + + +It was the crisp chill of an early October evening; in the still air the +dead leaves came rustling down with a soft sound like whispers, while the +crickets chirped a cheery welcome from the waiting earth. Over the +treetops a big yellow hunter's moon was rising; its comical face grinning +good-naturedly. It looked down on the dark outlines of a large barn +standing in the shadow of a tall tree and the grin widened perceptibly. +Evidently something was happening on earth. + +A dark form stole softly up the long drive leading to the barn and paused +before the door. Through the silence there rose the whistling wail of the +whippoorwill, repeated three times, and ending abruptly in the squall of +a catbird. From within the blackness of the barn came an echo of the +whippoorwill's call, followed by a much more cheerful note--the carol of +the bluebird. Then a clear voice called from inside, "Who goes there?" + +"A friend," came the reply. + +"Stand and give the countersign," commanded the voice inside. + +"Other Council Fires were here before," responded the newcomer. + +"Advance and give the Inner Password," said the invisible sentinel. + +The figure passed through the dark entrance and came to a halt just +inside, crying, "Kolah Olowan!" + +"Mount!" commanded the voice above, and the stranger lost no time in +obeying the invitation. Scrambling up the ladder fastened to the wall +which did duty as a staircase, she thrust aside the curtain at the top +and stepped out into the lighted upper chamber. + +Anyone seeing that dark and deserted looking building from the outside +would never guess how bright and cheerful was that upper room within. A +wood fire roared in a cobblestone fireplace, its gleam lighting up walls +hung with leather skins and gay Indian blankets and festooned with sprays +of bittersweet. Several more Indian blankets were spread out on the floor +in lieu of rugs, while from the rafters were suspended woven baskets and +pieces of pottery. Ranged around the sides of the chamber, where the +sloping roof met the floor, were four beds, all different, and only one +indicating that the dwellers in that secret lodge were civilized persons. +The first was a neat cot bed with blankets tucked in smoothly all around, +and a dust cover folded up at the foot; the second was an "Indian bed" +made of pine branches, dried ferns and sweet grasses, piled several feet +high and ingeniously confined by woven reeds and pliant twigs. The scent +of the sweet grasses, mingled with the aromatic odor of the pine, filled +the room with a dreamy fragrance that seemed like a charm to lure down +the Sleep Manitou. The third was a pile of bearskins and the fourth was +another kind of Indian bed, made of smooth round willow rods tied +together with ropes and laid across two poles fastened into the wall. + +No windows were visible, as these had been covered with skins. Except for +the camp bed, the wide hearthstone and one other detail it might have +been the lodge of some Indian Chief of olden time. That other detail was +a green felt pennant stretched across the chimney above the stone shelf +of the fireplace, bearing in clean-cut English letters the word +WINNEBAGO. Most of our readers have probably guessed the truth before +this--the Indian lodge we have been describing is the meeting place of +the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls and the solitary visitor who uttered the +plaintive cry of the whippoorwill with its grotesque ending in a cat call +is none other than our old friend, Sahwah the Sunfish. + +"O Nyoda, such larks!" cried Sahwah, skipping across the room and +bestowing a hasty embrace on the sentinel guarding the fire, whom the +reader has doubtless suspected of being Miss Kent, the Guardian of the +Winnebago group. + +Nyoda laughingly shook herself free and smoothed out the Ceremonial dress +she held in her hand, which had become sadly crumpled during the process +of Sahwah's bear hug. "What mischief are you into this time?" she asked +fondly, smiling down into Sahwah's dancing eyes. + +Sahwah went into a gale of giggles before she could explain. "You know +Gladys was going to drive all of us girls down in the Glow-worm +to-night," she said, controlling her laughter with an effort, "and she +telephoned Hinpoha while I was there to dinner that she was over at Mrs. +Varden's, the dressmaker's, having a fit, and the Glow-worm was standing +out in front of the house, so we should gather up the other girls and get +into the car and wait for her to come out, to save her the time of going +around after the girls, for her fit threatened to be a lengthy one. So +Hinpoha started out after Medmangi and Nakwisi and I went back home after +these apples, which I'd forgotten to take along to Hinpoha's. When I got +to the corner of the street along came Gladys in the Glow-worm and said +she had an errand to do for her mother in a hurry and we had better come +straight out here without her and she would come later. I hurried over to +Mrs. Varden's house to tell the girls, but when I got nearly there I saw +a black car standing out in front and Hinpoha and Nakwisi and Medmangi +sitting in it as cool as cucumbers, thinking they were in the Glow-worm. +I recognized the car as belonging to that horribly bashful son of Mrs. +Varden's, and I couldn't resist the temptation to let the girls sit in it +until he came out. So I stole back up the street, keeping in the shadow +of the trees so the girls wouldn't see me, and came out here. Oh, won't +there be a situation though, when 'Dolly' Varden comes out and finds his +nice bachelor car full of bold, bad girls!" + +The picture was too much for Sahwah, and she rolled on the bed shrieking +with laughter, in which Nyoda joined heartily. "I wonder how long it will +be before they come," said Sahwah, rising from the bed and wiping her +eyes. "What shall we do to pass away the time?" + +"If I were you," advised Nyoda, "I would spend it searching a nice safe +retreat to which you can fly when they come and find out you didn't tell +them." + +Hardly had she spoken the words when there floated up from below the +familiar cry of the whippoorwill, followed successively by the long, +eerie laugh of the loon, the blithe whistle of the quail and the song of +the robin. "There they are!" exclaimed Sahwah in mock terror. "Where +shall I hide? Oh, I have it, I'll get inside of that pile of bearskins +and listen while they tell their tale of woe to you and then I'll hop out +and laugh at them." Quick as a flash she jumped into the bearskin bed and +pulled the skins over her so that she was entirely concealed. + +With a great deal of chattering and giggling the three arrivals were +mounting the ladder. "Keep on going, Hinpoha!" exclaimed Nakwisi, "you're +stepping on my hand." + +"Keep on going yourself," retorted Hinpoha, "you haven't a pie in your +hand." Just at that moment her foot slipped and she clutched wildly at +the ladder for support. + +"There goes the pie!" shrieked someone, as it described a circle in the +air and landed with a thud. Hinpoha wrung her hands in grief, for her +mouth was already watering for that crisp pastry. + +Medmangi walked over to view the remains. "It isn't hurt a mite," she +said calmly, picking it up and dusting it off. "Fortunately it landed +right side up in the tin." + +"O Nyoda," cried Hinpoha, beaming once more now that the feast of pie was +assured, "we had the most fun getting here! Gladys told us the Glow-worm +was standing out in front of the Varden's house and we should get in and +wait for her, and we saw a car and got in. Pretty soon out came young Mr. +Varden, got into the front seat without looking to the right or left and +drove off. We thought of course he was driving Gladys' car away and we +all three shrieked at him at once. He pretty nearly dropped dead when he +heard us, and stopped the car so suddenly we all flew out of the seat. +But he was perfectly grand about it when we found out our mistake. He +told us Gladys had gone home fifteen minutes before, but he would be +perfectly delighted to drive us where we wanted to go. And so he brought +us out," she finished with a dramatic flourish, and sat down heavily on +top of the bearskin bed where Sahwah lay hidden. Immediately there was an +upheaval and a grotesque animal sprang from the bed, an animal which had +the skin of a bear and two red stockinged legs which capered wildly about +while their owner shrieked piercingly, "She sat on my breathing apparatus +and I won't be able to talk for a week!" + +"You _are_ talking, you goose," said Hinpoha, calmly seating herself +again after poking the bed to see if it were further inhabited. + +"You missed it, Sahwah, by going home," she continued. "Too bad you +weren't along to share the fun." + +Sahwah's expression was funny to behold when she learned how the joke had +turned out, for it was not on the girls after all, but on herself, for +she had walked all the way to the lodge by herself. She looked rather +silly as she caught Nyoda's eye, but while Nyoda twinkled mischievously +at her Sahwah knew that she would never give her away. But of course when +Gladys arrived a few minutes later and heard the story, Sahwah's part in +it came out and she had to stand the gibes of the others because her joke +had turned round on herself, until Nyoda called the beginning of the +Ceremonial and peace was restored. + +One name has been dropped from the Count Book of the Winnebagos since +last we heard the roll called, and to another there is no reply, although +it is always called. Early in the fall Chapa the Chipmunk moved to a +distant city, and so for the first time the close circle of the +Winnebagos was broken. Then shortly afterward Migwan went away to college +and her departure caused a fresh bereavement. Though Migwan had been of +such a very quiet nature, her influence had been widely felt, and the +girls missed her more and more as the days went on. Hinpoha, especially, +was almost inconsolable, for she and Migwan had always stood a little +closer together than the rest of the girls. This was the first Ceremonial +Meeting without the two and it seemed very strange indeed to omit Chapa's +name from the roll, and when Migwan's name was called and was followed by +silence, Hinpoha sniffed audibly and wiped her eyes. + +"Sister, this is a very solemn occasion," said Sahwah the irrepressible, +in such a forced tone of sorrow that it was impossible not to laugh at +her. + +"That's right," said Nyoda. "It won't do for us to pull long faces. We +have vowed to 'be happy' you know. Think how much worse off Chapa is +alone in a strange city. Come, be cheerful and tell what kind deeds you +have seen done today. You begin, Sahwah." + +Sahwah took hold of her toes with her hands and tilted back and forth on +the floor as she spoke. "Sally Jones did me a great service yesterday in +composition class. You know Sally Jones--the one they call the +Blunderbuss. Well, you know what a pig I am when it comes to writing +composition. I never wrote one yet that I didn't get a blot on. Last week +when I handed mine in Miss Snively said that if there was a blot on my +paper this week she would mark me zero for the month. So yesterday when +we had to write one in class I took the utmost care and got it all done +spotlessly and was just signing my name when Anna Green behind me tried +to pick a thread off my collar and laid her fishy cold hand against my +neck. I jumped and wriggled and the result was a beautiful blot on my +composition. There wasn't time to copy it over because it was almost the +end of the hour, so I resigned myself to a nice fat cipher on my report +card this month. Then Miss Snively sent Sally around to collect the +papers and when she came to my desk she leaned across it in such an +awkward way that she upset my inkwell all over my composition and my one +small blot was completely hidden by the deluge. Miss Snively graciously +requested me to do it over in rest hour, which I did, and handed it in in +perfect shape. Upsetting that inkwell was the kindest thing anybody ever +did for me." + +There was a moment of laughter at Sahwah's tale of kindness and then +quiet fell on the group again. "Tell us a story, Nyoda," begged Hinpoha, +breaking the silence, "we're getting low in our minds again." + +"Yes, do," begged the others. + +Nyoda sat silent a moment staring thoughtfully into the fire. Her hands +were clasped around her knees and the light shone on the diamond ring +which now encircled the fourth finger of her left hand--the only thing +which made the girls realize that their amazing adventures of the first +week in September had been a reality and not a dream. + +"In a village in eastern Hungary," began Nyoda, "there lived a girl about +your age. Her father was a very wealthy man, and lived on a great estate. +Veronica--that was the girl's name--was the only child, and had +everything that her heart desired. The thing she loved to do the best was +ride horse-back and she had a beautiful horse for her very own. She +showed great talent on the violin and had the best masters. Veronica grew +to be seventeen as happy as a girl could be, with an indulgent father and +a beautiful, sweet mother. Then a dreadful thing happened. War was +declared in the country and the village where they lived was taken by the +enemy. Her father was killed, their home was burned and her mother died. +Veronica, with the rest of the people in the village, ran away toward the +mountains when the village burned. But Veronica became separated from her +friends and fell, and could not get up again, for her leg was broken. She +lay there a long time, and gave herself up for lost, when she heard a +whinny beside her and there was her pet horse, who had been following her +all the way. She managed to swing herself up on his back and he galloped +away to the safety of the mountains. They found their way across the +border into another country where some kind people took care of the +orphan girl. The faithful horse fell after he had brought her to safety +and hurt himself so badly that he had to be shot. The people who took +care of Veronica sent her across the ocean to her aunt and uncle. So, sad +and lonesome, she came to this country to be an American." + +Here Nyoda paused for breath, and Hinpoha burst out quickly, "Oh, how I +wish this had happened in our time and that poor lonely girl had come to +this city and we had met her and made her happy. Wouldn't we be kind to +her, though, if we had a chance?" + +Nyoda proceeded quietly. "All this _has_ happened in your time, and this +lonesome girl _has_ come to our city, and you are going to have a chance +to be kind to her often." + +"Nyoda!" shrieked all the girls at once. "You mean she lives in our city, +and you actually know her?" "Where does she live?" "When will we see +her?" "What is her whole name?" "How old did you say she was?" + +"Have mercy!" exclaimed Nyoda, putting her hands over her ears. "I can +only answer ten questions at once. Veronica's uncle is Mr. Lehar, the +conductor of the Temple Theatre orchestra. I live next door to them, you +know, and am well acquainted with Mrs. Lehar. She told me about Veronica +some time ago and last week she went to New York to get her. I +immediately asked her to allow her niece to join the Winnebago group, if +you girls were willing to take her, that she might not be lonely here. +Will you take her in, girls?" + +"We certainly will!" cried Gladys and Hinpoha in a breath, and Sahwah +sprang to her feet exclaiming vehemently, "Well, I guess so!" + +"When is she coming?" they wanted to know next. + +"I'll bring her to the next meeting," promised Nyoda, "and I want you +girls to--" + +What it was she wanted them to do they never found out, for just at that +minute there was a terrific thump on the floor below followed by the +hurried clatter of heavy footsteps, then the scraping of feet on the +ladder, a great waving and billowing of the curtain at the top and then +it was wrenched aside, and into the Council Chamber there burst the +fattest boy they had ever seen. His great cheeks hung down over his +collar; his eyes were nearly buried. His face was purple from violent +exertion and he sat limply against the bearskin bed, panting heavily. The +girls stared open-mouthed at the intruder. Before they had recovered +sufficiently from their astonishment to utter a single word, the barn +below was filled with the noise of many footsteps and the shouting of +many voices, and the next minute the sacred Council Chamber of the +Winnebagos was filled to overflowing with boys. + +At the sight of the lighted chamber and the girls in Indian costumes the +intruders stopped and stared in speechless surprise. Then with one accord +seven hats were snatched from as many heads and seven voices exclaimed as +one, "Beg pardon, we didn't know anyone was here." + +It was so funny to hear them all saying the same thing at once that the +Winnebagos could not help laughing aloud. The confusion of the boys was +so painful that the girls actually felt sorry for them. + +"There are only _seven_ of you," said Sahwah, as usual breaking the +silence first. "I thought at first there were _hundreds_." + +Here one of the boys found his voice to speak. He was a tall boy with +curly brown hair and nice eyes, and his face was suffused with blushes of +embarrassment. "Sorry to disturb you girls," he said soberly, but with a +twinkle in his eye. "We were chasing _him_"--and he pointed to the fat +boy still puffing away for dear life on the floor--"and we couldn't see +any light from the outside and we didn't know anybody was up here and +when Slim ran in we just followed him. We'll go right away again, and let +you go on with your meeting." + +Nyoda looked from one face to the other--nice refined boys they were, she +decided, and it would do no hurt to show them courtesy. "You needn't be +in such a great hurry to go," she said cordially. "You may at least stay +until you have recovered your breath." And she looked quizzically at the +fat boy leaning against the bearskins who did not seem ever to be going +to breathe again. + +He tried to show his appreciation of her hospitality by getting up and +making a bow, which threw him into such an advanced stage of +breathlessness that he sank down again directly and had to be fanned. +This caused another general laugh and the boys and girls rubbed elbows so +closely trying to revive him that all feeling of embarrassment vanished +and it suddenly seemed as if they were old friends, in spite of the fact +that none of them knew the others' names. Nyoda came to herself with a +start. + +"Excuse us, boys," she said, "for not introducing ourselves. I am Miss +Kent, Guardian of the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls, and these are the +Winnebagos," and she named them in order. "We were having a rather +doleful time when you arrived. You broke up the spell of gloom and we are +deeply grateful." + +The tall boy spoke again, this time smiling broadly. "We're the ones who +ought to apologize for not introducing ourselves," he said in a pleasant +voice, "since we have caused so much disturbance. We're the Sandwich +Club," he continued, including all the boys in a sweeping gesture of his +hand. "We go to Carnegie Mechanic. That's Slim over there," he said, +pointing to the fat one, while all the girls laughed. "His real name's +Lewis Carlton, but it's so long since anyone has called him that that +he's forgotten what it is himself. We chase him all over the country to +reduce him, but sometimes he gives us the slip and hides and it takes us +so long to find him that in the meantime he gains more than he lost while +we were chasing him." + +The girls fairly shouted at this and Slim doubled up a cushion-like fist +and declared in a choking voice that if the fellows didn't leave him in +peace he'd sit down on them some day and that would be the end of them. +The tall boy who was doing the introducing smiled sweetly at Slim and +went on with the introductions. + +"This one," he said, indicating an extremely thin, hungry-looking, +gaunt-featured lad with sombre brown eyes and a grave mouth, "is Bill +Pitt. 'Bottomless Pitt,' we call him, because it's impossible to fill him +up. You girls have heard of the Sheep Eaters?" he asked suddenly, looking +from one to the other. + +"Yes," chorused the Winnebagos, not wishing to appear ignorant, but not +sure whether the Sheep Eaters were beasts of prey or persons overfond of +mutton. + +"Well," continued the spokesman, pointing to the "Bottomless Pitt," "he's +a Pie Eater, he is. He eats 'em whole." + +Hinpoha's glance strayed nervously to the shelf where the apple pie stood +awaiting the end of the Ceremonial Meeting. The tall boy's eyes followed +here and his teeth showed in a wide smile, as he seemed to read her +thoughts. Hinpoha blushed fiery red and dropped her eyes. But he looked +away again immediately and did not increase her embarrassment. + +"This," he said, drawing forward a spidery little fellow with red hair +and freckles all over his face, "is Munson K. McKee, called for short, +Monkey, and those," indicating the other three, "are Dan Porter, Peter +Jenkins and Harry Raymond. We seven boys have always gone together, so we +decided to form a club, and we all like sandwiches so well that we named +ourselves the Sandwich Club. There, now you know all about us." + +"But you haven't told us _your_ name," said the Winnebagos, who were +beginning to like the spokesman very much, and were anxiously waiting to +hear him introduce himself. + +"Haven't I?" he asked. "That's right, I haven't. My name," he said +solemnly, but with that suggestion of a twinkle in his eye again, "is +Cicero St. John--and the fellows _don't_ call me Cissy for short." Here +the corners of his mouth twitched as at some humorous memory. + +"You bet they don't call him Cissy!" put in the Bottomless Pitt. + +Hinpoha's eyes met Gladys' in comical dismay. How could anyone in their +right senses name a boy--an American boy--Cicero! The St. John part +sounded very fine, but that awful Cicero! + +"How do you keep them from calling you--Cissy?" ventured Sahwah. + +"He licked the tar out of them!" spoke up the Monkey. "And he dumped one +fellow overboard out in the lake when he tried it. Everybody calls him +'Cap' now, because he's captain of the football team." + +"Indeed," murmured the Winnebagos, looking at Cicero St. John with fresh +interest and great respect, for all the world loves a football player. + +And then the boys wanted to know all about the Winnebagos, and thought +their symbolic names and "queer duds" even funnier than the girls had +considered theirs. But they all voiced their unqualified approval of the +Camp Fire Girls when they heard that the Ceremonial Meeting was to be +topped off with a feast of apple pie, doughnuts and cider, and did not +need to be asked more than once to stay, and share the feast. + +"Say, this is a peach of a meeting place," said the Captain with his +mouth full. "How did you happen to get it, and whoever thought of putting +a fireplace upstairs in a barn?" + +"We got it as the result of a sort of wager," explained Hinpoha. "Gladys' +father promised that if we could go on an automobile trip all by +ourselves without once telegraphing to him for aid he would build us a +Lodge to hold our meetings in, and we did and so he did." + +"'So _they_ did, and _he_ did, and the bears did,'" quoted Nyoda +teasingly. + +Hinpoha laughed and went on. "He owned this empty barn out here in the +field and he turned it over to us. But we just had to have a fireplace or +it wouldn't have been a regular Camp Fire Lodge, so he built this +splendid chimney. We have named the Lodge 'The House of the Open Door,' +or the 'Open Door Lodge,' to signify hospitality. Mr. Evans wanted to +build a fine stairway, too, but we wouldn't have it. It's lots more fun +to climb the ladder." + +"Why don't you use the ground floor?" asked Slim, who could never see the +sense of exerting one's self needlessly. + +"It's much cosier up here," replied Hinpoha. "We have these adorable +peaks and gables to hang things on. Besides, we wanted to leave the big +floor downstairs clear for dancing." + +"Dancing? Do you dance?" cried the boys, pricking up their ears. + +"We surely do," replied the girls. "Would you like to come down and try?" + +Down the ladder they went in a hurry, Slim being pushed from above and +pulled from below, and landing on the floor in his usual breathless +state. A few lanterns were hung around the walls and the big door opened +wide to let in the bright rays of the full moon and the place was nearly +as light as day. Nyoda played her banjo and the twelve pairs of feet +shuffled merrily to the lively strains. As there were only five girls, +Slim and Peter Jenkins were left without partners and consoled themselves +by dancing together. Peter came just to Slim's shoulder and weighed +ninety-five pounds against Slim's two hundred and thirty, and the result +was so ludicrous that the rest could hardly dance for laughing. It was +like a monkey dancing with an elephant. Slim took mincing little steps +and looked down at his partner with a simpering, languishing expression, +while Peter strained heroically to encircle his fair one's waist with his +arm. Rocking back and forth in exaggerated rhythm, Slim tripped over a +board and fell with a great crash, pinning his gallant partner under him. +The rest flew to the rescue and propped Peter up against the wall, +fanning him vigorously. + +"He'll recover," pronounced the Captain, after a thorough going over of +his bones, "but he'll never be the same again." + +"All is over between us," said Slim, wringing his hands in mock despair. +"Miss Kent, won't _you_ dance with me?" + +"It's time we were going home," said Nyoda calmly. "Come, girls." + +"Go home!" echoed the Captain. "I thought you lived here." + +"But how about all the beds upstairs?" asked the Captain. + +"Oh," explained Nyoda, "we all constructed different kinds of beds to win +honors, and left them there in case we might want to stay some time." + +"It's a pretty fine clubhouse, I'll say," remarked the Bottomless Pitt in +a tone of envy. "I wish we Sandwiches had one like it. We have no place +to call our own." + +Hinpoha's thoughts leaped to the Fire Song, the words of which hung +beside the fireplace up above: + + "_Whose house is bare and dark and cold,_ + _Whose house is cold,_ + _This is his own._" + +She spoke impulsively. "Oh, Nyoda, couldn't we let them use the ground +floor to hold their meeting in?" + +A cheer burst from the seven boys' lips. "Hooray! May we, Miss Kent?" + +Nyoda was silent and looked at the boys with a troubled expression, and +her glance as it rested on Hinpoha held a reproof. There was an awkward +silence. Then the Captain spoke up. + +"I understand what you mean, Miss Kent," he said simply and +straightforwardly. "You don't know anything about us and of course you +wouldn't want to share your club house with us on such short +acquaintance. We wouldn't think much of you if you did. It was all right +of course for you to ask us to stay and dance with the girls this one +evening when you were here with us, but that doesn't mean that you're +willing to adopt us. But we like you girls first rate, and want to know +you better if you will let us. You can go to any of the teachers at +Carnegie Mechanic and find out all you want to know about us. Pitt's +father is Math teacher there and my father is Dr. Cicero St. John. It was +simply great of you to offer to let us come here and hold our meetings, +and if you'll still keep the offer open after you have investigated us to +your satisfaction we'll be mighty grateful and will promise not to bother +you upstairs." + +The boy's face was so open and manly that it was impossible not to +believe in him then and there. Nyoda smiled into his earnest face. "All +right, Captain," she said, "we'll agree to put you on probation, and if +you stand the test we'll consider the matter of sharing the Open Door +Lodge." + +The Captain smiled back at her and held out his hand. "You're a peach and +I like you," he said emphatically, and the two were sworn friends from +that moment on. + + + + + CHAPTER II + VERONICA + + +At four o'clock one afternoon some few days later Hinpoha and Sahwah, +breathless from hurrying, ran up the steps of the house where Nyoda lived +and rang the bell. The other Winnebagos were already assembled when they +entered, and Nyoda was not there. + +"Where's Nyoda?" demanded Sahwah. + +"Sh, she's gone over to get--_her_," answered Gladys, smoothing out the +folds of her pretty new pleated dress with one hand and tucking in a +stray lock with the other. + +"What did you say 'sh' for?" demanded Sahwah curiously. "There's no one +sleeping, is there?" + +"I don't know why I said it," answered Gladys, rumpling up the hair she +had just tidied, "I'm so excited about meeting Veronica that I don't know +what I'm doing. I just can't sit still." And she jumped up from her chair +and began to pace nervously up and down the room. + +"Doesn't it remind you of the time we stood on the dock at Loon Lake and +waited for Gladys to make her first appearance?" said Hinpoha to Sahwah. +"Don't you remember how we wondered what she would be like and you and +Migwah nearly fought over whose affinity she was going to be?" + +"Did you really, girls?" said Gladys, pausing in her walk. "And was I as +nice as you hoped I'd be?" + +Footsteps on the porch saved Hinpoha from having to reply and Gladys +hurried to her chair and seated herself properly. A moment later Nyoda +entered the room with a young girl beside her whom she led into the +center of the group. + +"Girls," she said, with one hand on the stranger's shoulder, "this is our +new member, Veronica Lehar." + +All eyes centered on the newcomer. She was a small, slender girl with +short curly black hair, olive complexion, bright red lips and a straight, +finely modeled nose. She wore a dark red velvet dress which suited her +complexion wonderfully, and fell in soft folds about her lithe form. She +was as straight as an arrow and as graceful as a deer. From the crown of +her finely poised head to her little fur-topped boots she was an +aristocrat. The simple Winnebagos were abashed before her. Never had they +met such a high-born little lady. There was an air about her which they +could never acquire if they lived a hundred years. They felt like +peasants in the presence of a queen. But they forgot her aristocratic air +when they looked into her eyes. Large and dark and velvety as a pansy, +but so sad it almost broke your heart to look into them. All the sympathy +which the girls had worked up for her since hearing her story came back +in a rush and they surrounded her with cordial greetings and expressions +of welcome. Veronica held her violin, which she had brought over with +her, under one arm while she shook hands politely with all the girls. She +answered all their pretty speeches in a friendly manner, but she never +once smiled, and her eyes had a look as if her thoughts were not there in +the room at all, but back in the far country across the ocean. Although +she had an accent she spoke a beautiful English, in fact, she used far +better language than the majority of American schoolgirls, and more than +once the girls felt embarrassed when they had forgotten themselves so far +as to utter a slang phrase. + +Conversation soon languished, for Veronica did not seem inclined to talk, +so Nyoda started the girls singing camp songs to amuse her, and led the +talk around to the Winnebagos' doings which she was now to take part in. +Of course the new lodge was the main topic of conversation with the +Winnebagos and they waxed so enthusiastic over its splendors that +Veronica exclaimed with some show of warmth, "Oh, I must see it soon!" +Then she added, "Tell me what I must do to become a Camp Fire Girl like +yourselves." + +"You must have a symbolic name," answered Gladys eagerly, anxious to be +the one to explain things to Veronica, "and a Ceremonial dress, and learn +the songs, and know the Camp Fire Girls' Desire, and the Winnebago +passwords and oh, lots of delightful things." + +"What are they, the Winnebago passwords, and what are they for?" asked +Veronica. + +"Well," answered Gladys, "you know what a password is, don't you? Well, +we have passwords to admit us into the Lodge on Ceremonial night. But +before I tell you about the passwords I must tell you about the signal +calls, for they come first in order. You see, the general signal of the +Winnebagos is the call of the whippoorwill, like this"--and she +illustrated her words with a clear call. "You repeat that three times and +at the end of it you must give your own individual bird call. We all have +different ones. Mine is the robin, like this. Nyoda's is the bluebird; +Hinpoha's the loon; Medmangi's is the owl; Nakwisi's the meadowlark and +Sahwah's the catbird." + +"Whatever made you take such a hideous screech for your call, Sahwah?" +interrupted Hinpoha. "There are lots of nicer bird calls than that of the +catbird." + +"I don't care, I wanted the catbird," returned Sahwah. "It suits my +individuality, as my dear friend, Miss Snively, would say. I am the 'cat +that walks by himself and all places are alike to me!'" + +"Be a catbird as much as you like," said Gladys pacifically, "as long as +you don't eat us poor bird-birds. But to go back to the passwords. You +see, Nyoda is Guardian of the Fire, and she always goes up to the Lodge +room first on Ceremonial night. If any of us get there ahead of her we +have to stay out until she comes. Then we announce our coming by giving +the call of the whippoorwill and she knows one of the Winnebagos is +below; and she knows which one it is by the individual bird call. So she +calls out 'Who goes there?' and we answer 'A friend.' When she says, +'Stand and give the countersign,' we have to say, 'Other Council Fires +were here before.'" + +"What does that mean, 'Other Council Fires were here before?'" asked +Veronica. + +The girls looked at one another. "What does it mean?" asked Gladys. + +"I don't know," said Sahwah. + +"I don't know," said Hinpoha. + +"You insisted on our having it, Sahwah," said Gladys. "Why did you choose +it if you didn't know what it meant?" + +"Oh," explained Sahwah lightly, "I saw it written over the door of one of +the historical buildings at the Exposition, and it sounded as if it might +mean something grand, so I chose it. You girls were all delighted with +it, so that's proof it's a good catch-word." + +"It is a good countersign," said Nyoda, "although I confess I can't tell +wherein the charm lies." + +"Well, to proceed," said Gladys, "after you have given the countersign +you will be asked to give the Inner Pass Word, and then you must say +'Kolah Olowan.' That means 'Song Friend.' You know we pride ourselves on +being a singing group, that is, we have a great many songs that we sing +together, and I think our dearest friends are those we sing with. So we +Winnebagos call each other 'Song Friends,' or friends bound together by +the power of our familiar songs. That's why we chose bird notes for our +personal symbols. The birds are the original Song Friends. What bird are +you going to choose for your own, Veronica?" + +Veronica's sad eyes stared thoughtfully into the fire for a moment. Then +they filled with a smouldering light. "I shall be the gull that flies +over the sea," she said in a low voice, "because some day I am going to +fly over the sea to my dear home." + +"We were all nearly ready to cry when she said that," wrote Gladys to +Migwan, "only Nyoda popped up then and asked Hinpoha and Sahwah to sing +'The Owl and the Pussycat,' and they climbed on the sofa for the +beautiful pea-green boat--you know what a beautiful pea-green it is--and +for a small guitar Nyoda gave Sahwah a little pasteboard fiddle that +produced three notes when you turned a crank, and the whole thing was so +ridiculous that we laughed until our sides ached." + +After the Owl and the Pussycat had sung themselves over the back of the +sofa and down on the floor with a thump Nyoda made tea in her new +electric teapot and passed platefuls of thin sandwiches, and Sahwah upset +her cup into her lap demonstrating how perfectly she could balance it on +her knee and had to stand before the fire to dry her skirt. + +"You brought your violin along; won't you play for us?" asked Nyoda of +Veronica when the excitement over Sahwah's mishap had subsided. + +In graceful compliance with Nyoda's request, and without waiting to be +urged, Veronica took her violin from its case, settled it under her chin +with a movement that was a caress, and drew the bow across the strings. +With the first note teacups and sandwiches were forgotten and the girls +sat in a spellbound circle, while Sahwah stopped mopping her skirt with +her handkerchief and the wet spot dried and scorched unheeded. Such a +witching melody as rose from the strings--now light as a fairy dancing on +a bubble, now hurrying like the brook over its pebbles, now sighing like +the wind in a rose tree, now slow and stately like the curtseying of a +grande dame in the movements of a court dance. When it came to an end the +girls sat breathless, too dazed to applaud. + +"Play some more!" begged Gladys in a whisper. It seemed like a +desecration to talk. + +Veronica played on, now fast, now slow, now sad and now gay, and finally +whirled into a wild gypsy dance that set the blood tingling in her +hearers' veins as the swift measures followed on each other's heels, +until they could see in their mind's eye the leaping figures of the +dancers in their bright costumes. Faster, faster, flashed the bow on the +magic strings and Veronica's whole soul was in her eyes as she played the +familiar strains of her homeland. Her lips parted in a flashing smile and +one foot tapped the carpet in time to the music. + +Suddenly a string snapped with a discordant crash. Veronica came to +herself with a start. The light left her eyes and she stood staring into +the fire with a sad, bitter expression. + + + + + CHAPTER III + AN UNINVITED GUEST + + +Rain fell in torrents on the roof of the hospitable House of the Open +Door, and the wind howled dismally around its friendly gables. Inside the +"lofty loft" of the Winnebagos the fire shone brightly on the hearth and +the rafters rang with merriment. Sahwah had a new hobby, and was riding +it to death. This was a Hawaiian guitar, known as a "ukelele," from which +she was producing a series of hair-raising noises. + +"Sounds like a cat in its last agony," remarked Hinpoha. + +"Well, that just suits me," replied Sahwah, undisturbed, drawing a long +shivering wail from the strings. "I am the cat that walks by himself----" + +"And all racket is alike to you," finished Hinpoha. "Who's getting supper +tonight, Nyoda? I'm nearly starving." + +"I appointed Gladys and Veronica," answered Nyoda. "The combination of +blonde and brunette ought to produce something pretty good." + +Gladys promptly laid down the bit of leather in which she was cutting a +pattern and moved toward the "kitchen end" of the Lodge. "Come on, +Veronica," she said, "let's make a carload of scones for these hungry +wolves." + +Veronica looked up at her without moving. On her face was an expression +of surprise; almost amazement. "What, _I_ cook?" she asked scornfully. +"That is for servants to do!" + +Then it was the Winnebagos' turn to look amazed. Sahwah dropped her +instrument on the floor with a clatter, and the rest sat silent, not +knowing what to say to Veronica. Nyoda bridged over the embarrassing +situation as best she could. "I'll be cook tonight," she said quietly. As +she moved about helping Gladys she thought and thought how this new +problem must be met. "It's the fault of her training," she told herself, +"and she really isn't a snob at heart. She'll be all right when she has +been with the girls awhile and watched them. It won't do to insist on her +doing the things she considers beneath her. She must be made to want to +do them first. But we'll make a real Winnebago of her in time!" And her +eyes strayed thoughtfully over to the corner of the hearth where Veronica +sat, a little apart from the rest, her brooding eyes on the fire, her +sensitive lip twisting into involuntary shivers of disgust when Sahwah +produced a particularly ear-splitting yowl. + +"Hear and attend and listen, everybody," said Nyoda when the buttered +scones had been reduced to crumbs. "I have been doing some important +research work lately and am now ready to present the result of my +investigations." + +"What are you talking about?" asked Hinpoha curiously. + +"Two weeks ago tonight," continued Nyoda, "our meeting was broken up by a +band of young braves bearing the appetizing title of 'The Sandwich Club,' +who implored us to let them come and play with us in our Lodge and be +lodgers--kindly overlook the pun; it was quite unintentional--providing +we weighed them in the balance and found them not wanting." + +"Is there any scale on which 'Slim' would be found wanting?" giggled +Sahwah, + +"I have spent the last two weeks obtaining information," resumed Nyoda, +"which I am happy to report is of a highly satisfactory nature. So, all +things considered, and in spite of the informality of the request, I +humbly recommend that the aforesaid braves be allowed to lodge in the +bottom half of our Lodge at any and all times they may so desire. I might +add that I have already obtained the consent of our Bountiful Benefactor, +Gladys' papa. All in favor of letting in the Sandwich Club say 'Aye.'" + +There was a perfect shout of "Ayes," followed by a ringing cheer. + +"When are they going to take possession?" Sahwah wanted to know. + +"I'm to tell them tomorrow what your decision was," replied Nyoda. "It +being Saturday, I suppose they will be down in a body to fix up according +to their own ideas." + +"What will the interior of a Sandwich Club look like, I wonder?" said +Gladys. + +"Hark, what was that noise?" asked Nyoda abruptly. The girls listened +intently. From the lower floor of the barn there came a thumping noise, +followed by a subdued crash. + +"Somebody's in the barn," said Hinpoha in a frightened whisper. + +The sound came again, thump, thump, and a noise as of a box being shoved +aside. "It's a burglar!" said Sahwah, and Nakwisi gave a frightened +squeak which Sahwah stifled with a sofa cushion. + +"There's nothing in here to steal," said Nyoda. "Perhaps it's a tramp." +Again came the noise from below. Leaving the curtain drawn over the +opening, Nyoda went to the top of the ladder and called down, "Who's +there?" There was no answer but another thump. "We have a gun," said +Nyoda coolly, taking Sahwah's little rifle down from the wall, "and if +you put one foot on the ladder I'll shoot." Still no answer. + +"I'm going down to investigate," said Nyoda. "This is growing uncanny." + +"Don't go down," begged the girls, clinging to her, "something dreadful +will happen to you." + +"If you go I'm going with you," declared Sahwah when Nyoda appeared +determined to rush into the jaws of danger. Nyoda threw aside the curtain +and flashed her bug light on the floor below. Nothing was visible within +the radius of the light, but over in the far corner where the old horse +stall was something was moving and thumping about and a sound like a +groan came from the darkness. + +"Somebody's hurt," said Nyoda, hastening down the ladder. "Bring a +lantern with you, Sahwah." + +Together they moved toward the corner while the girls above crowded +around the opening and watched in breathless suspense. The light revealed +a small donkey lying on the floor of the stall. He was kicking out with +his hind feet against the partition wall and it was this sound that had +frightened the girls above. At Sahwah's shout the others came hurrying +down to behold the find. The donkey made no effort to rise and looked at +the faces around him with an imploring look in his eyes as if to say, +"Help me, I'm in trouble." + +"What's the matter, old chap?" asked Nyoda, kneeling down beside him. The +donkey answered with a distressed bray that was more like a groan and +pawed the air with his front feet, which seemed to be fastened together +in some manner. Nyoda turned the lantern around so the light fell +directly on him and then they saw what the matter was. A length of barbed +wire had become tangled around his front legs, binding them together, and +his frantic efforts to get it off had resulted in its becoming deeply +imbedded in the flesh, lacerating it badly. The girls shuddered when they +saw it and drew back. + +"This won't do, girls," said Nyoda firmly; "we've got to get that wire +off the poor animal's leg. Medmangi, have you the nerve to do it? I'm +afraid I can't." + +"His hind legs would have to be tied together first, so he can't kick," +said Medmangi. The girls looked at each other and all drew back. All but +Veronica. She came forward quietly and took the rope which the others +were afraid to use and skilfully slipped a noose over the tiny heels and +fastened them down to a ring in the floor. + +"I have done it before, when a horse was sick," she explained in response +to the girls' expressions of amazement at the neat performance. The +girls' liking for her, which had suffered a sudden chill at the cooking +episode, warmed again, and they were inclined to overlook that now that +she had stepped so neatly into the breach when they were helpless. + +Then Medmangi, the Medicine Man Girl who was going to be a doctor, and +had no horror of surgery, bent calmly to her task while the others held +the lantern for her. Quickly and skilfully she worked, removing the cruel +points as gently as possible. Then she washed the wounds with an +antiseptic solution from the First Aid Cabinet upstairs and bound them up +with clean bandages. Then Veronica took the rope from the donkey's hind +legs and he struggled to his feet, plainly delighted to find his front +legs in working order again in spite of the pain. He looked at the girls +with a dog-like devotion in his intelligent eyes and when Medmangi patted +him soothingly he laid his head on her shoulder affectionately. "My first +lover--a donkey!" she said laughingly. + +"Poor little mule," said Hinpoha, stroking him from the other side. "He +knew the right place to come to all right. 'Whose house is bare and dark +and cold, whose house is cold, this is his own,'" she quoted +dramatically. "We certainly have succeeded in creating the right +atmosphere of hospitality if even a lonely donkey can feel it and come +straight to our 'Open Portals!'" + +"Now that he has come," said Nyoda, rather puzzled, "the question is what +to do with him. If he goes wandering off again he'll have those bandages +off in no time--he probably will anyhow--and his legs will get so sore he +will have to be shot. He undoubtedly belongs to somebody--very likely +some children's pet--and I think we had better keep him right here in the +barn until we find the owner. The boys will have to postpone their taking +possession in favor of the other donkey if his presence interferes with +their activities." Here the "other donkey" leaned against the wall in +such a pathetic attitude, as if his weight were too much for his sore +legs, that if they had had any intentions of turning him out into the +rain they would have speedily relented. + +"It's a good thing this old stall is still here," said Gladys. "There +isn't any straw, but there is a box of excelsior and we can spread that +out and cover it with a blanket and make him a soft bed. We can give him +water tonight and bring food in the morning." + +"And I'll telephone the Sandwiches about him," said Nyoda, "so if they +are coming over tomorrow they won't turn him out." + +But that telephone message was unnecessary, for at that moment a number +of dark figures appeared in the doorway and after a moment of hesitation, +entered. + +"Why, here are the Sandwiches," exclaimed Nyoda cordially, advancing with +extended hand. "We were just talking about you. Speaking of angels--you +know the rest." + +"We were just going by," said the Captain (it was likely that they were +"just going by" that out of the way place in the rain!) "and saw your +light now you've left the windows uncovered, and thought we'd just step +in and inquire our fate. We just couldn't wait until tomorrow," he +finished in a boyish outburst. "Is it going to be the Open Door for us?" + +"Bless you, yes," said Nyoda, smiling reassuringly at this manly lad who +was already her favorite, "there wasn't a dissenting vote in the jury +box. We----" but the remainder of her sentence was drowned in an +ear-splitting cheer that was decidedly less musical than the Winnebago +cheers, but none the less hearty. + +"Pedigrees satisfactory, and all that?" inquired the Captain. + +"Perfect," answered Nyoda with twinkling eyes. "I've dug up more facts +about you than you know yourselves. So," she added demurely, "if you're +still minded to 'know us better,' as you flatteringly remarked on the +occasion of our first meeting, why, we're perfectly willing to be known. + +"But you can't take immediate possession of your club room because we've +rented it temporarily to another don--another fellow," she said +mischievously, turning the light of the lantern away from the stall where +the donkey was. The boys' eager faces fell a trifle. + +"Of course," they answered politely, "that's your privilege." + +"He's a very nice chap," pursued Nyoda, with a warning glance at the +girls behind her, who were stuffing their handkerchiefs into their mouths +in an effort not to laugh. + +"Yes," assented the boys without enthusiasm. + +"Is it anyone we know?" asked the Captain politely, trying to make +conversation after a moment of silence. + +"Maybe you do know him," answered Nyoda. "He's here tonight. Would you +like to meet him?" + +She led the way to the stall and turned the light on the donkey. There +was a moment of surprised silence, followed by a perfect explosion of +laughter. "Where'd you get the donkey with the trousers on?" squeaked +Slim in his high thin voice. In the dim light of the lantern the bandages +on the donkey's front legs looked like a pair of trousers. Then the +girls, after their laugh was out, explained about the visitor who had +come to them from out of the vast, and the Sandwiches declared that they +did not in the least mind sharing their club room with a needy donkey, +and offered to relieve the girls of the entire care of him, besides +trying to find the owner. + +They were as good as their word about taking care of him, but the weeks +slipped by and no amount of advertising produced anything in the shape of +an owner. + +"We'll have to adopt him," the Winnebagos decided. "A Camp Fire Donkey +sounds thrilling to me," said Sahwah. "Think of all the fun we'll have +with him. As long as the boys don't mind, we can keep him right here in +the stall." + +"What shall we name him?" asked Gladys. + +"Call him 'Wohelo,'" advised Hinpoha. "It was the spirit of Wohelo that +led him to us. From now on he'll be a symbolic donkey." + +"But where do we come in on this?" inquired the Captain. "We take care of +him and he lives in our house." + +"That's right," said Hinpoha. "Then let's call him 'Sandwich-Wohelo,' +contracted to 'Sandhelo.'" And "Sandhelo" he was until the end of the +chapter. His sore legs became very stiff until they were healed and he +hobbled painfully when he walked at all, which was very seldom. But the +scratches healed at last and the day came when Medmangi took off the +bandages for good, and led him around the barn for exercise. + +Then an amazing thing happened. Sahwah was upstairs in the Lodge, amusing +herself with a mouth organ she had just discovered in the depths of her +bed. But she had no sooner blown half a dozen notes when Sandhelo jerked +up his head, pulling the bridle out of Medmangi's hands, and rose up on +his hind legs. Then he walked on his hind legs over to a box, climbed up +on it and sat there with his feet in the air, like a dog sitting up. +Medmangi screamed and brought the Winnebagos flying from all directions, +to behold the marvel in open-mouthed astonishment. + +"He's a trick mule!" shouted Sahwah, tumbling down the ladder in her +excitement and never stopping to pick herself up. "Now I know where he +came from. He was with that dog and pony show that was in town a few +weeks ago. He must have strayed from the show and got left behind. Hats +off to the newest member of the Winnebago group! We certainly do have a +way of attracting all the best talent in town to our ranks!" + + + + + CHAPTER IV + A SANDEBAGO CIRCUS + + +Just how it started nobody ever knew--it may have been Sandhelo's turning +out to be a trick mule, or it may have been because Slim was fat and +would make such a beautiful clown, besides being fine for a sideshow--but +before they knew it the Winnebagos and the Sandwich Club were hard at +work getting up a circus. The Sandwiches had taken possession of their +half of the Open Door Lodge and had converted it into a gymnasium. They +had built it on purpose to reduce Slim, they carefully explained to their +friends, and regularly put him through a course of exercises strenuous +enough to reduce a hippopotamus to an antelope in three weeks, but at the +end of that time he had gained just five pounds, so the Sandwiches +declared their efforts to be love's labor lost and left him in peace. + +Sandhelo was becoming a well-known and conspicuous figure in the streets. +Hitched to an old pony cart of Gladys', with bells jingling around his +neck and ribbons flying from his harness, he never failed to attract a +crowd of children. He had all the vagaries of the artistic temperament, +some of which caused his drivers no little inconvenience. For one thing, +he would not go at all unless he heard music, and it was no small +accomplishment to drive with one hand and play a mouth organ with the +other if you happened to be alone in the cart. And then, if he happened +to pass anything unusual in the street he had a way of sitting back on +his haunches and holding up his front feet and looking at them. As he +invariably sat down unexpectedly, the cart would go on and bump into him +and the shock would throw the driver from her seat, besides making a +great mess of the harness. Several times he had done this in the middle +of a busy crossing and held up traffic in both directions, while motormen +fumed and policemen threatened, and Sahwah (it usually was Sahwah, +because she drove him more than the others) played her sweetest on the +mouth organ in an effort to make him go on. Nothing would make him move +until his curiosity was satisfied and then he would dash off like an +arrow from the bow for half a block, after which he would slow down and +look over his shoulder to see how his driver was getting on. There was +always such a look of anxious solicitude in his eye on these occasions +that it was impossible to be angry with him and he continued to exercise +his temperament without reproof. + +After half a dozen of these free shows Sahwah declared that such an +ability to draw a crowd was worth money, and they had better give a real +show and charge admissions. + +The big space in front of the Open Door Lodge was an ideal place for the +ring. Seating arrangements for the audience gave them some anxiety at +first. + +"We ought to have a grand stand," said the Captain, who had been chosen +Ringmaster. + +"Well, we can't build one," said the Bottomless Pit. "The audience will +have to stand through the performance, and that'll be a grand stand, all +right." + +"Innovation in circuses," said Nyoda. "Have the audience stand and the +circus sit down. Like the picture of the bride standing while the groom +sprawls at ease in the photographer's gilt chair." + +"I think I can get a lot of chairs from a man who rents them out," said +the Captain. "He lets people have them for nothing if it's a charitable +enterprise." + +"Do you call a circus a charitable enterprise?" asked Nyoda. + +"Well, ours will be," said the Captain. "We're doing it to make money so +we can buy the new apparatus for the gym, which will surely make Slim +thin, and that surely is charity." + +Upstairs in the Lodge the six Winnebagos were all seated on the bearskin +bed having a lively argument as to who should drive Slim in the Chair-iot +Race. The Chair-iot Race was a grand inspiration of Sahwah's, who was +keen on features in the circus line. Once, on a rummage, through Gladys' +attic, they had found six horsehair covered chairs furnished with +excellent china castors, which caused the chairs to roll with enchanting +speed. Sahwah now thought of the chairs and conceived the brilliant idea +of harnessing a Sandwich to each one, seat a Winnebago in the chair, and +race six abreast down the long cement walk from the barn to the road. The +idea was hailed with delight until the Winnebagos began comparing the +merits of the prospective steeds, and nobody wanted to be the one to +drive Slim and go lumbering along like an ice-wagon in the rear of the +others. + +"It's too bad the Captain had to be Ringmaster and can't take part in the +show," sighed Hinpoha. "Then there'd be enough without Slim." + +"We wouldn't dare leave him out, anyway," said Gladys. "It would hurt his +feelings. So we'll just have to draw lots for him, and whoever gets him +will have to make the best of it, that's all." So they drew slips of +paper from a hat and Hinpoha drew Slim, just as she had feared right +along. Sahwah drew the Monkey, which suited her down to the ground, for +he was a famous sprinter, and she lost no time getting the girls to ask +the boys whose names they had drawn in that secret ballot upstairs to be +their steeds in the race. Slim's face lighted up with such a delighted +smile when Hinpoha apparently chose him for her own that her heart smote +her when she thought how this choice had been thrust upon her. Slim was +already beginning to learn the bitter truth that nobody loves a fat man. +Nyoda and the Captain plotted the circus parade and it was a triumph of +ingenuity. The advance bills which they scattered broadcast among their +friends announced that the parade would embrace "Five ferocious animals +from the Other Side of Nowhere, these animals being respectively The +Camelk, The Crabbit, The Alligatortoise, The Kangarooster, and The +Salmonkey. + +Other numbers on the program were as follows: + + Ivan Awfulitch, world's greatest magician; royal entertainer to the + King of Spain. Was banished to Siberia; escaped and swam to America; + has now opened up a complete line of magic. One day only. + + Mr. Skygack, from Mars, in a special song feature entitled the + Mars-y-lays. + + La Zingara, the bareback rider. + + Sandhelo, the famous trick mule. As intelligent as two men and a school + teacher. + + Mr. Avoirdupois Slim, fattest man on earth. Will sit on a toothpick. + + Mr. E. Lastic, Inja rubber man. + + Archibald Dimples the better baby. + + Chair-iot Race. Feat never attemped before on any stage. + + Monkey, the Aerial Gymnast, in the sensational dupe-the-dupes. + + Twenty Other Great Features + + + ALL CHILDREN WILL GET A FREE RIDE ON SANDELHO, + THE FAMOUS TRICK MULE, AFTER + THE PERFORMANCE + + +Bottomless Pitt owned a little hand-printing press and printed wonderful +tickets to be sold at five cents apiece, which Gladys declared were worth +the money as souvenirs, with the circus thrown in extra. + +"What are you making, a circus tent?" asked Gladys, dropping into the +Lodge, where Nyoda sat stitching together great lengths of red and white +striped material. + +"No; only a clown suit for Slim," laughed Nyoda. "Gracious, how much it +does take!" + +"It reminds me of the riddle: 'If it takes thirty yards of cloth to make +a shirtwaist for an elephant, etc.,'" said Gladys. "Poor Slim! You would +have died to see him practice his clown stunt with Sandhelo. You know the +boys built him a tiny red cart with two big wheels, and when he sat down +in it, it tilted way over backward and the shafts stuck up in the air and +pulled poor little Sandhelo right up off his feet, and there he dangled, +pawing for dear life. But, whatever are you making, Hinpoha?" she +finished, examining the thing which Hinpoha was working on and which +resembled nothing in the universe. + +"This is Peter's costume," answered Hinpoha; "he's the hind leg of the +Kangarooster, you know. By the way, Nyoda, has a Kangarooster one hump or +two?" + +"None at all," answered Nyoda hastily. "The humps are on the 'Cam' part +of the Camelk. That reminds me, have we something to stuff the humps +with?" + +"Take excelsior," advised Gladys. "Dear me, who's screeching like that +downstairs?" + +They all crowded down the ladder at the sound of a lusty yell from below +and found Sahwah hanging head downward from a heavy hook in the wall. She +had improved a moment's leisure to climb up to the top of the window with +a spray of bittersweet to see how it would look, and in descending had +caught her skirt on the hook and lost her footing. The skirt tore through +until the stout serge hem was reached and that offered successful +resistance, and Sahwah hung, as Nyoda remarked, like a lamb on the spit. + +"I got an idea hanging upside down," were the first words she gasped as +they restored her to the perpendicular and revived her with peanuts. + +"It's the only way you ever would get an idea," said Hinpoha. + +"Is that so?" returned Sahwah, with spirit "Who thought up the Chair-iot +Race, I'd like to know?" + +"Stop bickering and tell us your idea," said Nyoda. + +"Why, it's this," said Sahwah. "Sell hot cocoa with marshmallows in it +after the show. Everybody'll be cold sitting around. We can make almost +as much money that way as with the circus." + +"A lake of hot cocoa with an island of marshmallows in it is my dream of +heaven," said Hinpoha, clasping her hands in ecstasy. "Sahwah, you're a +genius. I yield the palm to you without a struggle. You have a 'head in +your mind,' as absent-minded old Fuzzytop used to say. There's nothing in +the whole world that'll separate a nickel from its owner like a cup of +hot cocoa with a marshmallow floating in it on a cold day." + +"Another innovation," said Nyoda. "We'll have that instead of circus +lemonade. See to getting the supplies, will you, Sahwah dear? I have so +many details to look after now that I simply cannot be responsible for +another thing, or my head will burst and out will come everything that's +safely packed in now. Come in, Captain. What's on your mind?" + +"Slim," said the Captain, with a look of comical despair, as he sat down +among the girls. "I'm afraid he won't do for a Better Baby. He's smashed +three perambulators and a high chair and we can't get any more. And the +biggest size white dress we could buy in the store won't go half-way +around him." + +Nyoda knitted her brows. "We simply have to have a Better Baby," she +affirmed. "It's one of the best features. We'll drape cheesecloth around +him for a dress and he can play on a quilt on the floor--I mean the +ground--instead of being taken for a ride by his nurse in a +perambulator." + +"Poor Slim!" said Hinpoha. "How many more things are going to be wished +on him? I'm afraid his 'gall will be divided into three parts,' too!" + +"That would have been a very clever thing for you to say," remarked the +Captain, "if it had been original, but it wasn't. They spring that over +at our school, too. Slim isn't doing any more than the rest of us at +that. Only he's so conspicuous that everything he does seems like a lot +more than it really is." + +"How are the tickets going?" asked Sahwah. + +"We've sold over a hundred," announced the Captain with pride. "We're +famous people, we are." + +"Speak for yourself," said Sahwah. "It isn't we who are the attraction, +though--it's Sandhelo. I rode him through the streets and sold nearly +fifty tickets to the children that followed us. They're all attracted by +the promise of a free ride after the show." + +"It'll probably take all evening to give them the ride, and we'll never +get to that jubilation spread we're going to have after the show, but we +have to make our word good," said Nyoda. + +"Put them on four at once and we'll get done somehow," said Sahwah. + +Hinpoha laid down her sewing and stretched her arms above her head. "I +never knew circuses were such a pile of work," she sighed. + + "'Wohelo means work,' + So dig like a Turk," + +chanted Sahwah. + +"I move we all go to the 'movies' tonight and see 'If I Were King,'" +continued Hinpoha. + +"Can't," said Nyoda briefly, checking up on her fingers the things she +still had to do. "I still have to evolve a tail for the Salmonkey and a +frontispiece for the Camelk, make four banners, rehearse the living +statuary, make a bonnet for the Better Baby, teach the Crabbit how to hop +and crawl at the same time and make a costume for the bareback rider." + +"I'd come and help you," said Sahwah, "but we're going to have a test in +Latin tomorrow and I have to cram tonight. I'll just have time to +practice with the band." + +"A test in time saves nine," murmured Hinpoha. "What are the Sandwiches +doing now?" + +"Erecting the flying trapeze," answered Sahwah, looking out of the +window. "Captain is hanging by his eyebrow to the top of a pole and +Bottomless Pitt is standing below, waiting to catch him when he falls." + +The Captain caught her eye, as she leaned over the sill and shouted: + + "All right below, + O Wohelo, + Now _please_ go mix some pancake dough!" + +"All right," called Sahwah cheerily. "You'll soon smell something +doughing!" + +Nyoda and Gladys went home on an errand, and Hinpoha, worn out with her +arduous labors with the needle, stretched out on the bearskin bed and +fell sound asleep in the warmth of the fire. Sahwah puttered about +collecting the ingredients for flapjacks to make a treat for the boys, +who had worked like Trojans ever since school was out. The wood in the +fireplace had burned down to lovely glowing embers, and she laid the +toaster on top of them to act as a rest for the frying-pan. The Captain, +tying ropes into the branches of the big tree just outside of the window, +looked in and admired the scene. Hinpoha, with her marvellous red curls +falling around her face in the light of the fire, looked like a sleeping +princess in a fairy tale, and Sahwah, holding her dish of batter in one +hand and skilfully putting grease into the pan with the other, was a +cheery little housewife indeed. Through the half-open window he could +hear her singing "A Warrior Bold." + +A moment he looked in, filled with whole-souled admiration for these +many-sided girls who were his new friends, and then without warning +something happened inside. The panful of sizzling fat suddenly burst into +a sheet of flame that left the confines of the fireplace and seemed to +leap all around Sahwah. A burning spark shot out and fell into a pile of +cheesecloth lying on the floor at the far side of the room, and it blazed +up instantly, the flames enveloping the sleeping Hinpoha. It took less +than a moment for the Captain to spring down from the tree, run into the +barn and up the ladder. But it was too late for him to do anything. In +the twinkling of an eye Sahwah had seized the burning cheesecloth and +flung it into the fireplace, thrown a bearskin rug over Hinpoha and now +stood calmly pouring sand from a bucket on top of the burning fat in the +pan. And all the while she was doing it she had never stopped singing! +The Captain stood still in his amazement and listened idly to the words: + + "So what care I, though death be nigh? + I'll live for love or die----" + +A hoarse sound made her turn around and she saw the Captain standing +beside her with face pale as ashes. The dreadful sight he had seen from +the tree when the room seemed filled with flame was still in his mind. + +"How did you manage to keep so cool and do everything so quickly?" he +asked in amazement. + +Sahwah laughed at his expression of astonishment. "That's not the first +fire I've put out," she said calmly. "We always keep both water and sand +on hand whenever we have an open fire, to prevent serious accidents. +Having the cheesecloth go up at the same time rather complicated matters, +but I got it into the fireplace without any trouble. I don't know what +made the fat in the pan take fire; it's never done that before up here. +But don't worry; I'll get your flapjacks made, all right." + +The Captain looked at her with more admiration than ever. "Most girls +would have been in a faint by that time, and have had to be doused with +smelling salts," he told the Sandwiches later, "instead of coolly +promising you your flapjacks anyway and apologizing for the delay!" + +"Your hands are burned!" he exclaimed in concern, as he saw Sahwah +looking ruefully at her blackened fingers. "Let me do something for +them." + +"Nothing serious," said Sahwah, turning them down so he could not see the +blistered palms. + +"They are, too!" persisted the Captain. "Have you any oil handy?" + +"In the First Aid box over there," said Sahwah. "It's in that bottle +labeled A Burned Child Dreads the Fire." + +The Captain returned with cotton and gauze and the oil and proceeded to +bandage the scorched hands that had been so quick to avert disaster. + +"Won't Hinpoha be furious when she wakes up and finds her costume that +she worked so hard on all burned up?" she said, as he wound the bandages +under her direction. "I hated to throw it into the fire, but it had to be +done." + +"She'd better not be furious," returned the Captain. "She's got you to +thank that she didn't burn up herself. She had a close call that time, +and if you hadn't snatched that burning rag off her and covered her with +a rug I'd hate to think what would have happened. I tell you it's great +to be able to do the right thing at the right time. A lot of people talk +about what they would do in an emergency, but very few of them ever do +it." + +"Well," returned Sahwah coolly, holding up her hands and inspecting the +bandages with a critical eye, "there is an emergency before us right now. +Suppose you stop talking and get busy and fry those pancakes for the +boys. They're dying of starvation outside." + +The Captain started, blushed and looked at her keenly to see if she were +making fun of him, and then fell to work without a word finishing +Sahwah's interrupted labor. + + + + + CHAPTER V + THE ARRIVAL OF KATHERINE + + +Preparations were completed and the day for the presentation of the +greatest show on earth had arrived. It was crisply cool, but clear and +sunshiny, as the last Saturday in beloved October should be; and not too +cold to sit still and witness an out-of-doors performance. Tickets had +sold with such gratifying readiness that a second edition had been +necessary, and the Committee on Seating Arrangements was nearly in +despair over providing enough seats. + +"It's no use," declared Bottomless Pitt, "we've done the best we could +and half of them will still have to stand. It'll be a case of 'first +come, first served.'" + +Sahwah and Hinpoha, their arms filled with bundles of "props," which they +had spent the morning in collecting, sank wearily down at a table in the +"Neapolitan" soda dispensary and ordered their favorite sundaes. "Now, +are you perfectly sure we have everything?" asked Hinpoha, between +spoonfuls. + +"There's the Better Baby's rattle," recounted Sahwah, identifying her +parcels by feeling of them, "the Magician's natural hair a foot long, the +china eggs he finds in the lady's handbag, the bareback rider's spangles, +and--O Hinpoha!" she cried in dismay, dropping her spoon on the tile +floor with a great clatter, "we forgot the red, white and blue cockade +for Sandhelo. I'll have to go back to Nelson's and get it. Dear me, it's +eleven o'clock now and we still have to go out home and dress. And the +marshmallows have to be bought yet; that's another thing I promised Nyoda +I'd see about. Won't you please get them, Hinpoha, while I run up to +Nelson's? There's a dear. Get them at Raymond's--theirs are the freshest; +and then you had better go right on home without waiting for me. It will +take me a little longer, but I'll hurry as fast as I can. And please tell +Nyoda that I didn't forget the marshmallows this time; I just turned the +responsibility over to you." And Sahwah gathered up her bundles and +retraced her steps toward the big up-town store, while Hinpoha took her +way to Raymond's. Five pounds of marshmallows make a pretty big box, and +Hinpoha had several other parcels to carry. She had them all laid out on +the counter with an eye to tying some of them together to facilitate +transportation when a voice suddenly called out: "Dorothy! Dorothy +Bradford!" She turned and saw Miss Parker, one of the teachers at +Washington High, at the other end of the counter. "Come and meet my +cousin," said Miss Parker, and brought forward a young girl she had with +her. "This is Katherine Adams," said Miss Parker. "Katherine, I would +like you to meet one of my pupils, Dorothy Bradford." + +Hinpoha acknowledged the introduction cordially, but it was all she could +do to suppress a smile at Katherine's appearance. She was an extremely +tall, lanky girl, narrow chested and stoop shouldered, with scanty +straw-colored hair drawn into a tight knot at the back of her neck, and +pale, near-sighted eyes peering through glasses. She wore a long +drab-colored coat, cut as severely plain as a man's, and a narrow-brimmed +felt sailor hat. She wore no gloves and her hands were large and bony. +Her shoes--Hinpoha looked twice in her astonishment to make sure--yes, +there was no mistake, the shoes she had on were not mates! One was a +cloth-top button and the other a heavy laced walking boot. Miss Parker +followed Hinpoha's surprised glance and looked distressed. But Katherine +was not at all disconcerted when she discovered the discrepancy in her +footgear. + +"That's what you get for interrupting me in the middle of my dressing," +she said coolly. "Now, I've forgotten which pair I intended to wear." She +had an odd, husky voice, that made everything she said sound funny. + +Miss Parker seemed rather anxious that her cousin should make a good +impression on Hinpoha. Katherine was from Spencer, Arkansas, she +explained, and had gone as far in school as she could out there and had +now come east to stay with her cousin and take the last year in high +school. Hinpoha promised to introduce her around to the girls in the +class, with her eyes on the clock all the while and her mind on the +performance she should be helping to prepare that minute instead of +standing there talking. + +"Won't you come to our circus this afternoon?" she said politely, fishing +among the small "props" in her handbag. "Here's a ticket. It's going to +be in the big field at the corner of May and ----th streets. Come into +the barn if you come and I'll introduce you to some of my friends." + +Miss Parker and her caricature of a cousin finally departed, and Hinpoha +hastily gathered up her bundles. Something about the package of +marshmallows struck her as unfamiliar, and she examined it in +consternation. It certainly was not her package, though like it in shape. +Somebody had taken hers by mistake. She looked around the store and was +just in time to see her box being carried out the front door under the +arm of a woman. Hinpoha gathered her packages into her arms hit and miss +and rushed after her. But impeded as she was she got stuck in the +revolving door and was delayed a full minute before she escaped to the +sidewalk. She was just in time to see the object of her pursuit board a +car at the corner. Before Hinpoha could reach the corner the car had +started. Hinpoha stamped her foot with vexation, mostly directed toward +Miss Parker and her freak cousin for taking her attention away from her +belongings. Then she considered. The car the woman had boarded must make +a loop and come out a block below and it would be possible to catch it +there. Hinpoha puffed along the sidewalk at a great rate, worming her way +through the Saturday noon crowds and colliding with people right and +left. She reached the corner just as the car did and made a mad dash over +the pavement, dodging in among wagons and automobiles at dire peril of +life and limb. She scrambled aboard and landed sprawling on the back +platform, while her bundles scattered over the floor in every direction. +Breathless and embarrassed, she gathered them up and entered the car just +in time to see the lady carrying her box of marshmallows get out of the +front door. Hinpoha made a wild dash for the rear exit, but the door was +closed and the car already in motion. She rang the bell frantically, at +the same time following the woman with her eyes to see in which direction +she went. The car finally released her two blocks up street, and then +began the mad chase back again. Poor Hinpoha was never built for speed; +her breath gave out and she developed an agonizing pain in her side. Her +bundles weighed her down and her hat flopped into her eyes. Chugging +along thus she ran smartly into someone and again her packages covered +the sidewalk. + +"Oh, excuse me!" she gasped, struggling to get her hat back on her head. +"I couldn't see where I was going. _Why, Captain_----" For it was none +other than he with whom she had collided. + +"Pretty well loaded down, aren't you?" said the Captain, stooping to pick +up the litter on the sidewalk. + +"Never mind them," said Hinpoha hastily, "go after _her_." + +"Go after _her_?" repeated the Captain in a tone of bewilderment. + +Hinpoha pointed speechlessly up the street and then with a mighty effort +regained a speck of her breath and panted "Lady--blue coat--plush +collar--our marshmallows--left this--Raymond's--go get them," and, +shoving the stranger's package into his hands, she indicated with waving +arms that he was to pursue the lady in question and regain the club's +property. The Captain started off obediently, though her explanation was +not yet clear in his mind, but the truth flashed over him when he +presently overtook a lady that fitted the description just turning into +the door of Raymond's store with a large package under her arm, and he +soon made his errand known and recovered the marshmallows. She was just +in the act of returning them to Raymond's, having discovered her mistake. + +Hinpoha was out in front when the Captain emerged from the store, and she +surrendered her bundles to him gratefully, saying with a breathless sigh, +"Boys _are_ useful to have around once in a while, after all." + +"Only once in a while?" asked the Captain. + +"Well, maybe twice in a while, then," said Hinpoha graciously. + +Hinpoha arrived on the scene of action so late that there was no time to +press her for explanations; she was summarily hustled out of her street +clothes and into her orchestra costume. The audience was arriving in +crowds and the Sandwiches, who were detailed as ticket takers, had much +to do to keep legions of small boys from climbing the fence and seeing +the show without the formality of buying a ticket. + +The Grand Parade, "including every single member of the entire show," was +scheduled to start promptly at two. The parade was necessarily held in +sections, as all hands were needed for each section. The clock in a +neighboring steeple had not finished chiming the hour when there was an +unearthly blare of trumpets and crashing of drums, and the band issued +from the entrance of the Open Door Lodge. Nyoda led the band and made a +stunning drum major in a fur hat a foot high, made out of a muff. The +members of the band were dressed as Spanish troubadours in costumes of +blinding scarlet, with their instruments hung around their neck by +ribbons. They marched around the ring at a lively pace, playing the music +of a popular football song, which made the audience cheer wildly, for it +was largely composed of students from the two great rival schools, +Washington High and Carnegie Mechanic. In the wake of the troubadours +stumbled an enormously fat clown in a suit half red and half white, +blowing up a rubber bladder, which emitted a plaintive squawk. Loud +applause greeted every move the clown made and when he accidentally +stumbled into a hole and measured his length on the ground the small boys +shrieked in ecstasy. + +The band made a stately and melodious exit in the House of the Open Door +and once inside broke ranks in haste to prepare for the second section of +the parade--the procession of the animals. This was a much more +complicated matter than the band had been, but it had been so well +rehearsed that the crowd, who were being amused by the antics of the +clown, had not time to grow impatient before they were ready. Shrieks of +delight went up at the appearance of the five ferocious animals from +Nowhere--The Camelk, The Crabbit, The Alligatortoise, The Kangarooster +and The Salmonkey, and they had to go around the ring five times before +being allowed to retire. The parade being such an unqualified success, it +is needless to say that the circus proper went even better. The actors +had all worked themselves up into the right mood for it. + +The magician gave more entertainment than he had counted on, for the +mice, which he had concealed in his pocket ready to produce from under +the folded handkerchief, bit him before their turn in the show came, and +the beholders were startled to see the magician suddenly spring into the +air, uttering a wild yell and, thrusting his hand into his hip pocket, +throw the cause of the disturbance half-way across the ring. The Fattest +Man on Earth, who was Slim, with the addition of several pillows fore and +aft, mounted the small stage and laboriously sat on a toothpick, breaking +down the stage in the process; and the Inja Rubber Man did such amazing +contortions that the audience began to hold their breath for fear he +would never come untangled again. + +When it happened to be her turn to go out in one of the numbers Hinpoha +looked the audience over to see if Katherine Adams had come in response +to her invitation, but she did not see her. But, while looking for +Katherine, her eye was caught by a strange figure, the like of which she +had never seen before. She was a woman, old and bent, and dressed in such +old-fashioned clothes that she looked like a caricature out of a funny +page. She had on a tight green basque, which flared out below the waist +in a ripple and a very full red skirt, held out in a ridiculous curve by +that atrocity of bygone days known as a "bustle." She was climbing +stiffly up and down among the spectators trying to sell papers which she +was crying in a shrill voice. As she went up and down among the benches +she held up her skirt in her hand, disclosing purple stockings and +enormous flapping slippers. Wherever she went she was followed by a +ripple of laughter; the audience seemed to be getting as much fun out of +her as they were out of the show. Hinpoha told Nyoda about it when she +was in the barn again and Nyoda asked all the players not to do anything +to drive her away, as she was no doubt trying to make an honest living by +selling papers wherever there was a crowd, and she was adding an +unexpected touch to the circus to amuse the audience. + +The bareback rider proved a real sensation. Up to that time the numbers +had merely been in the nature of stunts--clever and original and highly +diverting, and yet something which any group of young people could +produce. But here was something different. Veronica was so dark that in +her costume she looked like a real gypsy, and as she was not yet well +known she was not recognized. She came in riding a beautiful black horse +that belonged to Mr. Evans, and, after galloping around the ring several +times and making him rear up on his hind legs until the audience thought +she must slide off, she set him to leaping obstacles, keeping her seat +all the while with amazing ease. There was a touch of realism in her act, +too, which made the audience tingle for a while. In their eagerness to +see the horse and the daring rider the children down in the front row had +pressed forward until they were fairly under the ropes. Without warning a +little girl lost her balance and fell out into the ring, rolling right +into the path of the galloping horse. An exclamation of horror went up +from the crowd, and many covered their eyes with their hands. The others, +gazing as if fascinated, saw the horse in obedience to a quick command +leap into the air with all four feet and come down several feet beyond +the little form on the ground. Shouts rose up from every side and cheers +for the skilful horsewoman who had been able to avert a tragedy when it +was too late to turn aside. But Veronica sat unmoved, a graceful statue +on the beautiful horse, looking out over the audience with brooding eyes +that saw them not. + +Of course the _piece de resistance_ of the whole show was the trick mule, +Sandhelo. He had been the most widely advertised feature and had been the +means of selling the most tickets. The small boys came lured by the +promise of a free ride after the show and could hardly wait for that time +to come. His appearance in the ring was hailed with tumultuous applause. +Led by the clown, who played the mouth organ constantly to assure his +continuous locomotion, he did his tricks over and over again, lying down +as if dead when Slim played "John Brown's Body," and springing to his +feet with a lively bray when he played "Yankee Doodle"; and sitting up on +the table and waving his fore feet at the audience while he tossed a lump +of sugar on his nose. + +Then the clown tried to ride him and fell off, first on one side and then +the other, and after several vain attempts offered a quarter to anyone in +the audience who would come out and ride him around the ring. As the +players along knew that Sandhelo would only go to music, they anticipated +no little fun from this business. Sandhelo was perfectly safe to ride--he +was as gentle as a kitten--but his refusal to stir when commanded made +him appear a very balky mule indeed, and there was no response to Slim's +invitation for somebody to come out and ride him. Even the small boys, +who were eager to ride him, preferred to wait until the show was over +before making the trial. + +"Don't all come at once," appealed Slim in derision. "One at a time, +please. Who'll ride the famous trick mule, Sandhelo, around the ring and +win the handsome prize of twenty-five cents, a whole quarter of a +dollar?" Still no volunteers. Sandhelo yawned and looked bored to death. +Slim stretched out his hands to the audience imploringly. + +Suddenly there was a commotion at one end of the seats and down from the +top of the picnic tables, where the raised seats were, there climbed the +little old woman who had gone around selling papers. "I'll ride him for +twenty-five cents," she cackled in her high shrill voice. And she hobbled +across the ring to where Sandhelo stood. The players were ready to hug +themselves with joy. Here was a real circus-y touch they had not counted +on. + +"Aren't you afraid she'll get hurt?" whispered Hinpoha to Nyoda. + +"No danger," returned Nyoda. "Sandhelo won't go a step without the mouth +organ." + +The little old woman, her back bent almost double, shuffled over and +grasped Sandhelo, not by the bridle, but by the cockade on his head. Then +she suddenly straightened up and a gasp of astonishment went around the +circle. She was taller than the tallest of them. Without assistance from +anyone she climbed on Sandhelo's back and sat with her face toward his +tail. The audience, suspecting that it was a "put-up job," and this was +another stunt, roared its appreciation, but the players looked at each +other in utter bewilderment. Who was this strange character? + +Sandhelo was a very small donkey, standing no higher than a Shetland +pony, and when the old lady was seated on his back her feet dragged on +the ground. Calmly crossing them underneath his body, she gave his tail a +smart jerk, accompanied by the shrill command, "Giddap!" Sandhelo, +mortified to death at the undignified position of his rider, had but one +idea in his mind--to escape from the gibing crowd and hide his head in +his stable. Around the ring he flew as fast as his tiny legs would carry +him, the old woman sticking to him like a burr, her bonnet strings flying +in the wind, her big slippers flapping against his sides, and her shrill +voice urging him on to greater speed. The act brought down the house and +a whole row of folding camp chairs collapsed under the strain of the +applause. + +Beside himself with rage and shame, Sandhelo bolted into the barn and +carried his strange rider into the midst of the company of players. +Sliding off his back, she looked around the ring of curious faces before +her with little twinkling gray eyes. Then she held out her hand +suggestively. "Where's the quarter I git fer ridin' the mule?" she asked. +Something in her voice awakened a memory in Hinpoha's mind. In a +twinkling she was carried back to the incident at Raymond's that noon +when Miss Parker stopped to present her cousin from the west. Surely +there never were two such voices! At the same time Hinpoha noticed that +the old woman's gray hair was sliding back on her head, and a long wisp +of yellowish hair was hanging out underneath. She stared at the curious +figure in growing wonder, and the woman stared back at her with a knowing +grin that became wider every moment. Then with a quick movement the old +woman snatched off a gray wig, mopped a damp handkerchief over her face, +produced a pair of glasses from some pocket in the wide skirt, and stood +before them the same awkward, ungainly creature that Hinpoha had met that +noon. It was Katherine Adams, Miss Parker's cousin. + +Such a babel there was when Hinpoha recognized the strange comedian and +presented her to the others! The waiting audience was completely +forgotten as they listened fascinated while Katherine explained how she +had come "by special invitation" to the circus and had decided that +people who had "pep" enough to get up a circus were worth knowing, and +the best way to get acquainted with the players was to be in the show +herself. So she had joined the company without the formality of being +asked. + +"You're appointed assistant clown for the remainder of the circus," said +Nyoda. + +"And you're invited to the spread upstairs afterwards," said Hinpoha. + +"It's time for the Chair-iot Race," said the Captain warningly, and the +players returned to their duties with a guilty start. The new comedian +proved such a diversion and put the regular clown up to so many tricks +that he would never have thought of by himself, that the audience refused +to go home when the big show was over, and called for encore after +encore. + +"Let's get her to sell cocoa," suggested Gladys; "they'll buy from her +when they wouldn't from us." + +So Katherine, who up until a few hours ago had never heard of the +Winnebagos and Sandwiches, did more for them in the way of dispensing +cups of cocoa at five cents a cup than they were able to do for +themselves. She made such inimitably droll speeches in her efforts to +advertise her wares that the audience crowded around her just to hear her +talk, and bought and bought until the huge kettles were empty and the +paper box till was full. The small boys crowded around the Ringmaster, +demanding their ride on the trick mule, and, tearing himself away from +the fascinating orator, he betook himself to the barn, followed by the +whole string of would-be riders. But when he arrived there the stall was +empty and Sandhelo was nowhere to be found. Loud chorus of disappointment +from the small boys. The Captain turned their interest in Sandhelo to +account by enlisting them in the search for him, but it was vain. Nowhere +could they find a trace of him. His shame at the indignity heaped upon +him that afternoon had been too great. Finding his stall left open in the +excitement he had escaped and wandered off while the attention of +everyone was riveted on the antics of the new comedian, and hid his head +among new scenes and faces. The small boys finally gave up and went home, +partly consoled by the assurance that if Sandhelo ever turned up again +the promised ride would still be theirs, and the players, rather +exhausted, but exulting over the success of the performance, gathered in +the Winnebago room of the Open Door Lodge for the jollification spread. + +Katherine Adams was the lioness of the evening. Begged for a speech, she +obligingly mounted the table and held a discourse that left her hearers +limp with merriment. What she said was sidesplitting enough, but her +gestures, her expression and her voice were beyond description. She spoke +in a lazy southern drawl, mixed up with a nasal twang, and the peculiarly +veiled, husky quality of her voice gave it a sound the like of which was +never heard before. She still wore the big flapping slippers and had much +ado to keep them on when she climbed on the table with the mincing air of +a young miss making an elocution lesson. She planted her feet carefully, +heels together and toes apart, taking several minutes in the operation, +and then surveyed them with a silly smirk of satisfaction that was +convulsing. When her discourse became a little heated the feet suddenly +flew around and toed in until both heels and toes were in a straight +line. At the ripple of laughter which this called forth she looked down +at her feet with a sad, pained expression and carefully set them right +again. A few moments later she again waxed eloquent and again the feet +turned, seemingly of themselves, and this time her toes pointed outward +until toes and heels were all one straight line. The shrieks of delight +made her look down again, with that same puzzled, pained expression, and +again she set them right in an affected manner. + +When the speech was over the boys and girls begged her to do it again, +and kept her speechifying until she declared she had no voice left to +whisper. "You know I have to be very careful of my voice," she said in a +tone of confiding simplicity. "It's so sweet that I'm afraid of cracking +it all the time." + +Katherine was too good to be true. "Just like a character out of a book," +the delighted Winnebagos whispered to one another. Before the evening was +over they had unanimously decided to urge--not merely invite, mind you, +but urge--her to become a Winnebago. Katherine was delighted with the +idea and accepted the invitation with another convulsing speech. It +seemed incredible to the girls that they had met her just that afternoon. +It seemed as if they had known her always. She fitted into their group +like a thumb on a hand. She was plied with slumgullion and every other +delicacy, and her health was drunk in numerous cups of cocoa. The +continual flow of banter which the Winnebagos usually kept up among +themselves was hushed, and everyone was willing to put the soft pedal on +her own speech if only Katherine would talk some more. She told +fascinating things about her life on a big stock farm out in Arkansas. + +"Are there any Indians around there?" asked Veronica, whose ideas of the +American Far West were rather hazy and romantic. + +"Indians!" said Katherine. "I should say there were! They're something +terrible. Why, you don't dare hang your clothes on the line, because the +Indians will shoot them full of arrows! And then," she continued, as she +saw Veronica's eyes becoming saucerlike, "there are all kind of wild +animals out there, too. We can't keep milk standing around in the pantry +because the wildcats come in and drink it up, and the bears shed their +hair all over the carpet! Why, one day I came in from the yard and there +was a rattlesnake curled up on the piano stool!" + +The Winnebagos and the Sandwiches doubled up with merriment at her awful +"yarns," but Veronica believed every word of it. + +"O Katherine, you awful thing, I'm in love with you," cried Hinpoha, in +rather mixed metaphor, and drew her down on the bearskin bed beside her. +"Goodness, Veronica, don't look so excited. All the Indians there are in +this country now are on reservations, and they're entirely peaceable. You +mustn't believe a word she says." + +The jollification supper ended in a hilarious Virginia Reel, which hardly +anyone could dance for laughing at Katherine's big slippers, as she +shuffled up and down the line. + +"What a day this has been," sighed Hinpoha to Gladys, with whom she was +spending the night, as she sank down on the bed with all her clothes on. +"We've made enough money to equip the Sandwiches' gym be-yoo-tifully; +we've made Veronica famous as a horsewoman; we've lost our trick mule and +gained a new member for the Winnebagos. In the classic words of our +gallant Captain, I think that's 'going some.'" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + A MORAL OBLIGATION + + +Katherine's entry into High School life was a complete success--one of +those rare, astonishing successes that happen about once in a decade. The +regular members of the class, who have been together since the beginning, +will by constant effort have attained a fair measure of popularity by the +fourth year, when suddenly a personality will appear out of the vast and +seize and hold the center of the stage. Katherine's spectacular exploit +at the Sandebago Circus was heralded far and wide, and when she entered +school the following Monday morning she found herself already famous. +Everywhere she was pointed out as "the girl who had ridden the donkey," +"the girl with the funny voice," "the girl who made the screaming +speeches." Teachers agreed unanimously that she was the most erratically +brilliant student they had ever had in their classes--when she could +remember to turn her work in. Her compositions were read out in class and +brought down the house. When she rose to recite you could hear a pin +drop. It was an open secret that the two English teachers had drawn lots +to see who would get her, and not a few pupils suddenly discovered +conflicts in their recitations and got themselves changed into the class +where Katherine was. + +Her absent-mindedness soon became proverbial. Odd shoes--gloves of two +different colors--hat on hind side before, or somebody else's hat +altogether--these were everyday occurrences. Her friends told with +chuckles how she had climbed one flight of stairs too many on her way to +Math class and walked into a Freshman English class, her mind busy +working out the solution of a problem in geometry. When some other +Katherine was called upon to recite she rose solemnly and, going to the +board, gave a masterly demonstration of a knotty theorem in solid +geometry, and then marched out with the class, serenely unconscious of +her mistake, oblivious to the laughter of the class and the amusement of +the teacher, who let her go on without interruption to see how far she +would go. Her bewilderment when asked by the regular geometry teacher to +explain why she had cut class that morning was comical. + +Possessing neither beauty, style, pretty clothes, nor all the dozen other +things that make the ordinary girl popular, her very unusualness gave her +a distinction, and inside of two weeks she was the best-known girl in the +whole school. To be counted as one of her friends was an honor, and to be +able to say, "Katherine told me this," or, "Katherine did this up at our +house," was to incite the envy of less favored ones. The Uranians, the +most exclusive and select girl's society in the school, voted her in as a +member because they must have all the prominent girls, although they +generally scorned both worth and brains, if clothed in poor garments, and +great was their chagrin to find that their disdained rivals, the clever +and democratic Dramatic Club, had held a special meeting and taken her in +the afternoon before. Urania had not noticed that Katherine had been +wearing the Dramatic Club pin a whole day because she had stuck it over a +hole in her stocking which she did not have time to mend. + +How the Winnebagos exulted because Hinpoha had been polite enough to +invite her to the circus and she had consequently landed in their bosom +the first thing! No other group of girls would ever know her as +intimately as they would. The Camp Fire idea appealed to her from the +start. The Open Door Lodge was a paradise for her. The ladder stairs were +a constant source of delight. + +"One would think you had never climbed a ladder before," said Hinpoha, +watching curiously as Katherine climbed up and down and up again just for +the fun of the thing. Katherine draped her feet around a rung to support +herself and sat on the top bar. + +"I never did," she said simply. + +"Never climbed a ladder!" said Hinpoha incredulously. "Why, where did you +live?" + +"In Arkansas," answered Katherine significantly. "Do you know," she went +on, "that until I came east I had never seen a flight of stairs? _I had +never seen a flight of stairs!_" she repeated, as Hinpoha and the other +girls in the Lodge gasped unbelievingly. "We lived in a one-story house, +the floor level with the ground, so you just walked in from the outside +without going up steps. The house was in the middle of a big farm, as +level and flat as this floor. I rode ten miles to school and that was +built just like our house. Oh, of course I knew there were such things as +stairs, because I had seen them in pictures, but until I came here I had +never seen any." + +"But didn't you see any when you went traveling?" asked Hinpoha, still +incredulous. + +"Never went traveling," returned Katherine. "It took considerable +hustling to stay right where we were. One year the locusts ate up +everything, down to the clothes on the line, and we couldn't get enough +feed to fatten the stock; the next year there were prairie fires that +licked the earth as clean as a plate; one year the cattle all died of +disease, and so on. It wasn't until this year that we came out ahead +enough to send me here to school." + +And when the girls heard what a hard time she had had they adored her +more than ever because she could be so funny when she had had so little +to be funny about. + +Another thing that charmed her beyond measure was the color of the autumn +leaves. The Winnebagos could hardly pull her past a tree. "There was only +one tree in sight on our farm," she would tell them, "and that wasn't +green like the trees are in the east; it was just a dusty, greenish gray. +And the leaves didn't turn colors in the fall; they just withered up and +dropped off. Oh-h-h, look at that one over there--isn't it just too +gorgeous for words?" + +When we said that both teachers and pupils regarded Katherine as too good +to be true, we should have made one exception. That exception was Miss +Snively, the Senior Oratory teacher. Most of the teachers were liked by +some scholars and disliked by some, according to disposition or +circumstance; but all pupils agreed heartily that they did not like Miss +Snively. She was neither old nor bad looking; in fact, she was rather +handsome when you saw her for the first time, but she was so bitingly +sarcastic that her classes stood in fear and trembling of being singled +out for some poisoned shaft. Sarcasm and ridicule are the most deadly +weapons to use against boys and girls of the high school age. They are +not old enough to know how to come back, and can only nurse the smart and +writhe impotently. And of all classes to have a sarcastic teacher, Senior +Oratory is the worst. It is bad enough to stand up and make a speech with +appropriate gestures before a sympathetic teacher who corrects +diplomatically and never, never laughs, but to have one who eyes you +coldly all the while and then gets up and does it the way you did, only +ten times worse--more buckets of tears had been shed over Senior Oratory +than all other subjects put together. + +When Katherine entered the class Miss Snively took immediate exception to +her voice. Miss Snively's particular hobby was Woman's Voice. Hers was +high and artificially sweet--it fairly oozed syrup--and she did her level +best to make her girl pupils imitate it. So when Katherine began reading +in her husky nasal drawl, Miss Snively promptly read the piece after her, +imitating her voice as best she could, and then looked around the room +for the laughter of the pupils which would complete Katherine's +mortification. But nobody laughed. They all sympathized with Katherine. +They had been in her shoes themselves. The blood mounted to Katherine's +temples when she realized that Miss Snively was deliberately making fun +of her, and a hurt look came into her eyes. She was sensitive about her +voice, even if she did get endless fun out of it. When Miss Snively +handed her the book again and bade her in sarcastic tones to read further +for the edification of the class, Katherine sat silent. To her horror she +found there was a lump in her throat and she would most likely break down +utterly if she tried to say a word. She did not mean to be stubborn--she +was only waiting for control of her voice, for she was too proud to let +Miss Snively see how badly she felt. So she sat silent, miserably +twisting her handkerchief in her hands. + +"Go back to your session room," said Miss Snively sharply, who boasted of +her summary measures with her scholars. So Katherine left the room in +disgrace. From that time on there was a marked antagonism between those +two. Miss Snively lost no chance to make Katherine ridiculous in class, +and, while Katherine had too much respect for teachers to openly defy +her, she "took off" her affected manners to delighted audiences outside +of class, and Miss Snively knew it and was powerless to stop it. But, +outside of her skirmishes with Miss Snively, Katherine's progress through +school was a triumphal march. + +In every school, and Washington High was no exception, there will be +found various elements--some good and some bad. Color rushes, which had +given an annual vent to the mysterious feeling of hostility which always +exists between junior and senior classes, had been abolished. But the +feeling still existed, and manifested itself in various skirmishes. The +year before, when the juniors gave their annual dance, the seniors +carried away the refreshments. On the night of the senior dance the +lights refused to work, and, of course, the juniors were at the bottom of +the mystery. The principal, thinking rightly that pranks of this kind +reflected little credit on his school, wrathfully declared that if any of +the seniors attempted to spoil the juniors' party this year there would +be trouble. But there were certain lawless spirits in the senior class +who still thought pranks of that nature funny, and it was not long before +plans were hatching as merrily as before. It was all very vague, what was +going to be done and who was going to do it, but it was in the air, and +everybody who was up on school affairs knew there was a storm brewing. + +The first definite news came to the Winnebagos through Katherine. "I've +been asked to a select party," she announced one night up in the Open +Door Lodge, spreading her bony hands out before the blazing log on the +hearth. "It's something like the Boston Tea Party," she went on. + +"Must be going to be quite an affair," said Gladys, who was stirring +fudge over the fire. "May we inquire where?" + +"Oh, girls," said Katherine, with a serious face, "do you know what's in +the wind? The Seniors are to put a lot of live mice through the windows +in the middle of the Junior dance." + +"The Seniors?" exclaimed Hinpoha and Gladys in one breath. "What +Seniors?" + +"Oh, Charlie Hughes and Eddie Myers and that bunch. You know the half +dozen that go around together and call themselves the Clan? Well, those. +They were mixed up in the business last year." Although Katherine was a +newcomer in the school she was already well versed in its history. + +"How did you find it out?" asked Hinpoha. + +"Cora Burton told me." Cora was one of Katherine's devoted admirers and +tried hard to be chummy with her, although Katherine did not care for her +in the least. "Cora's a particular friend of Charlie Hughes, and she and +some other girls are going along to see the fun. But she couldn't keep it +secret and told me today and asked if I wanted to go along." + +"Oh, Katherine, you're not going?" said Sahwah anxiously. + +The disgusted expression on Katherine's face was answer enough. + +"Hadn't we better tell some of the teachers?" asked Gladys, pausing in +her stirring. "I wish Nyoda were here." Miss Kent had been called out of +town on account of the death of an aunt and would be away until after the +party. + +"We ought to, I think," said Hinpoha. + +Katherine stood up beside the fireplace, and resting one elbow on the +shelf humped her shoulders in her favorite attitude and began to speak. +"Girls," she said, "this Junior-Senior business is going to be an awful +mess, and the result will be that somebody will be expelled or not +permitted to graduate. Students are going to take sides in the affair and +there will be no end of hard feelings. I for one don't care to play the +role of informer. So far we Winnebagos have kept entirely out of anything +of this kind and wish we could get along without having any connection +with this." + +"But the teachers would never tell who told them," said Hinpoha. + +"The teachers wouldn't," answered Katherine, "but Cora Burton would. And +then maybe someone would say that I had been in the thing to start with +and then grew afraid and told on the others. You know how those stories +grow. Stay out of it altogether, say I, and avoid publicity." + +"But don't you think it's our duty to try and stop such horrid pranks?" +asked Hinpoha doubtfully. + +"I certainly do," said Katherine, "and if we were the only ones who +suspected anything it would be different. But all the teachers know that +something is going to happen and they will be on the lookout. And the +Juniors know it also, and they will be on their guard. I doubt very much +if those mice ever get into the room, even if we keep silent." + +And the Winnebagos, remembering Hinpoha's sad experience the year before, +decided that it was perhaps better after all to keep out of the affair +altogether. + +"I thought you'd see it my way after you'd considered all sides," said +Katherine, reaching out her long fingers and taking three pieces of fudge +off the plate where it was cooling, "but that isn't what I wanted to talk +about tonight. It's Cora Burton that bothers me. She isn't a bad sort of +girl, and I can't see why she should want to get mixed up in that sort of +thing, especially when there's bound to be trouble later. If she were to +be seen with those boys Friday night it would go hard with her. I suppose +she thinks she's right in the swim being connected with a prank, because +she isn't very popular otherwise. The other girls that are in it aren't +ladylike and it's not much use getting after them, but Cora's different, +somehow. I wish something could be done about it." And she crunched a +piece of fudge between her teeth with violence. + +"We might get up a show that night and each one bring a friend, and you +could invite Cora," suggested Sahwah. "Counter attraction, you know." + +The suggestion was voted a good one and promptly acted upon. But Cora +declined Katherine's cordial invitation. "What's to be done now?" asked +Katherine of the hastily called meeting of the Winnebagos. "Our counter +attraction didn't work." + +"Girls," said Gladys solemnly, "I believe it's our duty to keep Cora away +from that business somehow. If we were smart enough we'd find a way. I +don't believe we ought to let the matter drop and say if she wants to get +into trouble let her do it, it's none of our affair. It _is_ our affair, +because we're pledged to Give Service, and it would be doing Cora a great +service to keep her out of this. If she's weak and we're strong we must +hold her out of water. You remember what Dr. Harper said at the lecture +about saving people from themselves. Well, I think we ought to save Cora +from herself." + +The phrase, "Save Cora from herself," sounded very fine to the ears of +the Winnebagos, and they decided that Cora must be saved from herself at +all costs. But how? + +"I think I can manage it," said Katherine, who had been buried deep in +thought all the while the last discussion was going on. "It'll be quite +an undertaking, but the end justifies the means." + +"Tell us," begged the girls. + +"Why, it's this," said Katherine. "I shall tell Cora that I've changed my +mind and want to go with her Friday night and will meet her on the corner +of her street at eight o'clock. When I've met her I'll tell her that I +left my purse up here and ask her to come along till I get it. You know +she doesn't live very far from here. Once up here we'll keep her safely +all evening. Oh, I know that holding people against their will isn't one +of the rules of polite society, but in her case I think we're justified. +She'll thank us for it before very long. And we'll try to make it +pleasant for her. We'll give the show just as we intended and have a +spread and her captivity won't seem long." + +As there seemed no other way out of the difficulty, Katherine's plan was +accepted. + +"It's working fine," she confided to the Winnebagos the next day. "Cora +was tickled to pieces because I wanted to go with her. She agreed to meet +me on the corner, as I suggested, and we're both going to wear green +veils so we won't be recognized so easily. Hoop la!" and she did a double +shuffle with her toes turned in down the aisle of the empty class room +where the girls had gathered. + +On Friday night the Winnebagos met early in the House of the Open Door. +Mrs. Evans, Gladys' mother, was acting as leader tonight in the absence +of Nyoda. She had been let into the secret about Cora and under the +circumstances thought that their action was right. Cora lived with an old +uncle, who was stone deaf and didn't care a rap what she did, so there +was no use talking to her folks about it. Several girl friends of the +Winnebagos were present, all having raptures over the decorations of the +Lodge, and watching with interest the waving curtain in the corner, +behind which Sahwah was making herself up as a Topsy for their +entertainment later on. Gladys was making sandwiches in another corner +and lamenting because the bread knife was broken half off, and was +accusing Sahwah of prying bricks apart with it, when stealthy footsteps +sounded on the walk below, together with the noise of the door being +pushed back quietly. Gladys heard it and started nervously. She was +beginning to feel rather embarrassed at the thought of meeting Cora +Burton, and wondered just how it would come out, anyway. She wished it +were safely over. + +Katherine and her prisoner seemed a long time in reaching the foot of the +ladder. Did Cora suspect something, perhaps, and was refusing to mount? +Gladys strained her ears to listen and thought she heard a smothered +giggle from below, but she could not be sure. The next minute the lights +flashed below and the patent signal knock of the Sandwiches sounded on +the wall. + +"Here come the boys!" cried Hinpoha, hastening to answer the signal with +a series of mystic thumps on the wall with the poker. + +Then the Captain's voice sounded at the foot of the ladder. "How many of +you are up there?" + +"Five," answered Hinpoha, "and three guests." + +"Is Miss Kent there?" + +"No." + +"What are you doing?" + +"We're going to have a show. Want to come up?" + +"Well, maybe, later," answered the Captain. "Won't you come down a +minute? We've got something to show you." And again Gladys thought she +heard a smothered giggle from below stairs. + +The girls trooped down the ladder, Sahwah running out with her face +blackened and her hair in tiny pigtails, to see what the excitement was +about. All seven of the Sandwiches stood there with sparkling eyes and +prenaturally solemn faces. On the floor stood a good-sized box. + +"What's in the box?" asked Sahwah. + +"Oh, nothing," answered the Captain, trying to speak indifferently. + +"There is too, something," said Sahwah, looking critically at the express +tags fastened to it. "Oh, I know what is is," she cried, suddenly jumping +up and clapping her hands in glee. "Your uncle in Boston has sent you the +electric motor he promised you!" + +The Captain tried to look indifferent and failed utterly. His lips would +twitch into a smile in spite of all he could do. + +"Do open it and let us see it," said Hinpoha, and all the girls crowded +closely around. + +"You may have the honor, Miss Brewster," said the Captain, bowing +formally to Sahwah. The nails had been drawn and all Sahwah had to do was +lift off the cover of the box, which she did with a great flourish. The +next moment the girls sprang back in dismay and scattered wildly. The box +was full of live mice, which jumped out and ran in all directions. +Screaming at the tops of their voices the girls fled toward the ladder +and crowded up as fast as they could go. Sahwah jumped for the swinging +rings, which hung from the ceiling of the barn, and dangled safely in +mid-air, making horrible faces at the Captain, at which he laughed +uproariously. Sahwah and the Captain were always playing tricks on each +other and this time she had to admit that he had scored heavily. So the +Captain jeered and Sahwah vowed vengeance and the other Sandwiches stood +around and laughed until their sides ached, for Sahwah, with blackened +face and Topsy braids, hanging in the rings and sputtering, was the +funniest sight imaginable. + +"Joke's over now, boys," said the Captain, when the mice had run around +the barn for several minutes. "We've had enough of a good thing. Let's +catch them and put them back into the box." + +The girls above sat around the ladder opening and watched the +proceedings. + +"Wherever did you get so many mice, boys?" asked Mrs. Evans. + +"We found them," said the Captain, "all boxed up, just like this, They +were right out in the middle of that field over there. We were on the way +over here and saw the box and looked in. When we saw what it was we +thought we could play a joke on the girls. So we brought them along. +Looks as though someone had fixed them that way for a joke. Probably were +going to send them by express. They were in an express box, although it +was not nailed shut." + +The girls began to look at one another significantly. The same thought +came into all their minds at once. Were not these the mice that were to +attend the Junior party? + +"The joke is on the Seniors, after all," said Hinpoha. + +"What do you mean?" asked the boys. "The joke is on the Seniors?" + +"Shall we tell them?" asked Hinpoha. + +"I don't see any harm now," said Gladys. "The scheme has collapsed like a +pricked balloon." + +And they told the Sandwiches what they knew about the plot of the Senior +boys to interrupt the Junior party. + +"Wasn't such a bad idea to try to play a joke on you girls after all, was +it?" said the Captain. "Because if we hadn't done it we wouldn't have +nipped their little scheme in the bud. We'll play lots more jokes on +them, won't we, Slim? Don't you girls think you ought to invite us up to +supper to celebrate?" + +"Not until the last mouse is back in the box," said Gladys firmly. + +The boys worked hard to catch them again and the girls sat above and +cheered their efforts, and in the middle of it in came Katherine and her +companion, swathed in green veils. There was such an uproar in the barn +that Cora never noticed that Katherine locked the door and put the key in +her pocket. Cora gave a great start at the sight of the mice, which was +not all from fright, and the girls could not help enjoying the situation. +What must be her thoughts by this time? But Cora, obeying the natural +impulse of women at the sight of mice, fled up the ladder with Katherine. +If she thought it odd that the barn was full of girls and boys when she +had gained the impression that it was empty and dark, she made no sign, +but stood still with her veil over her face. With all those horrible +creatures running around the floor downstairs she made no move to escape. + +"Won't you take off your things?" asked Katherine, beginning gently to +break the news to Cora that she was to stay for the evening. Without +demur Cora unfastened her coat and slid it off and then took off her hat +and veil. The girls stood as if turned to stone. The person who stood +before them was not Cora Burton. It was Miss Snively. _It was Miss +Snively!_ + +She looked around her with a sneering smile and a snapping light in her +eyes. "You may think it was a master stroke on your part to lure me here +and lock me in so I could not join the conspirators and thus find out who +they were," she said with biting emphasis. "But you shall pay dearly for +this, my young friends. I know who you all are--you needn't try to hide +behinds the others, Gladys Evans--and the information I shall be able to +give Mr. Jackson tonight is what he has been trying to find out for a +long time. Katherine Adams, you are the ringleader of this affair, as we +might have expected. I know all about the plan to put the mice into the +dance hall, and while the boys downstairs who are getting them ready are +not the ones I should have expected to be doing it, it is just like you +to get strange boys to do it for you, hoping to get away unsuspected. But +it didn't work, I am happy to say. You are very clever, Miss Adams, but +not clever enough. I overheard you asking Cora Burton to meet you on the +corner this evening. I took the liberty of being there first. I thought I +had deceived you perfectly, not knowing that you were bringing me right +into the mouse's nest, so to speak." + +She paused for breath and looked around her with an expression of relish +at the consternation visible on the faces before her. For Katherine was +staring at her with startled, unbelieving eyes; Gladys was clutching her +mother's arm in a frightened manner; Hinpoha had sunk weakly down on the +bearskin bed, and Sahwah stood with her mouth open and the perspiration +running down her face in black streaks, and the others were dumb with +astonishment. The boys, not knowing just what was going on, but guessing +that something was the matter, stood by the ladder opening, silently +taking in the scene. The girls looked helplessly into each other's eyes. +Somebody must speak and explain. They all looked at Katherine. + +"But we aren't mixed up in the House Party at all, Miss Snively," she +said earnestly. "We heard about it, and I found out that Cora Burton was +going to be in it and I tried to make her stay home and she refused, so +we girls decided we would take action to take her out of it by luring her +up here and keeping her until the thing was over. That's why I asked Cora +to meet me on the corner, and I really thought you were Cora all the +while. You imitated her squeaky voice to perfection." + +As Katherine was telling her perfectly truthful story she had a dreadful +feeling that it didn't sound plausible at all. Under Miss Snively's cold +eye nothing seemed real. + +"Likely story!" said Miss Snively sneeringly. "And how does it happen +that if you wanted to bring Cora out of temptation you should take her to +the place where the mice were being boxed up ready to be taken to the +party?" All the girls looked so disconcerted. Those dreadful mice did +complicate matters so! They would have given anything if Nyoda had been +there then. + +The Captain was beginning to take in the situation. He came forward +frankly. "It's our fault about the mice," he said, looking Miss Snively +straight in the eye. "We found them in a field near here all boxed up and +thought it would be a good joke on the girls to bring them over here and +let them out. We don't know anything about your squabbles at Washington +High, except what little the girls here have told us; we're all from +Carnegie Mechanic. And we know the girls didn't have a hand in it, +because they were giving a show here to-night." + +His story was backed up by all the other boys, and then Mrs. Evans got in +a word and declared that Katherine was telling the whole truth about +Cora, and Miss Snively was forced, however ungraciously, to admit that +she had been mistaken in her suspicions. + +"If she'd been a man I'd have made her eat her words," declared Slim +wrathfully, after Miss Snively had departed from the scene. + +Mrs. Evans and Gladys, with perfect courtesy, offered to drive her home +in their car, and for the present oil was poured on the troubled waters. + +Katherine sat hunched gloomily before the fire and held-forth to the +Winnebagos. "I don't know whether the joke's on her or on us," she said +pessimistically; "but one thing I'm sure of, and that is, that never, +never, as long as I live, will I ever again try to save a girl from +herself." + +And the Winnebagos wearily agreed with her. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + AN ADVENTURE IN PHILANTHROPY + + +Katherine became officially a member of the Winnebago Camp Fire Group at +the first Ceremonial after the circus, with the Fire Name of Iagoonah, +the Story Maker. The name itself was an accident and the manner of its +bestowing is cherished in the chronicles of the Winnebagos as one of the +group's best jokes. Just about the time Katherine was to be installed as +a Winnebago, word was received that the Chief Guardian of the city was +going to be present at the meeting and would take charge of the +Ceremonial. Katherine had chosen the name, "Prairie Dandelion," because +she came from the plains, and because her hair was so fly-away. During +the supper which preceded the Ceremonial meeting Katherine made such +funny speeches and told such outrageous yarns about her life in the West +that Nyoda said jestingly: "Your name ought to be Iagoo, the Marvellous +Story Teller." And the others began calling her Iagoo in fun. The Chief +Guardian heard them calling her Iagoo and supposed that was the Camp Fire +name she wished to take. So, when she was receiving Katherine into the +ranks, she said: "Your name is Iagoo, isn't it?" + +Katherine, sobered and almost voiceless from the solemnity of the +occasion, mumbled half-inarticulately, "Iagoo? Nah!" + +And before anyone knew what had happened she had been officially +installed as _Iagoonah_! The joke was so good that the name stuck, and +Katherine was known to the Winnebago Circle as Iagoonah to the end of the +chapter, although they did consent to change the interpretation to Story +Maker instead of Story Teller as being more dignified and not so +suggestive. + +Katherine was one of the most enthusiastic Camp Fire Girls that ever +lived, and her inspirations led the girls into more activities and +adventures than they had ever dreamed of before. It was Katherine who +started the Philanthropic Idea. They had been talking about the different +things Camp Fire Girls could do together for the good of the community. + +"Girls," said Katherine, standing in her favorite attitude beside the +fireplace, with her toes turned in and her elbow on the shelf, "I don't +believe we're doing all we ought. We're having a royal good time among +ourselves and learning no end of things to our own advantage, but what +are we doing for others? Nothing, that I can see." + +"We gave a Thanksgiving basket to Katie, the laundress," said Hinpoha, +"and we collected a barrel of clothes for the Shimky's when their house +burned down, and we gave a benefit performance to pay little Jane +Goldman's expenses in the hospital, and we send toys and scrapbooks to +the Sunshine Nursery every Christmas." + +"And I earned three dollars and gave it to the Red Cross," said Sahwah. +"Don't you call that doing something for other people? We haven't meant +to be selfish, I'm sure. By the way, Katherine, your elbow's in the +fudge." + +Katherine shoved the dish away absently and returned to her subject. +"Yes," she admitted, "the Winnebagos have done a great deal that way, but +it's all been _giving_ something. We haven't _done_ anything. It's easy +enough to pack a basket and hand it to someone, and collect a lot of old +clothes from people who are anxious to get rid of them anyway, or pay the +bill for somebody else to do something. But I think we ought to do +something ourselves--give up our own time and put our own touch into it." + +"What do you mean we should do?" asked Gladys, hunting through the dish +for a piece of fudge that had not been demolished by Katherine's elbow. + +"Well, there's the Foreign Settlement," said Katherine. "I'm sure we +could find something to do there. It's a grand and noble thing to show +the foreigners how to live better." And she launched into such an +eloquent plea in behalf of the poor overburdened washerwomen who had to +neglect their babies while they went to work that the girls wiped their +eyes and declared it was a cruel world and things weren't fairly divided, +and surely they must do what they could to lighten the burdens of their +sisters in the Settlement. + +"What will we do, and when will we do it?" asked Hinpoha, all on fire to +get the noble work started. + +"Tomorrow's Saturday," answered Katherine. "We ought to go out into the +Settlement and see what's to be done. We'll make a survey, sort of, and +then we'll step in and see where we're needed most." + +Nyoda, appealed to for advice, told them to go ahead. She liked the idea +of their trying to find out for themselves what needed a helping hand. +She could not go with them to the Settlement on Saturday morning, but it +was all right for them to go by themselves in daylight. + +So, full of a generous desire to help somebody else, the Winnebagos +followed Katherine's lead toward the Settlement the next day. The +Settlement, as it was called, embraced some three or four square miles of +land adjacent to several large factories. In it dwelt some few thousand +Slovaks, Poles and Bohemians, packed like sardines in narrow quarters. +The Settlement had its own churches, stores, schools, theaters, dance +halls and amusement gardens, and looked more like an old world city than +a section of a great American Metropolis, with its queer houses and signs +in every language but English. The girls wandered up and down the narrow +dirty streets, filled with chickens and children, and tried to decide +what they should do first. They met the village baker, carrying a +washbasket full of enormous round loaves of rye bread without a sign of a +wrapping. He was going from house to house, delivering the loaves, and if +no one came to the door he laid the loaf on the doorstep and went on. + +Before one house, which had a small front yard, between twenty and +twenty-five men were lounging on the steps, on the two benches and +against the fence. "What do you suppose all those men are doing in front +of that house?" whispered Hinpoha curiously. + +Just then a woman came from the house carrying in her hand a huge iron +frying-pan full of pancakes. She passed it around and each man took a +pancake in his hand and ate it where he stood. + +"They're having their dinner!" exclaimed Gladys. "It's just a little past +noon. That's one way of disposing of the dishwashing problem. I'll store +up that idea for use the next time it's my turn to cook supper at a +meeting. What a large family that woman has, though. I wonder if they are +all her husbands?" + +"Gracious no," said Katherine. "These people aren't poly--poly--you know +what I mean, even if they are foreigners. Those men are boarders. Every +family has some. Let's go into that big house over there and ask if there +are any babies the mothers would like to leave with us while they go +washing." + +They picked their way across the muddy road toward a large building which +opened right on to the sidewalk. The hall door stood open and they went +in. There were more than a dozen doors leading from the hall on the first +floor. "Gracious, what a number of people live here!" said Gladys, +putting her arm through Katherine's. + +While they stood there, trying to make up their minds at which door to +knock, one was opened and a barefooted woman came out, carrying a pan of +dishwater, which she threw out on the sidewalk. At the same time another +door opened and out came another woman, who stopped short when she saw +the first one, and began to talk in a harsh foreign tongue. The second +woman replied angrily and the girls could see that they were quarreling. +Before long they were shaking fists in front of each other's noses and +shouting at the tops of their voices. Doors everywhere flew open and the +hall was soon filled with excited women who took sides with one or the +other and shook fists at each other while the girls huddled under the +stairway, expecting to be set upon and beaten. The quarrel was waxing +more violent, when the girls spied a door at the end of a hallway which +had been opened to let in some of the shouting women. As quickly and as +quietly as they could they darted down this passageway and out of the +door which brought them into the back yard of the place. Terrified, they +fled up the street and stood on the corner, discouraged and irresolute. +Hinpoha was for going home right away. But Katherine talked her out of +it. + +"Let's go up to the Neighborhood Mission on the hill and ask them for +something to do," suggested Katherine, when the rest inquired what they +should do next. So they turned their footsteps toward the white building +at the end of the street. + +"If you really want to do something," said the mission worker to whom +they explained their errand, "come down here next Saturday morning and +help take care of the children that are left with us. Two of the nurses +will be away and we will be short-handed." + +The Winnebagos were charmed with the idea. "Oh, may we each take one home +for the day?" begged Katherine, "if we promise to bring them back all +right?" + +Permission was granted for the next Saturday and Katherine was jubilant +over the good beginning of their work. "I thought it best that we each +take one home and take care of it by ourselves," she explained. "We'll +have such fun telling experiences and comparing notes afterward." + +Promptly at nine o'clock the next Saturday morning the four Winnebagos, +Katherine, Gladys, Hinpoha and Sahwah, presented themselves at the +Neighborhood Mission and drove away ten minutes later in Gladys' +automobile, each with a youngster in tow. + +At eight that night there was a lively experience meeting in the House of +the Open Door. "Oh, girls, you never saw such a dirty baby as the one I +had," cried Gladys, with a little shiver of disgust at the remembrance. + +"It couldn't have been any worse than the one I had," broke in Hinpoha. + +"But I gave him a bath," said Gladys, with a satisfied air, "and put all +new clothes on him, and he was as sweet as a rose when I took him home." + +"Mine beat them all," said Katherine, when she was able to get in a word +edgewise. "He had a little fur tail of some kind tied around his neck on +a string. I suppose it was meant for a 'pacifier,' for he was sucking it +all the while." + +"Why, mine had one of those on, too," said Gladys. + +"So did mine," said Hinpoha. + +"There must have been a million germs on it," continued Katherine. "I +took it off and burned it up." + +"So did I," said Gladys. + +"So did I," echoed Hinpoha. + +After all things were talked over the Winnebagos decided that they had +done pretty good work that day in cleaning up the dirty babies and +unanimously voted to take them again the next Saturday. + +When they arrived at the Neighborhood Mission the next Saturday morning +they were met on the walk by half a dozen excited women with +handkerchiefs on their heads, who formed a circle around them, shouting +in a foreign tongue and making fierce gestures. + +"What is the matter? What are they saying?" gasped Hinpoha in terror to +Katherine, struggling to pull away from the hand that was clutching her +coat lapel. + +"I don't know," answered Katherine, completely at sea and vainly trying +to understand the gibberish that was being uttered by the brown-skinned +woman dancing up and down before her. + +A startled group of workers ran from the Mission to see what the trouble +was, and, forcing themselves through the circle, drew the frightened +girls inside the fence of the Mission. Then from the group of women +outside there arose a voice in broken English, demanding angrily: "Where +is the charm that hung on the neck of my Stefan? The charm to keep away +the fever and the sore eyes? I give you my boy to watch, you steal away +the charm. Give it back! Give it back!" Here the angry shouting and +gesticulating began again and threatening hands were waved over the +fence. + +"What does she mean?" asked Hinpoha. "What charm?" + +"We didn't steal any charms," said Katherine indignantly. "We didn't take +a thing off the babies except some dirty old rabbits' tails that were +full of germs. We burned them up, and a good thing it was, too." + +Here the angry shouts of the women gave way to wails of despair. "They +burned the rabbits' tails!" groaned one woman, who could talk English, +lifting her hands heavenward, "the rabbits' tails that the Wonder Woman +tied about their necks on Easter Sunday! Now Stefan will get the fever +and the sore eyes and the teeth will not come through!" And she beat her +breast in despair. Then her anger blazed forth again and she fell to +berating the girls in her own language, and the other women fell in with +her until there was a perfect hubbub. The workers at the Mission hustled +the girls inside the building and the women finally departed, shaking +fists at the Mission and raging at all the dwellers. + +"It was nothing but a dirty old rabbit's tail," declared Hinpoha +tearfully, as the shaken Winnebagos hastened homeward. "I hate +foreigners! I guess we'll never try to do anything for them again." + +"Oh, yes, we will," answered Katherine optimistically; "we'll learn not +to make mistakes in time." + +"Look at that donkey over there," said Sahwah. "Doesn't he remind you of +Sandhelo?" + +"Poor old Sandhelo," mourned Hinpoha. "I wonder what became of him? We +certainly had fun with him, even if he never would go unless he heard +music." + +"Seems to be characteristic of the donkey tribe not to want to go," +observed Katherine. "That one over there is balking, too. Doesn't the +fellow that's trying to drive him look like a pirate, though? I wouldn't +go for him either, if I were a donkey." + +"O look!" cried Sahwah in amazement, and they all stopped still. + +A small boy was coming down the street blowing lustily on a wheezy horn, +and as soon as the donkey heard it he wheeled around, facing the music, +pricked up his ears, uttered a squeal of rapture and rose up on his hind +legs, almost upsetting the queer little cart to which he was harnessed. + +"Katherine! I do believe it _is_ Sandhelo," cried Sahwah, excitedly +gripping Katherine's arm. + +The man sprang from the cart and seizing the donkey by the bit brought +him down to earth with a rough pull that almost jerked his head off, +shouting abuse at him in a foreign tongue. The little boy, frightened at +the uproar, ran away, taking his music with him. The man got into the +cart again and tried to drive away. The donkey refused to move. The man +began to beat him unmercifully. + +"Oh, girls, we must do something to stop him!" cried Hinpoha, hopping up +and down in distress. + +"Here, you, stop that!" shouted Katherine, running forward and waving her +muff at him threateningly. "I'll have the law on you!" The man either did +not understand, or did not care, for he paid not the slightest heed to +her words. "Stop it, stop it, I say!" she commanded, stamping her foot +angrily and wildly wishing she were a man, that she might beat this bully +even as he was beating the poor little beast. + +The man looked at her and grinned derisively. "Who says so?" he growled. + +"I say so!" said a voice behind Katherine, and she turned to see the +Captain standing beside her. "You stop beating that donkey or I'll punch +your head." He put his fingers to his lips and uttered a long shrill +whistle which the girls recognized as the call of the Sandwiches, and the +next minute the other boys came running up the side street, Bottomless +Pitt, Monkey, Dan, Peter and Harry, with Slim trailing along in the rear, +puffing violently in his efforts to keep up with the rest. They +surrounded the cart threateningly and the man sulkily left off beating +the donkey. + +Sahwah went forward and stroked the little animal's head and then she +uttered a triumphant cry. + +"It _is_ Sandhelo!" she exclaimed. "Here's part of his red, white and +blue cockade still sticking in his hair." + +"That's our donkey," cried all the girls and boys, pressing close around. +"Where did you get him?" + +"He is not," declared the man angrily. "I raise him myself since he was +young." + +"That is not true," said Sahwah shrewdly. "If you had had him very long +you would know how to make him go. It seems to me that this is the first +time you've ever tried to drive him." + +"He is mine, he is mine," declared the man. "I know how to make him go. +He always go for me." + +"Then make him go," said Sahwah coolly. + +The man tried to urge the donkey forward, but in vain. + +"Now, _we'll_ show you how to make him go," said Sahwah. "Where's that +boy with the horn?" She ran up the street a distance and found the boy +seated on a doorstep and bribed him with a few pennies to let her take +the horn. Then, walking along ahead of Sandhelo she played a half dozen +lively notes, such as had sent him flying round the circus ring. No +sooner had she started than he started at a great rate. When she stopped +he stopped. + +"It's Sandhelo without mistake," they all cried, and the last doubt +vanished when he came up alongside of Sahwah and laid his head on her +shoulder the way he always had done. + +"He belongs to us," said the Captain, looking the man in the eye, "and +you'll have to give him up." + +The man shifted his gaze. "I give him to you for five dollar," he +muttered. "I pay so much for him." + +"Not much," said the Captain. "Nobody sold you a donkey for five dollars +and you can't get that much out of us. Now you either give him to us or +we'll report it to the police." The man protested loudly, but he was +evidently thinking all the while that a donkey that only went when he +heard music was not such a good bargain after all, even if he did get it +by the simple and inexpensive method of finding it in his dooryard and +tying it up. So, after growling some more that they were robbing him, he +suffered Sandhelo to be unharnessed from the cart and led away in triumph +in the wake of the horn. + +"Well, our charitable enterprise didn't turn out so badly, after all," +said Katherine, when Sandhelo was once more established in his cozy stall +in the House of the Open Door. "If it hadn't been for that fuss about the +babies we wouldn't have been on the street in time to see Sandhelo. And +if we hadn't wanted to help those people there wouldn't have been any +fuss. It does really seem that virtue is its own reward and one good turn +deserves another. Let's do it some more." + +And as usual the others agreed with her. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + A SELECT SLEEPING PARTY + + +"Gracious, Katherine, what is the matter with your fingers?" asked Gladys +curiously, as Katherine came into the room with all five fingers on her +right hand tied up. + +"Oh," replied Katherine cheerfully, "I burned one, cut one, pounded one +with a hammer and slammed the door on one, and that left only one good +one, so I tied that up, too, for safe-keeping and only take it out when I +want to use it. It's a good thing I don't need my hand to sing carols +with, or I would be out of the running. Are we all here?" + +"All but Veronica," answered Nyoda, "and Sahwah--and Sahwah will be here +presently. By the way, where is Veronica?" + +"She's over at the theater where her uncle is orchestra director," +answered Gladys. "She goes over there almost every Saturday afternoon. I +believe she plays sometimes when one of the regular violinists is +absent." + +Veronica, it must be confessed, was a great puzzle to the Winnebagos. Try +as they might, they could never get her to enter into their work and fun +with any degree of vim. She always sat aloof, her brooding eyes staring +off into space. Not that they loved her any the less--they were too +genuinely sorry for her--but they never seemed to be able to break down +the barrier between them and her. They constantly stood abashed before +her aristocratic airs. When the friends went together to get ice cream +Veronica had a way of flinging a dollar bill down on the table and +bidding the waitress keep the change that made the others feel cheap +somehow, although they knew it was useless extravagance. When a poor +woman came to the door one day, just as she was going out, and asked if +she had any old clothes to give away she promptly took off her expensive +furs and gave them to her. + +The girls were mightily impressed by this act until Nyoda talked it over +with them and made them see that the gift was entirely inappropriate. So +while they admired her to distraction and each one secretly hoped that +Veronica would single her out as a special friend, they had to admit that +as yet they had not made much headway. + +"If Sahwah doesn't come in five minutes, we'll have to start without +her," said Hinpoha, walking impatiently to the window. "Carol practice +begins at two and it's half-past one now." + +Just then the telephone rang. "It's Sahwah," reported Hinpoha, upon +answering, "and she says she's got a real charity case for us to look +into--some old woman--and she's down at Sahwah's house now and we should +all come down. She says it's the saddest thing she ever heard. What shall +we do, girls, shall we go?" + +"Of course," said Katherine promptly. + +"What about carol practice?" asked Gladys. "Won't it make us dreadfully +late?" + +"We'll just have to be late, then," said Katherine, jabbing her hatpins +in swiftly. "Come on." + +Sahwah met them at the door with an unusually solemn countenance. "You're +a load of bricks to come, girls," she said, "but I knew you would. Come +right upstairs. In here," she said, pausing before the door of her room. +"Maybe you'd better go in one at a time. You go first, Hinpoha." + +Hinpoha, feeling queer, passed in. The next minute those outside heard a +great shout. "Migwan! My Migwan! When did you come? We thought you +weren't coming for two whole days yet. Sahwah, you wretch, how could you +get us so worked up?" + +The others burst in and smothered Migwan in embraces while Katherine +stood looking on curiously, until Gladys remembered her manners. "This is +our Katherine," she said, drawing her forward, "that we have all written +you about. Make a speech, Katherine, to show her how you do it!" + +And Katherine obligingly complied and Migwan laughed extravagantly and +was soon sitting on the bed beside her with her arm locked in hers, and +talking to her as if she had known her all her life instead of only five +minutes. That was the effect Katherine had on everybody. + +Then they dragged Migwan out to the House of the Open Door and introduced +her to the Sandwiches, who were playing basket ball in their half of the +barn. The Sandwiches began to plan a Christmas barn dance in her honor on +the spot, and nobody thought of carol practice again until it was too +late to go. Migwan had to explain how she got through with her work at +college two days earlier than she had expected and came home to surprise +them. She went to see Sahwah first and Sahwah worked the little stratagem +which brought them all down to her house in such a hurry. Each one +insisted upon Migwan's going home with her to spend the night, but she +could not be enticed away from her own home. "I guess you'd want to stay +at home, too, if you hadn't seen your mother for three months." But she +promised to attend a select sleeping party some night up in the House of +the Open Door, which Sahwah had just "germed." + +"There's a loose shingle on the roof and the snow comes in a little," +said Hinpoha regretfully. "It really ought to be fixed." + +"Never mind the shingle," cried the others. "When did the Winnebagos ever +balk at a snowflake or two on their beds?" + +The barn dance was a grand success in spite of the fact that Slim fell +down the ladder in his excitement and sprained all the portions of his +anatomy that he needed most for dancing, besides demolishing a frosted +cake in the tumble. + +"Too bad you can't dance," said the Captain sympathetically, when Slim's +ankles had been strapped with plaster and he had been comfortably settled +on a pile of bearskins brought down from the bed upstairs. "But you don't +need to waste your time. You can be musician and play the banjo while the +rest of us dance." + +"But I can't play the banjo," objected Slim. + +"Play anyway," commanded the Captain. "Here, I'll teach you a couple of +tunes that you can play with one finger that we can do most of the dances +to." So Slim learned to play the banjo under pressure and picked +banefully away while the rest whirled about on the floor. Sometimes he +got his tunes or his time so badly mixed that it was impossible to dance +and then the Captain would make him sing and beat time with a hatchet on +the floor. Finally Nyoda took pity on him and took over the banjo, +producing such lively strains and keeping the dancers going at such a mad +pace that they sank down breathless one by one, and a series of loud +thumps from Sandhelo's stall told them that he was also capering to the +music and nearly battering his stall down in the process. + +The boys went home reluctantly at eleven o'clock and the girls climbed +the ladder to the joys of the "select sleeping party." This was the first +time any of them had stayed all night in the House of the Open Door. +"Covers were laid for nine," as Katherine wrote in the Count Book. Nyoda +had her camp bed, Sahwah had her pile of bearskins, Gladys her Indian Bed +and Nakwisi her willow bed. Migwan was invited to share them all and +chose the bearskins. Katherine had brought a couch hammock, which she +declared surpassed them all in comfort. The rest of the girls played John +Kempo for the privilege of sleeping with Nyoda, and Veronica got it, and +the other two spread their blankets on mattresses on the floor. The +fireplace was filled with glowing hard coals, which would keep all night, +and the Lodge was as warm as toast, so the snowflakes which drifted in +through the hole in the roof were never noticed. Of course they talked +half the night, for there was so much to tell Migwan and so much she had +to tell them it seemed they never would get it all told. But finally the +conversation was punctuated by steadily lengthening yawns, and then +trailed off into silence. + +Nyoda was awakened by the touch of a cold hand on her face. "What is it?" +she asked, sitting up. + +"It's I--Migwan," said the figure standing beside her. "Do you know where +Sahwah is?" + +"Isn't she in bed with you?" asked Nyoda, still in a low tone of voice, +so as not to disturb the other girls. + +"No, she isn't," whispered Migwan. "I woke up a minute ago and felt +around for her and she wasn't there. I called and asked where she was and +there was no answer." + +Nyoda got up and lit a candle, and looked carefully around the room. All +the other girls were sound asleep in their beds; Sahwah's clothes lay on +a chair, but there was no sign of Sahwah. "She can't be under the bed," +said Migwan, "because this bed has no 'under.'" + +Nyoda went to the top of the ladder and called: "Sahwah, are you down +there?" No answer. All was dark and silent below. When it was evident +that Sahwah was not in the barn, Nyoda roused all the sleepers +unceremoniously. + +"What's the matter? What's happened?" they all cried sleepily. There was +a great uproar when Sahwah's disappearance became known. "Where could she +have gone without her clothes?" they all asked. + +"Do you think she was dragged from her bed, Nyoda?" asked Hinpoha +anxiously, filled with the wildest fears. + +"No, I don't," answered Nyoda promptly, suddenly remembering certain +facts in Sahwah's history. "I think she's walking in her sleep again. She +always does when she gets excited. She's probably gotten out of the barn +and is wandering around somewhere and we must find her and bring her in +without delay. This is altogether too cold a night to be promenading +without a coat on." She had dressed herself fully while she was talking +and the others followed suit with all speed. + +The barn door was carefully closed, but the big inside bolt was +unfastened and they knew by that that Sahwah was outside somewhere. The +wind had swept the snow off the drive and there was not a footprint to be +seen. They spent some time looking all around the barn and up on the roof +and then concluded that she must have gone down the drive, because, if +she had gone anywhere else, there would be footprints. The snow in the +road had been so packed down by passing vehicles that a person walking +would leave no trace. + +"Where can she be?" exclaimed Nyoda anxiously after a fruitless search of +some ten minutes. + +"Do you think she could have climbed a tree?" asked Hinpoha. + +"And be roosting on a branch?" asked Katherine, and they all had to laugh +in spite of their concern. + +"Well, you never can tell what Sahwah will do next," returned Hinpoha, +"especially in her sleep. You haven't known her as long as we have. Once +in camp she climbed to the top of the diving tower and jumped off. So I +guess climbing a tree wouldn't be impossible for her." + +"Hark, girls," said Nyoda, bending her head in a listening attitude. +"Don't you hear music?" The others listened, but could hear nothing. +"When that breath of wind came in this direction I thought I heard it," +said Nyoda. "There it is, again." This time they all heard it, faint and +far, a soft strain of music, but what kind of music or whence it came +they could not make out. + +"It came with the wind," said Nyoda, "so we must walk against the wind +and see if we can find it." Heading into the wind they walked up the +road. They shivered as they walked and the snow crunched under their +feet. The very moonlight seemed cold as it touched them and the stars +glistened like splintered icicles. Verily, it was a cold night to be +sleepwalking. The music began to sound more clearly now, and at a turn in +the road they stopped still in amazement at the sight before their eyes. +There in the road just ahead of them ambled Sandhelo, and by his side +walked Sahwah, dressed in her troubadour costume, the red cloak flying +out in the breeze. She held her mouth organ to her lips, and the drawing +of her breath in and out of it was producing the strains of music which +the girls had followed. As they suspected, she was sound asleep. They +hurried forward to waken Sahwah, and she turned around and faced them. +Her eyes were wide open in the moonlight. A moment she looked at them and +then turned suddenly and swung herself onto Sandhelo's back. At her touch +on his bridle Sandhelo started and then began running down the road as +fast as he could. Sahwah woke up, gave one shriek of fright, and then +mechanically dug her knees into his sides and hung on. Sandhelo did not +have his regular harness on, only his bridle, and she was riding bareback +in this strange adventure. The girls pursued as fast as they could, +shouting at the top of their voices, but of course they were soon left +behind. Far ahead of them in the moonlit road they saw Sandhelo stop +suddenly and slide his rider over his head into a snowdrift and then sit +down on his haunches beside her like a dog. Sahwah had emerged from her +drift and was shaking the snow off when the others came up. "What's the +matter?" she asked in a bewildered tone. "How did I get out here?" + +"Home first, explanations afterward," said Nyoda, wrapping her in the +bear rug she had brought with her. And they made Sahwah run every step of +the way back to the Lodge, and swallow quarts of hot lemonade before they +would tell her a single thing. + +Migwan insisted on tying Sahwah's foot to the post of Nyoda's bed for the +rest of the night to insure her being there in the morning. They had just +gotten quieted down when the ropes of Katherine's hammock broke and down +she came with a resounding crash. + +Morning found them heavy-eyed and full of yawns, but to all inquirers +they stoutly maintained that the select sleeping party had been the best +ever. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + THE CANDLE IN THE WINDOW + + +"What's all this about singing carols?" asked Migwan. "Everywhere I go +the talk is all of carols, carols, carols. And the air is full of 'God +Rest You, Merry Gentlemen,' and similar melodies." + +"It's the Music Club League," explained Gladys. "They have revived the +old custom of going through the streets on Christmas Eve with lanterns +and singing carols, and are training the boys and girls all over the city +to sing them. People who are interested in the work of the Music Club +League and wish to give a gift of money for its support will put a candle +in their windows and we will stop outside and sing carols for them. Isn't +it a pretty idea?" + +"Beautiful," said Migwan. "I wish I might have attended the rehearsals so +I could go around with you." + +"We'll teach you the carols," said Gladys eagerly, "and I'll explain to +Miss Jones and I know she'll let you be in our group. We've been given +one of the best districts in the city--Garfield Avenue, from the +Cathedral to the Park, where all the rich people live--and we expect to +bring in more money than any other group. There was great rivalry among +the groups for that district, and Miss Jones tested and tested us to see +which sang the best. I nearly passed away from surprise when she decided +in favor of our group. Oh, won't it be glorious, though, stopping before +all those fine houses?" and Gladys and Hinpoha, unable to keep still any +longer, got up and began to dance. + +"That isn't the best part of it, though," said Sahwah. "All the carolers +are invited to the Music League's clubhouse after the singing is over for +an oyster supper and a frolic. And the troupe of midgets that are playing +in the Mansfield Theater this week are coming and will give a real Punch +and Judy show. Hurrah for the Music Club League! Hurrah for carols! +Hurrah for Christmas!" + +"I smell something burning," said Gladys, sniffing the air suspiciously. + +"It's probably something that has been spilled on the stove," said +Katherine serenely. They were all up at Katherine's house. + +"Here are the carols we are going to sing," said Gladys, pulling Migwan +toward the piano. "We might as well begin at once." + +"Do you really think Miss Jones will let me do it?" asked Migwan rather +doubtfully. + +"I'm sure she will," said Gladys, "if we all----Katherine, there _is_ +something burning; it smells like cloth." And she rushed off +unceremoniously to investigate. The kitchen was full of smoke when she +reached it, proceeding from the ironing board, where Katherine had left +the electric iron standing without being turned off. + +"You ought to have a leather medal, Katherine," scolded Hinpoha, +switching off the current and setting the smoking board outside the back +door, while Katherine stood idly by with such a look of pained surprise +on her face that the others went into gales of laughter. + +"I can't get used to these self-starting, big city flat-irons, nohow," +she drawled mildly in self-defense. "Back where I come from the irons +cool off when you leave them by themselves; here they start heatin' up." +Katherine always left off her g's when she spoke earnestly. + +"Katherine, you're hopeless," said Hinpoha with a sigh, and then she +added affectionately, "that's why we love you so." + +"There's Slim outside with his big bob-sled," said Sahwah, looking out of +the window. "He promised to take us all coasting down College Hill this +afternoon. Come on." And they trooped out. + +Nyoda took a few round trips on the bob with the girls, and then, having +other things to do, walked home by herself through the early winter +twilight. A few blocks from her home she saw Veronica walking along just +ahead of her. By her side walked a young man whom Nyoda recognized as +Alex Tobin, one of the violins in the Temple Theater Orchestra. He was +talking animatedly and earnestly to her, his white teeth showing often in +a smile beneath his small black moustache. Veronica was listening eagerly +with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. As Nyoda drew near she heard +Veronica say: "Oh, a chance to study with him would be the greatest +happiness of my life, but uncle would never allow it. Never!" + +And Alex Tobin answered: "Does it have to depend upon your uncle's +permission? You have money in your own right, have you not?" + +And then Veronica noticed that Nyoda was behind her and turned and spoke +and Alex Tobin took his departure down the cross street. Nyoda looked +after him thoughtfully. She was not fond of Alex Tobin, although she knew +him only very slightly. He was a young Pole, and quite handsome, but +there was something about his eyes that made a keen observer dislike him. + +"I was at the rehearsal of the Symphony Orchestra this afternoon," said +Veronica, with more animation than Nyoda had ever seen her display. "You +know uncle plays this year and he lets me go along and listen, that I may +benefit from the director's criticisms." + +"Does Mr. Tobin play in the Symphony Orchestra, too?" asked Nyoda idly. + +"Yes," answered Veronica. "He's a wonderful player; and so kind to me. He +takes such an interest in my playing. He says I will play at concerts in +time." + +"I don't doubt it in the least," said Nyoda heartily. "But you mustn't +study music to the exclusion of everything else. You are growing quite +thin. You must stay out of doors more and romp with the girls. You are +missing all the coasting and skating. 'Hold on to Health,' you know." + +"Yes, of course," murmured Veronica absently, and fell silent, as if she +were day-dreaming. + + +"The Midgets are going to give Punch and Judy dolls to the carol singers +as souvenirs of the occasion," announced Sahwah, as the Winnebagos +assembled before starting out for the singing on Christmas Eve. "Won't +they be jolly to put up in our rooms?" + +"And did you know that Jeffry, the famous bird imitator, was going to be +there and give some of his wonderful bird calls?" asked Gladys. "Migwan, +you're in luck, being home this week to take in all the good things." + +"The frolic afterwards is going to be as much fun as the carol singing," +said Hinpoha. "I wouldn't miss it for anything. And the group that brings +in the most money is going to get a prize," she added, "and have its +picture in the Sunday paper. Oh, I do hope we'll get the most! We must +sing our very best." + +"Oh, what a glorious night!" they all cried, as they passed out into the +sparkling snow. + +"Oh, but I'm glad I'm a carol singer," said Katherine, and slipped and +sat down on her lantern in her enthusiasm. + +"Have you time to walk over to Division Street with me before we go to +Mrs. Salisbury's?" asked Gladys, as they went down the street. Mrs. +Salisbury was the lady who had gathered together the band of carolers to +which the Winnebagos belonged, and they were all to meet at her house. + +"It's early yet," said Hinpoha, "we ought to have time. Come on." + +So they all went with Gladys to deliver a Christmas parcel to a poor +family whom Gladys' mother had taken under her wing. Along the big +avenues through which they walked candles were already glimmering in +windows in friendly invitation to the coming singers. But there were no +candles in the windows on Division Street. The houses were all poor +little one-story ones, with never a wreath or a bit of decoration +anywhere to show that it was Christmas. The very lamp-posts burned dimly +with a discouraged air. The girls delivered their bundle and hastened +back up the dark street. + +"Let's stop a minute and sing the songs through once more so Migwan will +be sure of them," suggested Hinpoha. "We wanted to before we left the +house, you know, and then we forgot it." + +So they stood still before a bleak, empty looking house, and sang through +all the songs they were to sing with the group that night on Garfield +Avenue. + + * * * * * * + +In a bare little room in the shabbiest house on Division Street a young +girl lay in bed day after day, staring wistfully through the flawed +window pane at the dingy row of houses opposite. She suffered from hip +disease and could not walk, and a frail little mother cleaned offices to +support them both. Living was cruelly high and there was no thought of +spending anything for Christmas. Martha dreaded its coming, for she could +remember other days when Christmas had been very different. Besides, +Martha was very lonely. She and her mother were strangers in town, having +come only six months before, and in all that time not a soul had come to +see them. And because Martha felt so lonely and so left out of the busy, +happy world, the treatment for which she had come to the city was doing +her no good, and she was not improving at all. And her mother saw the +trouble and sorrowed, but did not know how to mend the matter. Martha +read in books about the good times girls had together and longed with all +her soul to be part of such frolics, until it seemed that she could not +bear her loneliness any longer. + +Her mother often brought home newspapers from the offices and in them +Martha read about the groups of boys and girls who were going through the +streets on Christmas Eve singing carols before the houses where the +candles shone in the windows. + +"How I wish I could hear those carols sung!" she sighed enviously. "How +wonderful it must be to be rich and live in a fine house and put a candle +in the window to make the singers stop outside! And I must always stay in +the darkness, and miss all the fun! Oh, Mother, it isn't fair!" + +The sad-eyed little mother cast about in her mind for some way to amuse +her lonely daughter this dreary Christmas Eve. "Let us pretend that we +are rich and great," she said soothingly, "and play that we are putting a +lighted candle in our window and listening to the fine songs of the +singers below and giving them large sums of money for their good cause." + +"What good would it do to play it?" asked Martha. "We would have to +imagine it all. We haven't even a candle!" + +"Let's play it, anyway," coaxed her mother. "What color candle shall we +use tonight?" + +"A red one, with gold designs on it, and a cut glass candlestick," said +Martha, playing the game to please her mother. + +So they pretended to set a shining glass candlestick holding a red and +gold candle on the window sill. "Now we must wait awhile in our elegant +parlor for the singers to come," said her mother, playing the game with +spirit. + +Then a wonderful thing happened. There was a sound of footsteps in the +creaking snow outside, footsteps that came to a halt beneath the window, +and then the air was filled with joyous, ringing melody: + + "God rest you, merry gentlemen, + Let nothing you may dismay, + For Jesus Christ our Savior + Was born this happy day!" + +Martha and her mother looked at each other with faces suddenly grown +pale, and listened with unbelieving ears. The song changed as the singers +swung into the measures of a new carol. Surely these were human voices +and not a band of fairies! The mother crept silently to the window and +looked out. + + * * * * * * + +When the last note of the songs had died away the door of the dark house +opened and a woman came out on the steps. "Thank you a thousand times for +the singing," she said. "Won't you come in where my daughter can see you? +She won't believe you are real. She is so sick and lonesome. Please do." + +The Winnebagos started in surprise and looked at each other somewhat +doubtfully. They had not been aware that they were singing to an +audience. It was getting near the time when they should be meeting the +rest of the group. But this was Christmas Eve and here was a girl sick +and lonesome---- + +"Let's go in for a minute," said Gladys and Hinpoha together. They went +in, singing as they went, and swinging their little lighted lanterns. + +Martha's mother lit the one pale little gas flame, for they had been +sitting in the dark before, and by its light the girls saw the shabby +room and the wan girl lying on the bed. So amazed was Martha at the +sudden appearance of the carolers out of the night that she forgot to be +shy, and before she knew it she had told them all about the Christmas Eve +game she and her mother had been playing and how they had set the +imaginary candle in the window. And all of the six months' loneliness was +in that little tale, and the girls as they listened became afflicted with +a queer weakness of the eyes that made them turn their faces away from +the light. Over on the lighted avenue the twinkling candles beckoned in +the gleaming windows of the most beautiful homes in the city; still +farther on the revellers at the singers' party stretched out gay hands to +them; but over it all each one seemed to see the words of the Fire Law +written in letters made of Christmas stars: + + ----"Whose house is bare and dark and cold----" + +Mysterious communications and hand signs flew back and forth between the +Winnebagos. Like magic Gladys and Hinpoha slid out of the door and like +magic they returned a few minutes later, loaded down with bundles. As the +enchanted forests rise in the fairy tales, so the room was swiftly +transformed and began to blossom in green and red. Garlands and wreaths +hung from the head and the foot of the bed, and from the gas-jet. Riotous +little bells swung from the doorways; sprigs of holly and gorgeous +poinsettias framed the cheap pictures; bright candles in cheerful red +shades burned on the table. + +Other bundles when opened revealed the "makings" of the grandest spread +the Winnebagos had ever had. The Lonesome House was turned into the Home +of Joyous Spirits. Gladys poked up the fire and made her most tempting +Shrimp Wiggle; Sahwah made the best pan of fudge she had ever made; +Katherine made cocoa, and the rest spread sandwiches with delicious +"Wohelo Special" chicken salad, and cut up cake and dished ice cream. +Then there followed such a joyous feast as Martha had never conceived in +her rosiest dreams. Healths were drunk in cocoa, side-splitting toasts +proposed by the witty toastmistress, Migwan, and songs sung that made the +roof ring. Gladys did her prettiest dances; Sahwah and Hinpoha did their +famous stunt of the goat that ate the two red shirts right off the line, +and Katherine gave her very funniest speech--the one about Wimmen's +Rights--three times; once voluntarily and twice more by special request. +Martha laughed until she could laugh no more, and applauded every number +enthusiastically, her usually pale cheeks glowing red with excitement and +her eyes shining like stars. It was late when they left her, promising to +come again soon, and slipping into her hands various packages containing +gifts of things every girl loves, which Gladys had hastily bought when +she had slipped out to get the supplies. Among them was a beautifully +intricate puzzle which would keep her interested for months to come. + +Thus it was that the candle which was never lit guided the feet of the +Song Friends to the Dark House, and gave into their tending yet another +fire. Reports of the gay party at the Music League Club House came to the +Winnebagos from all sides, and loud expressions of regret that they had +missed it. And the group they were to have sung with brought in by far +the most money, carrying off the prize and getting its picture in the +Sunday paper--and the Winnebagos were not in it. + +But over on Division Street a wonderful new look had come into the face +of a sad-eyed girl--a look of happiness and ambition, and the Winnebagos, +having seen that look, were content. + + + + + CHAPTER X + A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT + + +January closed with its immemorial thaw and February drew near in a mist +of speculation as to whether it would come in like a lion or a lamb. But +whatever may have been the state of the weather outside when the new +month arrived, the Winnebago barometer registered a tempest in a teapot. +It was Katherine who was responsible for that particular barometric +activity. That is, it was she who attached the fuse to the bomb and set +the match to it. All the bomb did was blow up. + +The Winnebagos were all over at Katherine's one Friday afternoon after +school, painting a buffalo robe that was to hang on the wall in the Open +Door Lodge and cover an unsightly board. Veronica was in one of her rare +cheerful moods and played gay tunes on her violin while the other girls +worked. She was gradually thawing toward the girls, although she was +still very conservative in her friendships. She was most friendly toward +Gladys and Hinpoha, the two girls who came from the best family. She was +not particularly drawn to merry, tomboyish Sahwah, because she was not +musical, although they got along. Thus also it was with Medmangi and +Nakwisi. But from the first Katherine Adams had seemed to rub her the +wrong way. Big, clumsy, awkward Katherine, uncultured and hopelessly +plebeian! She always managed to step on Veronica's dainty shoes or sit on +her cherished violin or spill cocoa on her dress. And her flyaway +appearance constantly jarred on Veronica's artistic nature. And that +ridiculous, unmusical voice! + +Looking only at these defects, Veronica failed to appreciate the +wonderful magnetism of Katherine's personality and the unfailing good +nature which made her a boon companion any hour out of the twenty-four +whatever the weather might be. Not being American-born, Veronica believed +firmly in class distinctions, and to her Katherine was a peasant and thus +an inferior. + +However, to the others it seemed that the strangeness between them and +Veronica was wearing away, and this afternoon they felt closer to her +than they ever had before. She even asked, actually _asked_, to be shown +how to make "slumgullion"--she who a few months before had scornfully +maintained that cooking was for servants and not for ladies. "She's +getting there!" whispered Gladys to Hinpoha, with a delighted squeeze. +Spirits ran high and before long everybody felt they must dance or burst. + +"It's too bad we haven't Nyoda's old banjo over here," said Sahwah. "Then +some of the rest of us could play and Veronica could dance." + +"I'll go over and get it," said Katherine obligingly. So she went over to +Nyoda's house and got the banjo, and it was on this errand that her feet +became entangled in the fuse that led to the bomb. On the doorstep of the +house next to Nyoda's, the house where Veronica dwelt, there sat a snowy +white poodle, fresh from a bath and rivalling in purity a field of virgin +snow. This was Fifi, Veronica's French poodle, who had come to her as a +Christmas gift, and whose pedigree was considerably longer than he was. +Fifi did not share his young mistress's ideas as to the unfitness of the +peasantry for association with the high born, and took a decided fancy to +Katherine at first sight. Just how much he was influenced by half a sugar +cookie, which she held out to him over the fence, it is impossible to +say, but when Katherine turned out of Nyoda's yard and went up the +street, Fifi was at her heels and refused to be shooed home. + +"Well, come along, then, if you want to," she said good-naturedly. "I +suppose you're lonesome with all your folks gone and want some improvin' +company, like us. A great hostess I'd be, if I turned down a dog that +wanted to come to my At Home Day." + +The January thaw was still in progress, although it was the first of +February, and the streets were lakes of slush and mud. Katherine did not +mind mud in the least and stepped cheerfully into the puddles. Fifi did +likewise. By the time they arrived at the house the comparison of the +field of virgin snow no longer held good. Even Katherine hesitated about +admitting him. + +Veronica shrieked when she saw him and did not share his delight at the +unexpected meeting. "Oh-oh-oh!" she exclaimed in dismay. "He is to go to +the Dog Show tonight. Katie spent all morning washing and combing him. +How did he ever get out? She must have left the door open. And then you +had to coax him over here, and now look at him!" After a hasty glance the +rest decided they would rather not look at him. + +"Well," said Katherine, much taken aback, but still mistress of the +situation, "I'll just give him a nice bath and carry him home and +everything will be all right. Go on dancing, girls, there's the banjo; +Fifi and I will entertain ourselves in the basement." + +She set the squirming lump of mud into one of the wash tubs and let warm +water run over him from a faucet for a few minutes to remove the clods. +Then she set to work in earnest. She hesitated for some time about what +kind of soap to use and finally decided that dog's hair was the same as +camel's hair; camel's hair was wool; and therefore, according to the most +familiar problem in the whole geometry, Fifi was all wool and needed Wool +Soap. Now the mud through which Fifi and Katherine had come was the +yellow clayey kind that sticketh closer than a brother, and Wool Soap was +not designed especially to dissolve it. After three scrubbings and +rinsings Fifi was still a muddy, yellowish gray, and there was no hope +that he would dry into a field of virgin white as a yellow popcorn kernel +bursts into snowy blossom. + +Katherine was discouraged. Then she suddenly remembered something. +"Clothes always come out yellow if you wash them in just soap," she said +triumphantly to herself. "It's the bluing that makes them white. Fifi +needs bluing!" + +But a thorough search of the laundry room failed to reveal any bluing. +"Shucks!" exclaimed Katherine in vexation. "We're out of it. I heard Aunt +Anna mention it this morning. And the stores are closed this afternoon. +What will I do? I don't dare produce Fifi unless he's all white and +nice." Then it was that Katherine's mighty genius set to work. A less +resourceful person would have been at a standstill when confronted with +such a difficulty; a genius makes a way when there is none. In one +respect Katherine was an equal of the gods--what she wished and did not +have she created. She wished bluing; she must have it; so she calmly set +about making it. Katherine took chemistry and knew that iodine, applied +to starch, will turn it blue. There was iodine in the house and there was +starch. The pucker vanished from her brow. A far-sighted person would +have foreseen other results from the mixture beside the chemical action +of the iodine on the starch. But Katherine was not a far-sighted person. +She was a genius. It is said that geniuses, entirely absorbed in one +idea, often forget the most commonplace fact altogether. Thus it was that +Katherine, filled with the idea that starch turns blue when mixed with +iodine, forgot the original purpose for which starch was invented. And +Katherine had used flat-iron starch, the kind that gets stiff without +boiling. It turned blue--a beautiful bright purple blue--and she immersed +Fifi again and again. Katherine had to admit that he looked dreadfully +blue when he emerged from the final dip, but serene in the belief that he +would dry pure white like the clothes did, she rolled him up in a piece +of carpet and set him in a wash basket beside the furnace to dry. Then +she went upstairs and joined the dancers, announcing with a sigh of +relief that Fifi was clean once more and could come up as soon as he was +dry. + +Having been told that Fifi was clean, they naturally looked for a white +dog, and it was not their fault that they did not recognize the creature +that slunk into their midst in the middle of the revels. As an Animal +from Nowhere he would have taken the prize over the head of the famous +Salmonkey. His hair was pasted flat to his sides in long, stringy waves, +giving him a queer, corrugated effect. His head was a dirty, yellowish +white, for, in keeping his eyes out of the blue bath, Katherine had held +his whole head out; and the rest of him was a bright purplish blue. With +his excited red tongue hanging out in front he looked like a dilapidated +remnant of the American flag. The girls shrieked and fled before him. +Katherine sank weakly down on the couch and viewed him in consternation. + +"Whatever did you do to him?" wailed Veronica, when informed that this +was actually Fifi and not some freak animal from the Zoo. + +"I wanted to blue him to make him nice and silvery white," explained +Katherine ruefully, "and there wasn't any bluing, so I made some with +iodine and starch. I thought he would come out all nice and fluffy, but +instead of that he got--all--stiff!" + +The Winnebagos burst out into a wild peal of laughter that made the +windows rattle. They were simply helpless, and laughed until they sank +limply on each other's shoulders. The simplicity of Katherine's +inspirations was nothing short of sublime. + +Gaining a measure of control over themselves, they became aware that +Veronica was standing before them with eyes flashing lightning, in such a +passion as they had never seen any girl display. Holding her translated +pet in her arms, she stamped her foot and almost hissed at Katherine: +"Don't you ever come near me again, you--you great big kangaroo from out +of the west! + +"And the rest of you are just as bad," she cried, blazing at them +collectively. "You think it's funny. I wish I had never met you, and from +this day I am no more a Camp Fire Girl! I am through with you!" And +before they could collect their wits to reply she had rushed out of the +house like a whirlwind. + +Completely sobered by the result of her act, Katherine called herself one +name after another and proposed the most extravagant things in the nature +of penance. She and Nyoda talked it over a long time, and Nyoda made her +see how a habit of doing things without thinking of the consequences led +to more trouble than deliberately planned evil did, and she promised +faithfully that this was the last rash act she would ever perform. + +"Now that Veronica has had time to think it over and see the funny side, +and realize that Fifi is not hurt, I think you may go over and present +your sincere apologies and make your peace with Veronica," said Nyoda. +And Katherine, humble as the dust, set forth. + +But Veronica would have none of her peace offerings. She received her +apology coldly, and declared she would never come back into the ranks of +the Winnebagos. Then did Katherine go to Nyoda and offer to resign from +the group if that would bring Veronica back. "She has a better right to +be in it than I," she said. "She was in it first." + +But Nyoda would not consent to that at all. "The whole thing isn't worth +such heroic measures," she declared. "I'll talk to Veronica myself." + +And she did, with no better results than Katherine. Veronica would not be +appeased, even now that Fifi was white once more, and had suffered no +evil effects from his bluing. Veronica declared that Katherine was low +class, and not fit for her to associate with. And she wouldn't forgive +the others for laughing. So Nyoda had to go back and report her failure +to the other girls. And sadly they realized that their hope of making +Veronica into a Winnebago had evaporated. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + A WINTER HIKE + + +A long cherished wish of the Winnebagos came true that winter, for they +all got snowshoes for Christmas. So did the Sandwiches. They brought them +down to the Open Door Lodge to show to the girls. "See what we've got," +said the Captain, with a slightly superior air as becomes the owner of a +pair of snowshoes in the presence of a mere girl. + +"Wait until you see ours," returned the girls merrily, producing their +"slush walkers," as Katherine had dubbed them. + +"You didn't all get them, did you?" asked the Sandwiches, in comical +surprise. It was hard for them to realize that the Winnebagos were as +adept at outdoor sports as they were. + +"We surely did," answered Sahwah. "What good would it do us for some to +have them and some not? We always travel together." + +The Captain had Hinpoha's in his hand and was examining them critically. +"You girls haven't the right kind of harness on your snowshoes," he said, +with the air of an expert. "Straps like yours, that buckle over the toes +and around the heel are 'tenderfoot' harness. They don't give enough to +your motions and you are likely to freeze your feet. See our bindings. +They are made of lamp wicking and calfskin thongs. By putting your foot +on the shoe so that your toes come just under the bridle and binding it +fast with the wick, making a half-hitch on each side and tying a knot at +the back of your shoe you can make a fastening that will hold tightly as +long as you want it too, but will permit you to free your foot with a +single twist in an emergency." + +"Did you learn all that down at Tech?" asked Hinpoha, with just a touch +of sarcasm. It seemed to her that the Captain was trying to show off his +knowledge. + +"He won't admit that we know as much as they do about some things," she +was saying to herself. "They couldn't get ahead of us by getting +snowshoes, so now they must claim that theirs are right and ours are +wrong. Ours are more expensive, that's the whole trouble." + +"My uncle told me about it," said the Captain earnestly. "He's been up +north and he knows all about snowshoes. Wait a minute, and I'll show you +what I mean." He bound his snowshoes on his feet in the approved fashion, +and then, by stepping on one shoe with the other foot, skilfully wriggled +his toe free without injuring the binding. "You couldn't do that if it +were buckled," he said simply, turning to Nyoda for approval. + +"You're right," said Nyoda. "We never thought of that side of it before. +Don't you think, girls, we'd better change ours?" They all agreed, all +except Hinpoha. For some odd reason she still fancied that the Captain +was crowing over her, and she was determined to show him that his opinion +meant nothing to her. + +"I like the straps much better," she declared. "And the buckles look so +pretty flashing in the sunlight. Much prettier than your old lamp wicks. +They'll be dirty in no time." And they could not induce her to change the +bindings. + +Followed days of learning how to run on snowshoes. It was not so very +difficult, after all, not nearly so hard as the skiing Sahwah had tried +the winter before. There were tumbles, of course, when they struck +unexpected snags, but the snow was soft and no one was hurt. Hinpoha was +glad she didn't change her smart buckle binding for the wicking-thong +affair of the others, because hers looked much nicer, and there was no +occasion for getting out of them suddenly. The first day everybody +returned home full of enthusiasm for the new sport. Sahwah in particular +was so anxious for the morrow to come when she could be at it again, that +she could hardly go to sleep. But when she woke up in the morning she +felt a strange disinclination to get up. Her limbs ached so fiercely that +she could hardly stand. Her muscles were so cramped and sore that she was +ready to shriek with the pain. She limped stiffly into the class room +half an hour late, to see Gladys going in just ahead of her, traveling +with a sidewise motion like a crab, and stumbling as though her feet were +made of wood. Poor Hinpoha never appeared in school at all that day. +"What's the matter with us?" they groaned, dropping into Nyoda's class +room at lunch hour. "We're ruined for life." Nyoda could not conceal a +smile of amusement. "I knew you'd get it," she said, with gentle +raillery. "That's why I advised you not to stay out more than fifteen +minutes the first day. But you were bound to stick to it all afternoon." + +"What did you know we'd get?" they asked in tones of concern. "Are we +lamed for life?" + +"Hardly as bad as that," laughed Nyoda. "I have good hopes of your +ultimate recovery. You have what the French call 'mal de racquette'--the +snowshoe sickness. You use a different set of muscles when snowshoeing +than you do ordinarily, and these muscles become very stiff and sore. All +you need is a little limbering oil. Little Sisters of the Snow, you are +learning by experience!" + +It was fully a week before either the Winnebagos or Sandwiches went +snowshoeing again, although they made excellent excuses. Neither group +would admit to the other that they had become stiff, and would not limp +for worlds when in the sight of the others, although it nearly killed +them to walk naturally. Nevertheless, they understood each other +perfectly. + +In February came a three days' snow storm that covered the earth with a +blanket several feet thick, and a slight thaw followed by a zero snap +produced an excellent crust. The Winnebagos were having a solemn +ceremonial meeting in the Open Door Lodge when without warning there was +a sound of scrambling up the ladder and the Captain burst in among them. + +"Oh, I say," he shouted, and then stopped suddenly as he became aware +that the girls were engaged in singing some kind of a motion song. +"Excuse me," he stammered in confusion, "I didn't know you were having a +pow-wow. I heard you singing up here and thought you were just having a +good time." + +"What news can you be bringing that made you burst in on us in such a +fashion?" said Nyoda sternly, but with a twinkle in her eye. "Speak sir, +the queen commands." + +The Captain seemed ready to burst with his message and fired his words +like bullets from an automatic pistol. "My Uncle Theodore's here, you +know, the one I said had been up north, and he knows a dandy place in the +country where there are some log cabins and he wants us all to go down +there on our snowshoes for a winter hike and stay three days over the +Washington's Birthday holiday. Oh, please, can you girls come?" + +"But----" began Nyoda. + +"Oh, I forgot," went on the Captain, "my aunt's here, too, and she's just +as good on snowshoes as Uncle Theodore is, and she's going along, too, +and will see that you girls don't take cold or anything. Please say +you'll come." + +There never was such sport as a winter hike. The preliminaries were +arranged with much reassuring of parents and relatives; buying of +all-wool clothing and blankets; selecting of cooking utensils and what +the boys elegantly referred to as "grub." "Uncle Theodore" was a real +woodsman, who had spent most of his life in lumber camps; bluff, hale and +hearty; a man to whom you would be perfectly willing to entrust your life +after the first meeting. "Aunt Clara" was a little round dumpling of a +woman, who radiated smiles like sunshine, and declared the Winnebagos +were the handiest girls she had ever seen. It was their skilful way of +packing supplies that called forth this praise. + +Food and blankets were sent down by automobile a day ahead, so that the +hikers would have to carry nothing but their cameras and notebooks. The +morning of Washington's Birthday found them all assembled on the station +platform, for they were to go by cars to a certain town down state and +from there to strike across the open country on their snowshoes. + +"What are you going to do with the torpedo?" shouted the Captain, as Slim +appeared carrying a strange looking package. + +Slim smiled mysteriously. "Shoot rabbits," he replied evasively. + +"It isn't a torpedo," said quick-witted Sahwah, after one look at the +package. "It's a thermos bottle." + +A chorus of derision went up. "Better Baby has to have his bottle!" "Oh, +Slim! Are you afraid you'll starve before we get our dinner?" "What's in +it, Slim, let's see!" + +Slim turned fiery red and shot a dark look at Sahwah. + +"It's hot chocolate, I know," continued his red-cheeked tormentor. "Slim +has to have a dose every hour or he feels faint." Sahwah had long ago +discovered Slim's pet weakness. + +"Where's Katherine?" said somebody suddenly. + +"Why, isn't she here?" said Nyoda, counting over the group. "I thought I +saw her here." + +"She hasn't come yet," declared Hinpoha and Gladys. + +"Oh, I hope she hasn't had an absent-minded fit and forgotten this is +Washington's Birthday," said Sahwah, clasping her hands in distress. + +Uncle Teddy pulled out his watch. "It's too late to go and look for her," +he said, "just five minutes until train time." + +Consternation reigned in the group. The Captain gallantly offered to miss +the train and hunt her up, but the others would not hear of it. Hasty +telephoning to her house brought the news that Katherine had left half an +hour ago for the station. + +"Then she'll be here," said Nyoda, eyeing the clock nervously. "If she +doesn't make it she'll have to miss it, that's all." There were times +when she would have liked to shake Katherine for her unbusiness-like +ways. + +But eight twenty-five came and no Katherine. The long train pulled in and +Uncle Teddy swung them all aboard, and with a great cheering and waving +of snowshoes they were off. Other passengers looked with interest at the +lively group that occupied one whole end of the car, singing, laughing, +shouting nonsense at one another. + +"Time for the Better Baby to have his bottle!" said the Bottomless Pitt, +gaining possession of the thermos bottle. He unscrewed the lid and held +it to Slim's lips, making him drink willy-nilly. It was hot chocolate, as +Sahwah had guessed. Slim choked and sputtered and had to be patted on the +back. + +"Do behave, children," said Nyoda, as the fun threatened to block the +aisle, "that magazine man can't get through." + +The man stood in the midst of the scufflers, patiently trying to cry his +wares above the din. + +"Buy a maggyzine," he chanted. "All the latest maggyzines!" + + "Good ones for the ladies, + Bad ones for the gents; + All the latest maggyzines + For fifteen cents!" + +Amused, they stopped talking to listen to his ridiculous singsong. + +"Buy a maggyzine, lady?" he said, holding one out to Nyoda. On the last +sentence his voice cracked in three directions and leaped up the scale a +full octave, so the word "lady" was uttered in a high falsetto squeak. + +"Katherine!" exclaimed Nyoda, seizing the magazine seller by the arm in +amazement. + +"At yer service, mum," replied that worthy, with a low bow. + +Then, amid the hubbub that ensued she calmly proceeded to remove the +fuzzy little black mustache that had adorned her upper lip, took off the +fur cap that had covered her hair and threw back the long ulster that +covered her from neck to heels, and stood smiling wickedly at them. + +"Katherine, you awful, awful, wonderful, wonderful girl, how did you +manage to do it?" gasped Gladys, breathless with astonishment. + +"And when did you get on the train?" cried Hinpoha in the same breath. +"You didn't get on with us." + +"I got into the wrong street car this morning," replied Katherine, +producing her glasses from her sweater pocket and polishing them on the +end of her muffler, "and got carried east instead of west. When I found +it out there wasn't time to come back to the Union Station, so I went on +out to the Lakeside Station and go on the train there. I had planned to +be waiting for you on the step when we got into the Union, but on the way +out I met a magazine seller and had an inspiration. I bribed him to let +me take his cap and books and coat for ten minutes. The mustache I had +with me. I thought it might be useful in case I should be called up to +perform a 'stunt' at Lonesome Creek. The rest you already know, as they +say in the novels." She tossed the borrowed plumage into an empty seat +and settled herself beside Slim. + +"By the way," she said quizzically, looking at the boys, "what was it I +heard you declaring a while ago, that no girl could masquerade as a boy +and really fool a boy?" + +"Pooh, you didn't really fool us," said Slim. + +"Oh, no, I didn't," jeered Katherine. + +"Well, we'd have found you out before long," said the Captain. + +"Maybe you would and maybe you wouldn't," said Katherine. "The only thing +I noticed you doing was looking with envy at my little mustache." + +The Captain blushed furiously and the rest shouted with laughter. + +"Anyway, Nyoda knew me first," she continued, "and that shows that girls +are smarter than boys. I can just see us being fooled by one of you +dressed as a girl." + +"I bet I could do it," said the Captain. + +"Maybe _you_ could, Cicero," said Hinpoha sweetly. Relations between her +and the Captain were somewhat strained these days, but how it began or +what it was all about, no one could tell. + +The Captain turned angrily at the taunting use of his name. He knew it +was meant to imply that he was "Cissy" enough to pass off for a girl. "So +you think I'm a Cissy, do you?" he said hotly. If Hinpoha had been a boy +there would have been a scuffle right there, but as it was he was +helpless. + +"Tell them how you trailed the fox up in Ontario, father," interrupted +Aunt Clara hastily, and Uncle Teddy began a thrilling tale of adventure +in the backwoods that held them spellbound until they reached their +station. + +"Now for the long white trail!" cried Uncle Teddy cheerily, when all +snowshoes were adjusted to their owners' satisfaction. "Nine o'clock and +all's well! Catertown and dinner at twelve o'clock, ten miles due south +as the crow flies! Here, Captain, you be the first pathfinder. Here is a +map of the way we are to take. You may be leader until you get us off the +track, and then we'll let one of the girls try her hand. Forward, march!" + +Whole new worlds lie before the hiker on snowshoes. All the ugliness in +Nature is concealed by the soft white mantle of snow, like a scratched +and stained old table covered with a spotless cloth, and everything is +glistening and wonderful and beautiful. The snowshoes are seven league +boots in very truth. On them you go right over stumps and fences and +hummocks and stones and little hollows. You do not need to keep to the +road or to the beaten track. Dame Frost, like Sir Walter Raleigh, has +spread her mantle over the unpleasant places and over it you may pass in +safety. + +"Where are we now?" asked the Bottomless Pitt. + +"Casey's Woods," replied the Captain, referring to his map. + +"Oh," cried Sahwah, "don't you remember how we wanted to come here to a +picnic once in the summer, but we couldn't go into the woods at all, +because the mosquitoes were just terrible? Why didn't we ever think of +holding a picnic in the winter? There are no ants to crawl into your +shoes and no spiders to get into your cocoa." + +"And no poison ivy," said Gladys. "Why, winter is the very best time to +hold a picnic!" + +And they made up a hiking song to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia," +and sang it until the woods echoed: + + "Hurrah, hurrah, said the possum to the 'coon, + Hurrah, hurrah, what makes you come so soon? + We started in the morning, and we'll get there before noon, + As we go hiking on our snowshoes!" + +"Doesn't Aunt Clara look just like a Teddy Bear in that brown fur coat?" +whispered Gladys to Sahwah. Aunt Clara was nearly as broad as she was +long, and, wrapped in furs as she was, seemed rounder yet. + +"Halt!" cried Uncle Teddy, as the company came out on the edge of a deep +ravine. "Oh, I say, Captain, what's this? It doesn't seem to me I +included this in my order." + +Much confused, the Captain spread his road map on a log and set the +compass on it, trying to find out where he had gone wrong. "Shucks," he +said disgustedly, after a moment's study. "We should have gone at right +angles to that hundred-foot pine tree instead of in a line with it. +Everybody back up--I mean, right about face. Shucks!" And he handed the +map and the compass to Sahwah with as good grace as he could and took the +end of the line, as became an officer who had been reduced to the ranks. + +Sahwah led them back to the pine tree and in the right direction from it, +as indicated on the map, and they soon came to the bridge which spanned +the gorge a mile below the spot where the Captain had reached it. Detour +and all they reached Catertown at twelve o'clock, where their ravenous +appetites worked fearful havoc with the good dinner set before them. +Uncle Teddy insisted upon having Slim's thermos bottle filled with milk, +to guard against his getting faint on the way, although Slim blushed and +protested. Ten more miles to make in the afternoon. But to these +practised hikers the distance before and behind them seemed nothing +wonderful and they declared the going was so good on snowshoes that they +could keep on forever. Sahwah followed the map accurately, and brought +them out at the right crossroads at the end of five miles, where she +relinquished her office as pathfinder to Bottomless Pitt, who was next in +line. It had been decided en route that five miles should be the length +of any leader's service. + +"Honorable discharge," said Uncle Teddy, patting Sahwah on the head. +"I'll wager there aren't many girls who could have done that." + +"All of us could," answered Sahwah, eager to sing the praises of the +group as a whole. + +The Captain said nothing. He felt that he had disgraced the Sandwiches by +letting a girl get ahead of him. It did not help him any to note that +Hinpoha was looking at him and evidently thinking the same thing. The +Captain was very sore at heart. He liked and admired Hinpoha more than +any of the other Winnebagos, and they had always been the best of friends +until suddenly, for some reason which he could not explain, she had +turned against him. And she had done the one thing to him that he could +never forgive. She had called him "Cicero." All was over between them. +Winter hikes weren't such a lot of fun after all, he told himself. + +"Hi, look at the rabbit," shouted Pitt, pointing out an inquisitive bunny +that sat upon his haunches under a tree, "to see the parade go by." + +"Don't hurt him, don't hurt him," cried Sahwah, dancing up and down and +trying to focus her camera on him. + +"Who's hurting him?" said the Captain. "We haven't anything to hurt him +with, unless Slim steps on him." Sahwah clicked her camera and at the +click Br'er Bunny vanished into space. + +"Let's see what kind of tracks he made," said Sahwah, and they all +willingly detoured a trifle to examine the footprints in the snow. + +"There are some others beside his," said Bottomless Pitt. "What kind of +an animal is that, Uncle Teddy?" + +Uncle Teddy examined the tracks and nodded his head with a satisfied air. +"You boys ought to know those tracks," he said provokingly. "What kind of +scouts are you, anyway? Here, Captain, quit your scowling like a +thundercloud and tell us what animal has been taking a walk. I certainly +have taught you enough about woodcraft to know that." + +The Captain looked at the tracks closely. "I think it's a 'coon," he said +finally. + +"Think so!" scoffed Uncle Teddy. "Don't you know so? Pitt, what do you +say?" + +"Looks like a 'coon to me," answered Pitt. + +"And what do you say, Redbird?" asked Uncle Teddy, pulling Sahwah's hair. + +"There's where you boys have us beaten," said Sahwah frankly. "We never +have had a chance to learn animal tracks." + +"I'm sure it's a 'coon," said the Captain, his spirits rising with the +chance to crow over the girls. + +"All right, if you're sure of it, we'll follow the trail awhile and see +where he is," said Uncle Teddy. "But you always want to be sure of what +you see, after you've learned it once. A good woodsman always fixes a +thing in his mind so he'll know it the next time he sees it." + +"I'm sure it's a 'coon," repeated the Captain. "May we follow the trail +awhile?" Eagerly they trotted along beside the footprints in the snow, +impatient to have a sight of the animal. This was a new sport to the +Winnebagos and they were greatly excited about it. The Captain had +forgotten his low spirits and was in the lead now. + +"I say, the fellow that spies him first ought to be pathfinder for the +rest of the way," he said. + +"What does a 'coon look like?" panted Sahwah, trying to keep up with him. + +"He has a short, thick, striped tail," said the Captain, "and a---- Oh, +goodness gracious! Oh, Methuselah's great grandmother!" For just then the +wind began to blow strongly from the direction in which they were going, +carrying with it an unmistakable odor. With one accord they took to their +heels. + +"O Uncle Teddy," said the Captain, furious at himself, "you knew what it +was all the while! Why didn't you tell us?" + +"Well," said Uncle Teddy dryly, "you were so blooming sure it was a 'coon +that I couldn't contradict you very well without being impolite. 'There's +nothing like being dead sure,' I says to myself. And I knew you would +never be satisfied until you had found out for yourself." + +The Captain, permanently abashed, retired to the rear of the line and +ventured no more opinions about anything they saw, and took not the +slightest interest when Hinpoha discovered a rare little moosewood maple +and identified it by its beautiful green bark. + +"Last lap!" shouted Pitt, consulting the map for the hundred and fortieth +time. "Turn east by the twin oaks and approach the camp from the rear! +Company, forward march!" + +"There are the cabins now," cried the Monkey, throwing his cap into the +air. "Maybe I won't sit down and hold my feet up, though!" + +"Maybe you won't jump around and get some firewood, though!" remarked +Uncle Teddy. "End of the hike, messmates," he shouted, executing a droll +dance on his snowshoes and waving his long arms like windmills. "All +together, now, three cheers and a tiger for the end of the hike!" And +they gave them with a will. + +The place where they were to spend that night and the next was an +abandoned sugar camp. It had once been a fine grove of trees, but so many +had been killed by the boring worms that it was no longer profitable. Two +cabins remained standing and were used on and off by hunters during the +season. + +"Oh-h-h, ours is a real log cabin," cried Sahwah, dancing around in +ecstasy when quarters had been assigned. "It's lots nicer than the old +board shack the boys are going to have. I'll feel just like Abraham +Lincoln to-night, only so much more elegant, because Abraham Lincoln had +to split his own rails, and we can sit at ease and let the boys tote our +wood for us." + +"But--where are the beds?" cried Hinpoha, in perplexity, as they went +inside. + +"Why, _those_," said Aunt Clara, pointing to some bin-like things ranged +in a double tier along one wall. "Those are our bunks." + +"Bunks!" echoed the girls in rather a dismayed tone. "We didn't think +we'd have to sleep in bunks. We expected camp beds, at least." + +"They're quite comfortable," said Aunt Clara reassuringly, "when they're +filled with clean straw. Our blankets are in that big box and we'd better +get our beds made the first thing, so we can roll into them as soon as we +get tired." She bustled around, smoothing out the straw in the bunks with +a practised hand and showing the girls how to fold their blankets to the +best advantage. "Be sure you have just as much under you as over you," +she advised them again and again. "Camping in winter is a very different +proposition from sleeping out in summer." + +Now that the girls had gotten used to the idea of the bunks, they began +to think it was a jolly good lark to sleep in them. "If bunks it must be, +bunks it is," said Katherine, in a lugubrious tone that sent them all +into gales of laughter, "but I never thought I'd live to see the day!" + +"Me for the upper berth," said Sahwah, standing on a table to accomplish +the spreading of her blankets. It was not long before they were all +singing: + + "Oh, we're bunking tonight on the side of the wall, + Give us a ladder, please, + We've slept in many beds, both hard and soft, + But never in bunks like these!" + + "Bunking tonight, + Bunking tonight, + Bunking on the side of the wall!" + +And they raised such a din with the chorus that the boys came streaming +over to see what the fun was about and to inquire casually if supper +wasn't nearly ready. + +"Goodness, no," answered Nyoda; "we've just got our beds made. Go +overpower Slim, if you are hungry, and take his bottle away from him. By +the way, which cabin is to be honored by the smell of the cooking?" + +"The log cabin is the largest," said Uncle Teddy, "and it has both the +fireplace and the little stove. The other is just a sleeping cabin. I +guess the honor is yours. All aboard for the dining car! Where's that +canned soup? Bring in the wood, boys, and make a cooking fire in the +stove. You know what a cooking fire is, I suppose. Everybody get to work. +Too many cooks can't spoil this broth." + +They flew around, getting in each other's way dreadfully, but under Uncle +Teddy's and Aunt Clara's able management they did contrive to accomplish +the things they were trying to do, and in less than no time the supper +was steaming on the table. + +"Maybe I won't do anything to that soup and that creamed fish!" sighed +Slim, his face beaming at the sight of the banquet spread before him. + +"Maybe it won't do anything to him!" said Katherine in an aside to +Sahwah. "I got a whole teaspoonful of Hinpoha's old talcum powder in the +cream sauce before I discovered it wasn't flour, and then it was too late +to take it out again." + +"Never mind," Sahwah giggled back, "it's so hot you can't taste it, and +it won't last long enough to get cold. Your secret is safe in our +stomachs!" + +The paper plates made a grand glare in the fireplace after supper was +over and in its light Katherine and Slim gave a Punch and Judy show until +Slim showed symptoms of bursting from want of breath, whereupon the play +came to an end and it was discovered that Bottomless Pitt had fallen +asleep in a corner. + +"Hide his shoes!" suggested the Monkey, and promptly took them off and +tied them by strings to a tack in the ceiling. + +"Let's enchant him altogether," said the gifted Katherine, and fastened +the little mustache to his lip. Then they stuck his head full of paper +curls and powdered his face with flour. The effect when he woke up was +all they had hoped for. They had set a small wall mirror on the floor +beside him, so he got the full benefit of his altered appearance on his +first glance around. Uttering a startled yell, he sprang to his feet, +looking wildly around. Brought to himself by the laughter on all sides, +he shook his fist fiercely at Slim and the Captain, declaring that he +would make the fellow who did that eat soap. As Katherine was the +"fellow" in question this only increased the merriment at his expense. +Slim leaned against the wall so helpless from laughter that he didn't +even resist when Pitt climbed on his shoulders to haul down his shoes, +but went on chuckling violently until he sagged to one side and down came +both boys in a heap, shoes, tack and all. + +"I wish you boys would go home," said Katherine primly. "You're +altogether too rough for us little girls to play with. I think it's +horrid and nasty to play tricks on people when they're asleep." From her +gently shocked and disapproving expression you never would have guessed +that she was the one who had started it all. + +"Come on home, fellows, we're invited out," said Uncle Teddy, with a +pretended injured air. "It's time we little gentlemen were in the hay--I +mean the straw. Come on, Pitt, never mind looking for the tack; Mother +will find it when she gets up in her stocking feet to see if she locked +the door!" With which shot he retired in haste through the doorway and +over to the other cabin, and just in time, for Aunt Clara sent a snowball +flying after him that fell short by a bare inch. + +Then she closed and barred the door, fixed the fire with hardwood which +would last the rest of the night, plastered adhesive strips over the +various blisters which the Winnebago feet had acquired on the long march, +and tucked them all in warmly with a motherly pat and a goodnight kiss. +After a twenty-mile walk in the open air a hard plank would be a +comfortable resting place, and the straw filled and blanket padded bunks +were far from the hard plank class. For the first time in the history of +Winnebago sleeping parties there was strictly "nothing doing" after they +were tucked in. Most of them fell asleep during the process of tucking. + +Thus it was that when the first thump came at the door nobody stirred. A +second thump followed like a blow from a battering ram. Aunt Clara sat +up. + +"Who's there?" she called. No answer save a series of blows and thumps +that threatened to break the door down. The rest were awake by this time, +trembling in their beds. + +"Theodore, is that you?" shrieked Aunt Clara above the noise. "What do +you want?" Again came a shower of blows, as if somebody were trying to +force their way in with an axe. This time the bars gave way and the door +swung inward. There was a loud bellowing, roaring sound, which seemed to +their startled ears like a deep-throated whistle, and into the cabin +there walked a cow. The girls shrieked and disappeared under the +bed-clothes, for to their excited fancy she looked like a wild animal. + +"Shoo, get out!" shouted Aunt Clara, throwing her slipper with neat aim +into the cow's face. Bossy looked reproachfully at her and walked farther +into the cabin, standing close beside the row of bunks. + +Katherine raised her head from the blanket to see what was going on and +looked right into the open mouth of the creature as it stood over her. +"Murder! It's going to eat me up!" she shrieked, diving under the covers +with a prolonged howl. + +By this time Aunt Clara had found the whistle with which she always +summoned her husband when she needed him and blew a long, shrill blast. A +few minutes later Uncle Teddy appeared at the door, with a string of +startled boys running out of their cabin behind him, and at a word of +command from him, accompanied by several emphatic pokes and proddings, +Mrs. Bossy meekly turned and walked out through the doorway, which was +considerably the worse for her entrance. She had probably strayed from +the nearest farmhouse and was suffering from the intense cold. Attracted +by the light streaming from the little window of the cabin she had come +to find shelter, and when nobody answered her first gentle knocks with +her horns, she had taken matters into her own hands and become +housebreaker. She was stabled in a lean-to shelter for the rest of the +night and made comfortable with straw and a blanket. + +"Isn't it funny how all the suffering critters come to our hospitable +door for shelter?" said Katherine at the breakfast table. "Just like +Sandhelo. He came of his own accord, also." + +"They must know that we keep the Fire Law," answered Hinpoha. "'Whose +house is bare and dark and cold, whose house is cold, this is his own'!" + +"Isn't it strange that she came to our door, and not to the boys'," said +Gladys. "They had a light shining, too, but her footprints show that she +came past their door to stop at ours." + +"That's because she was a lady," replied Uncle Teddy, helping himself to +his fifth slice of fried bacon, "and no lady would come bustling into a +gentleman's apartment like that. Hurry up and get your chores done, you +housekeepers and wood-gatherers, and let's go out and make a snow man." + +"Let's make a totem-pole," suggested Katherine, when they were all out +playing in the snow. "It's lots more epic than making a snow man." + +"You mean a 'snowtem pole,'" observed Uncle Teddy. + +So they set to work and made a marvellous totem-pole, higher than the +cabin, with figures carved into its sides such as were never on land or +sea. Then Uncle Teddy and the boys, who had done less carving on their +sections and consequently were finished first, set up a barber pole on +the other side of the doorway, containing the stripes with a crimson of +their own concocting, which was a secret, but which involved several +trips to the kitchen and the food supply box. All this time the Captain +had never spoken one word to Hinpoha. Whenever he would have relented +under the spell of the jolly larks they were having, something whispered +to him, "She called me Cicero! I won't stand that from anyone!" + +"Who's ripe for a trifling sprint of five miles this afternoon?" asked +Uncle Teddy at the dinner table, taking three scones at once from the +plate. + +"I! I! I!" cried a chorus of voices, and a dozen hands waved frantically +above the table. + +"Have you any special place in mind?" asked Aunt Clara, pretending not to +see Uncle Teddy stealing yet another buttered scone from her plate. + +"Well," said Uncle Teddy, "I happen to know that there's a real sugar +camp in action somewhere about here, and I think five miles covers it, +there and back. It might not be the worst idea in the world to look in +and see how they are getting on. I dare say most of these folks here have +never seen maple syrup outside of a can." + +A sigh of delight ran around the table. "Hurry up, everybody, and put +everything you have left into your mouths, so I can collect the plates," +said Sahwah, impatient to start at once. + +But when the time came to start Hinpoha had developed such a dizzy +headache that going along was out of the question. "It's nothing +serious," she stoutly maintained, in reply to anxious inquiries. "Too +much noise, that's all. We might call it 'Mal de racket'!" She would not +hear of any of them staying at home with her, however, although Aunt +Clara and Nyoda both insisted. "Go on, all of you," she begged, pressing +her hand to her throbbing temples. "It would make it so much worse if I +thought I had kept you away from the fun. All I want is to lie down +quietly. I'll be perfectly all right here. If I feel better soon I'll +follow your tracks and either catch up with you or meet you there and +come back home with you. Please go." And so insistent was she that they +went without her. + +"Be sure you lock the door carefully," called Aunt Clara. + +"And be sure you put out a sign, NO COWS ADMITTED," said Sahwah. And +laughing they set out, leaving her tucked in her bunk. With the cessation +of the noise that had almost lifted the roof of the cabin during the +dinner hour, the headache gradually disappeared, and in an hour Hinpoha +was herself again. Swiftly buckling on her snowshoes she ran out into the +stinging air, which seemed like a cool hand laid on her forehead. + +She found the trail of the others easily, for the crust was slightly +dented in by every step. The way led through a thick strip of woods. +Hinpoha noticed that there were many tracks of animals here and wished +with all her heart that she knew what they were. "It would be such a +grand thing to say to the folks at home, 'I followed the trail of a +'coon,' and be sure it was a 'coon," she said to herself, and then +laughed aloud at the ridiculous mistake of the Captain. Then she stood +still in delight, for just before her a dark, furry body was slipping +along over the snow. "I believe that really is one," she said to herself +joyfully. "I can't catch him, of course, but maybe he'll run up a +tree--people always talk about 'coons being treed--and then I can see +what he looks like." And she sped after the little animal, who took alarm +at her first step and disappeared between the trunks of the trees. + +Hinpoha looked for him for a while and then realized it was a hopeless +search and with a sigh turned to resume her own way through the woods. +Then she stopped in dismay. The broad trail she had been following so +easily had vanished from the earth! The only marks on the white ground +were those of her own snowshoes. "Of course," she said, coming to herself +with a shake, "I got off the trail when I followed that 'coon. I'll +follow my own tracks back." But her own tracks led her round and round in +a circle, in and out among the tree trunks, and did not end up in what +she sought. It took her some minutes to realize that she was actually +lost in the woods. Then, of course, the first thing she did was to go +into a panic, and run wildly back and forth. "Come, this will never do," +she told herself severely, standing still. "I must stop and think before +I do anything else. Let me see, what was it Migwan did the time she was +lost up in the Maine woods? She sat down on the ground and wrote poetry, +and waited until we came and found her! I can't write poetry, that's out +of the question, and I can't sit on the ground, either, it's too cold. +I'll have to stand up and wait." But that proved a dreary amusement. It +was getting bitterly cold, and a strong wind whistled through the bare +branches till it made her flesh creep. To make things worse, an early +twilight was setting in and the light was rapidly fading. To keep from +taking cold she walked up and down bravely among the trees, growing more +terrified every minute. She tried to sing, to call, to shout, to make her +voice carry across the snow, but it was lost in the moaning of the wind. +Her feet grew numb with the cold and she stamped them vigorously to start +up the blood. The crust broke through, and down she went through several +feet of snow to her waist. She braced herself with her hands and tried to +draw her feet out, but they went through also and she floundered with her +face in the icy snowflakes. Then with a growing sense of horror she +realized what had happened. The ends of her snowshoes had become firmly +wedged under the roots of a tree, and she was unable to pull them out. +And her feet, tightly bound to the snowshoes by the pretty straps and +buckles, were trapped. She struggled furiously, and only sank deeper in +the snow. + + +As the "syrup party," as they called themselves, were just ready to cool +off the bit of boiled sap that had been given them to taste, the Captain +suddenly sprang to his feet and smote his forehead. "Daggers and dirks!" +he exclaimed, "I left my sweater hanging right in front of the fire when +we came away--you remember it got all wet in the snowball fight this +morning--and I bet it's scorched to cinders by this time. Do you folks +mind if I go back to the cabin in a hurry? I got that sweater for +Christmas and I hate to lose it so soon. I'm all right, uncle, I can find +the way, even if it is getting dark. Don't hurry yourselves. Give my +share of the syrup to Slim. He's getting thin." And adjusting his +snowshoes with a skilled "jiffy twist," he was off down the trail. + +Now the Captain, although he had been mistaken about the tracks the day +before, was nevertheless an observant lad, and when he came to the place +where Hinpoha had left the trail, he noticed the marks going off in +another direction and stood still and looked at them. He knew that they +most likely belonged to Hinpoha, and he knew also that she had not +arrived at the sugar camp and he had not met her on the trail coming +home, so, putting two and two together, he decided that she must be in +the woods somewhere. A mean little instinct whispered to him to go on his +way and let her be wherever she was, and get a good fright until the rest +found her; then his better nature rose to the top and he decided to hunt +her up and show her the trail to meet the others. + +"Glory, she certainly did mess up the trail some," he said to himself, as +he followed the marks which wandered up and down and doubled back on +themselves and crisscrossed everywhere. It was slow going, for the +darkness was hiding the footprints and he had to bend down to the ground +to see them clearly. He almost stepped on her at last when he did find +her. She was numb from the cold and very nearly asleep and he thought she +was dead. The imprisoned snowshoes held her down and he could not pull +her out of the snow at first. Finally he suspected what had happened and +dug down in and loosened the buckles. It took a good deal of working +after she was freed to get life back into the numb feet and ankles, but +it was accomplished at last and Hinpoha was ready to walk home. + +Then a moment of embarrassment fell between them. Hinpoha flushed and +looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I called you Cicero," she said, with a +sneeze between every word. "You aren't a Cissy at all. You're a hero!" +And then for no reason at all, except that the afternoon's strenuous +adventure had unstrung her nerves, she burst into tears. + +"Here," said the Captain, entirely light-hearted again, and holding up +the little bucket he had carried away from the sugar camp, "cry into the +pail. Evaporate the water. Save the salt. It's worth money." + +And Hinpoha giggled foolishly and dried her tears and raced back to the +cabin as fast as she could go, to stave off pneumonia on her arrival with +hot blankets and steaming drinks. + +"He _is_ a hero," she murmured dreamily to Gladys, who hovered around her +like an anxious grandmother, after the others were satisfied that she was +all right, and had set to work getting supper; "he never once said, 'I +told you so'!" + + + + + CHAPTER XII + HINPOHA'S ROMANCE + + +An indistinct murmur floated down from the Winnebago room of the Open +Door Lodge, punctuated by little squeals and exclamations. The firelight +shown on four tense faces, and four pairs of eyes were riveted on the two +figures in the center of the group who were engaged in a very singular +occupation. Balanced between two stiffly outstretched and quivering right +forefingers hung a key, and suspended from it by a string was a +black-covered book, supposed to be set apart from all secular uses. In a +breathless undertone Hinpoha--for she was the owner of one of the +aforesaid fingers--was chanting a passage of scripture designed for a +widely different application. A strained hush was followed by another +outbreak of exclamations. "Look, it's turning! It began to turn the +minute she said, 'Turn, my beloved.' What letter did it turn on, 'Poha?" + +"D," replied Hinpoha, in a solemn whisper. + +"D," repeated the chorus, "what does that stand for?" + +"Daniel," supplied Sahwah promptly. + +"His name's going to be Daniel," chanted the chorus. "Now try for the +last name." + +Again the mystic rite was performed. At "I" the Bible trembled with a +premonitory movement. "It's turning!" whispered the chorus in an awed +tone. "No, it isn't either; it's still again." After that one tremor the +soothsaying volume remained bafflingly motionless through the recitation +of the mysteries which accompanied the letter J. K likewise began +uneventfully. But no sooner had Hinpoha uttered the fateful words, "Turn, +my beloved," when with a suddenness that scared them half out of their +wits the key turned sharply in the supporting fingers, twisted itself +free and fell to the floor with an emphatic bang. + +"It's K," cried Hinpoha, covering her face with her hands. "What names +begin with K?" + +"King," said Gladys. + +"Knight," suggested Katherine. + +"All the noble names," said Nakwisi dreamily. + +"Mrs. Daniel King," said Sahwah experimentally, whereupon Hinpoha hid her +face in the bearskin rug. + +"You try it, Katherine," said Gladys. "I'll hold the key with you." + +"Oh, I'm afraid to try it," said Katherine, hanging back and looking +uncomfortable. "It's no use, anyway; nobody'd have me for a gift." + +"It always tells the truth," said the blushing Hinpoha. "You know Miss +Vining, Clara Morrison's old maid aunt? Well, Clara persuaded her to try +it and it wouldn't turn for her at all, and they went through the +alphabet three times in succession." + +With a skeptical expression Katherine suffered herself to be placed on +the box covered with an old piece of tapestry displaying a threadbare +figure of the three fates, which was the seat of those engaged in the +mysteries. "My beloved is mine, and I am his," she recited jerkily, +keeping her eyes glued to the key. "He feedeth upon a row of lilies----" + +"It's 'He feedeth upon the lilies,' just 'the lilies'; the 'row' part +comes later," interrupted Gladys in a sharp whisper. + +"He feedeth upon the lilies, just the lilies, the row part----" repeated +Katherine dutifully. + +"No, no; it's all wrong," said Gladys impatiently. "Begin again." + +"My beloved is mine----" + +"Katherine! Oh-h-h-h Katherine! Are you up there?" the voice of Slim +suddenly called from below. + +The girls all started guiltily and fell into confusion. "Sh! Hide the +Bible, quick!" cried Hinpoha in a sibilant whisper, darting forward and +snatching it from Katherine's hand and concealing it under the bear rug. + +"What are you girls doing up there?" came from below. + +"Oh, nothing," floated down the illuminating reply from above. + +If Nyoda had not been so completely engrossed in her private affairs just +at this time she would have noticed the subtle undercurrent which seemed +to have caught hold of the toes of the entire feminine half of the senior +class at Washington High. It was not the Winnebagos only. In fact, they +had caught it from the others. Every class has its epidemic, be it +tonsillitis, friendship link bracelets or Knox hats. This year it was +fortune telling. Where the mystic rite described above originated nobody +could exactly tell, but in less than a week every girl in the class had +been initiated into the secret, and was busy discovering what her future +initials were to be. The performance was always carried on behind locked +doors or in places otherwise secure from adult eyes, and was often +interrupted right at the most exciting point by approaching footsteps, +but questions as to how the innocent maids had been improving the shining +hour invariably brought out the reply, "Oh, we weren't doing +_anything_--much." Missing keys and books of family worship led to +embarrassing questions once in a while, but somehow the situation was +always bridged over and parents and teachers never really did find out +what the fascinating something was that drew their young friends off into +groups by themselves from which they emerged to day dream instead of +getting their lessons and to make mysterious references to certain +initials. + +The book and key oracle reigned supreme for several weeks and then gave +place to the horoscope. For ten cents in stamps a certain seer dwelling +in a remote town in Oregon offered to "cast" the principal events, past, +present and future, in the lives of all young lady correspondents. It was +not long before intimate heads were bent over scraps of paper comparing +horoscopes. Hinpoha's was acknowledged by all to be the gem of the +collection. + +"You have a brilliant future before you," it read. "You will have a +romantic love affair and will marry your first lover. He is a great +scholar who will afterwards become president. You will meet him when you +are very young." Then followed a dozen lines more of brilliant prophecy. +The special friends of Hinpoha, who had been allowed to peep at her +fortune, Gladys, Sahwah, Katherine, Nakwisi and Medmangi, and one or two +others, who had fore-gathered ostensibly to rehearse a school song, sat +back and regarded their fortunate friend with awe. None of their fortunes +had contained anything so dazzling. + +"You're going to be the President's wife!" murmured Sahwah. "You won't +forget us, will you?" + +"Never!" declared Hinpoha magnanimously, stealing a sly glance into the +mirror. + +"I hope you won't be ashamed of me when I'm married and come calling at +the White House," said Katherine, rather dolefully. "All I drew was a +farmer." + +"I only got an automobile manufacturer," echoed Gladys. + +"That's what comes of having red hair," said Sahwah enviously. "Her +fortune said he would be drawn to her by her beautiful tresses." + +When Hinpoha was preparing for bed that night she stood fully an hour +before the mirror and regarded her shining curls. Up until now she had +never paid much attention to them except when the boys called her redhead +and pretended to light matches on her head, and then she wished with all +her heart, like the little girl in the song, that she had been "born a +blonde." Now for the first time her hair appeared beautiful to her. She +arranged the curls this way and that, piling them on her head and letting +them fall over her white shoulders. And all night she dreamed of standing +up in a carriage and bowing graciously to cheering multitudes and +clasping in her arms the forms of her girlhood friends who were among the +crowd. + +The horoscopes had their day and gave way to something still more +exciting, something so secret that at first it could not be mentioned in +words, but was only alluded to by mysterious references. + +"Marjorie King went," said Gladys to Hinpoha, "and she won't tell a thing +she found out, but she says it was the grandest thing." + +"I don't believe it's worth fifty cents," said Sahwah skeptically. +"Anyhow, I haven't that much to spend." + +"You don't ever dare tell anybody, they say, not a soul," reported Gladys +later. "If you do, the nice things won't happen and the bad ones surely +will." + +"She's the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter," observed Hinpoha in +an awe-stricken tone. "Did you ever hear of anything so wonderful?" + +"Are _you_?" asked Sahwah anxiously, of Hinpoha. + +This last question was entirely unrelated to the preceding statement +concerning the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter. It was part of the +cryptic jargon employed in the discussion of a momentous question. + +"I don't know," answered Hinpoha uncertainly. "Would you?" + +"Oh, do," begged Gladys, "and then if you find out something nice we'll +go in after you. Oh, I forgot, you can't tell us anything." + +"Would your mother mind if you did?" asked Hinpoha, hesitating on the +brink. + +"She really wouldn't mind, but she'd think it awfully silly," answered +Gladys, "so I don't believe I'll tell her." + +"You might find out the whole name," said Sahwah, looking at Hinpoha. + +"And just when it's going to happen," finished Gladys. + +Hinpoha suddenly made up her mind. "I believe I will," she said, looking +at Sahwah. + +Where Hinpoha's thoughts were the next day in school nobody knew, but +they were certainly not on her lessons. She failed signally in every +class. + +"And what were the initials of the great poet, Longfellow?" cooed Miss +Snively, in her honeydrip voice. + +The word "initials" penetrated Hinpoha's wandering mind. "D. K.," she +murmured dreamily. + +"Indeed?" purred Miss Snively. "Can it be that I have been misinformed?" +But today sarcasm was lost on Hinpoha. + +After school was out a select group, half of which seemed to be hanging +back and being coaxed on by the other half, walked ten blocks to an +unfamiliar car line and transferred to a cross-town line. There was a +much more direct route to their destination, but that laid them open to +the risk of meeting friends and relatives who might casually inquire +whither they were bound. Just wherein lay the crime in what they were +doing, no one could have told, nor why it should be kept such a dark +secret, but singly and collectively they would have died rather than +reveal the nature of the latest epidemic. + +By devious ways they reached the end of their journey and stood +irresolute on the sidewalk before a house which bore a plate on the door +announcing that that same roof sheltered the object of their desire. + +"Shall we all go in together?" whispered Gladys. There was no need of +whispering, for no one was within earshot, but with one accord they +lowered their voices. They went up the steps and held another +consultation. "You ring the bell," said Gladys. + +"No, you ring it," said Hinpoha. Thus encouraged, Hinpoha pushed the +button, the door swung inward and they passed through. An hour later they +stood on the corner again, waiting for the car to take them home. + +"Did she say anything about--about----" inquired Gladys. + +Hinpoha clapped her hand over her mouth and made inarticulate sounds +beneath it, but her eyes were sparkling, as they never sparkled before. + +"Excuse me," gasped Gladys; "I forgot you mustn't tell." + +"Can't you give us a hint?" begged Sahwah, who had gone along for moral +support. + +Hinpoha shook her head and retained her finger on her lips to stop any +leaks. + +"Well, it couldn't have been any nicer than mine," said Gladys, with an +air of satisfaction. "Mine was just splendid. Maybe yours +wasn't--favorable?" she added, stricken with a sudden doubt as to the +superiority of Hinpoha's future. + +"It was, too!" declared Hinpoha. "If you took all the nice things out of +ten fortunes it wouldn't be as nice as mine!" + +Gladys looked unconvinced. "Well, we'll wait a year or two until they +begin to come true, and then we'll see which had the nicer," she +remarked. + +Hinpoha laughed outright. "I don't have to wait a year or two before mine +comes true," she announced triumphantly. "It's coming true in the very +near future. I'm going to meet a light-haired young man and he's going to +admire my hair and fall in love with me, so there! Is yours any nicer +than that?" + +"Oh, you told," cried Sahwah. "Now it won't come true." + +Hinpoha stopped in dismay. "Well, Gladys made me," she wailed. "If she +hadn't said hers was better----" The car came along then and a truce was +patched up. Such a delicate subject could not be discussed openly in the +street-car, even to quarrel about it. + +But if Hinpoha spent a bad night mourning because she had broken the +spell of her good fortune, the next day sent all doubts flying to the +winds. The week before the bald-headed teacher of the literature class +had occasioned a bad break in the routine of the course by +inconsiderately dying of pneumonia in the middle of the term. For several +days thereafter the grief of the class was tempered by the fact that +there were no recitations. But on the day after Gladys and Hinpoha, with +Sahwah and Katherine as chaperones, had visited the Seventh Daughter of a +Seventh Daughter, an announcement appeared on the session room blackboard +to the effect that literature recitations would be resumed that morning. +As they filed into the literature class room they were greeted by the +sight of the new teacher standing beside the desk. + +"Boys and girls," said the principal, who was doing the honors, "this is +Mr. David Knoblock, who will have charge of this class in the future." +And he hurried out. + +"David Knoblock!" whispered the wit of the class to his neighbor. +"Knoblock, No Block, see?" And a titter ran through the class. + +"David Knoblock!" said Katherine to herself. "He looks as though his name +might be Percy Pimpernell." + +"David Knoblock!" repeated Hinpoha to herself, and sat mute before the +workings of fate. David Knoblock. D. K. The Car of Destiny had stopped +before her door and from it had alighted the fair-haired stranger! + +Standing before the class in the glory of his yellow hair, pale, +sprouting mustache, blue eyes and pink cheeks, Mr. Knoblock seemed to +them a composite of Adonis, Paris and Apollo Belvidere, whose mythical +charms had been impressed upon them by the late lamented instructor. + +"What has the class been reading, Miss--ah--Miss Katherine?" he inquired, +consulting the class roll. + +"Tennyson, Mr. Knoblock," answered Katherine briefly. + +"_Professor_ Knoblock, if you please," he corrected gently. "Ah, yes; +Tennyson." And turning the pages of his book with a manicured finger, he +found the place and began to read aloud, glancing up at one or another of +his girl pupils from time to time. More and more often that glance rested +on Hinpoha, for with the sun shining through the window on her hair she +was the most vivid spot of color in the room. Finally he did not take his +eyes away at all, and, looking her straight in the face, he read in +sentimental tones: + + "Queen of the rosebud garden of girls, + Come hither, the dances are done, + In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls, + Queen, lily and rose, in one; + Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls, + To the flowers, and be their sun." + +In the blaze of that glance Hinpoha's romantic heart melted like a lump +of wax. The room swam in a rose-colored mist. The great thing that she +had read about in books had happened to her; she was in love! It was not +long before the whole school knew about the affair. Whenever there was a +sentimental passage in the book Professor Knoblock looked at Hinpoha and +at her alone. He often detained her a moment after class to inquire if +that last paragraph had been entirely clear to her; he thought she had +looked not quite satisfied with his explanation. As he roomed in the next +street to her home he generally met her on the corner in the morning and +walked to school with her. Certain sour-dispositioned damsels in the +class, who had made eyes at the new Lochinvar in vain, made sneering +remarks about a girl who had so few boy friends in the class that she had +to ogle a teacher; others sighed enviously when they looked at her +woman's crown of glory and realized their handicap; the Winnebagos +regarded the whole thing as the workings of fate, pure and simple, for +was it not even as the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter had +predicted? + +As for Hinpoha herself, she was too transported to care what anyone else +thought about it. She was surrounded by a rarified atmosphere and the +voices of earth troubled her not. Just now she sat blushing deeply and +crushing in her hand a note which had appeared mysteriously between the +pages of her _Selections from the Standard English Poets_. It was written +in Mr. Knoblock's slanting backhand, and read: + + +"My Dear Miss Bradford: + +"Never have I seen such glorious hair as yours. I cannot take my eyes +from it while you are in the room, and it haunts me by night. May I ask a +great favor of you--that you grant me one lock, one small lock, as a +keepsake? I fear you will be too modest to make this gift in person, and +all I ask is that you slip it into the dictionary on my desk." + + +The signature was a long ornamental K, with a running vine entwined about +its upright stroke. + +Hinpoha scarcely raised her eyes above the level of her book during the +whole recitation. She sat nervously toying with a long perfect curl that +hung down over her shoulder. Toward the close of the recitation period +she came out of her abstraction and touched the boy in front of her on +the shoulder. "Lend me your penknife," she whispered in answer to his +look of inquiry. The Senior Literature Class occupied the last hour of +the day, and as Mr. Knoblock had no session room, the passing of the +class left the room empty. On this day Mr. Knoblock left the room with +the class on the stroke of the bell, and the boys and girls, trooping out +in a hurry to get home, did not notice that Hinpoha loitered. She glanced +around nervously, satisfied herself that she was unobserved and then +darted toward the dictionary on Mr. Knoblock's desk. Going out of the +door a minute later she ran violently into Katherine, who had carried out +her inkwell instead of her English book, and was coming back to replace +it. Katherine looked at her curiously. + +"Excuse me," said Hinpoha in a flustered tone, "I really didn't see you. +I was thinking about something." + +Hinpoha looked at Mr. Knoblock with an air of expectancy when she entered +the room the next morning, looking for some sign of gratitude for the +lock of hair, but he said, "Good morning, Miss Bradford," in his usual +tone and made no further remarks. But before the hour was over he took +occasion to borrow her book for a moment, and directly after he returned +it a note fell from its pages into her lap. With starry eyes she unfolded +it and read: + + "O Morning Star that smilest in the blue, + O star, my morning dream hath proven true, + Smile sweetly, thou! my love hath smiled on me." + +The lines were from "Gareth and Lynette." The universe turned into song. +It was getting altogether too much for Hinpoha to hold and that afternoon +before the fire in the Open Door Lodge she revealed the progress of her +romance to the other Winnebagos. + +"Did you really give him a lock of your hair?" asked Gladys. + +Hinpoha nodded. "Just a tiny curl. It doesn't show much at all where I +cut it out." + +"Collecting locks of hair doesn't mean so terribly much," said Katherine +dryly. "I read about a boy once who begged a lock of hair from every girl +he met and then had his sister embroider a sofa cushion with them. And +another one used them for paint brushes." + +"Oh, but this is--different," said Hinpoha with lofty pity. It had just +dawned on her that Katherine was jealous. The same miracle that had +dropped the scales from her eyes and revealed to her the fact that she +was beautiful had also made her realize that Katherine was hopelessly +plain. + +"And then the verse he wrote afterward," said Gladys, hastening to uphold +Hinpoha. "That proves he is in earnest. And, anyway, it must be true. +Didn't all the fortunes say he was fair and his initials were D. K., and +he was a great scholar, and would be president, and he would fall in love +with Hinpoha's hair?" And Katherine had to admit that whatsoever was +written in the stars was written. + +It mattered little to any of them, Hinpoha least of all, that Professor +Knoblock had thus far said nothing openly upon the subject to Hinpoha. + +"Isn't his bashfulness adorable?" cooed Gladys. "He's too shy to express +himself face to face with her; he puts all his--his passion into +writing." + +"Won't those notes be lovely to read over together when you're old?" said +Sahwah, also stricken with a sentimental fit. But at the mere mention of +such a thing Hinpoha fled with burning cheeks. + +"Hello, Red," said a cheerful voice in her ear, as she went dreaming down +the street one day. "Where have you been keeping yourself for the last +few weeks? You haven't been down in the gym once." + +"Hello, Captain," she said sweetly. (How young he was, she was thinking. +How hopelessly kiddish beside the manly form of Professor Knoblock!) + +"Say, you must have your tin ear on today," remarked the Captain +jovially. "I had to call you three times before you answered." + +"I was thinking," said Hinpoha, and blushed. + +"Must have been an awful hard think," remarked the Captain, stooping to +throw a stone at a cat. (He's nothing but a kid, thought Hinpoha for the +second time.) + +It was on this occasion that the Captain, happily believing all was well +between himself and Hinpoha, invited her to go to the Senior dance at +Washington High with him. + +"I'm awfully sorry, Captain," she said kindly, "but I'm going +with--someone else." + +"Who?" asked the Captain blankly. The "bid" for that party had cost the +Captain just a dollar and a half, as he was not a member of the class, +and he had made the investment for the sake of going with Hinpoha and no +one else. So he repeated in a startled tone, "Who?" + +"Oh, someone," answered Hinpoha tantalizingly, and with that he had to be +content. To herself she was saying, "How foolish it would be to promise +to go with the Captain and then not be able to accept when--when _he_ +asks me." For word had gone round the school that all the faculty were +going to honor the Senior Dance with their presence, and whom else would +Professor Knoblock ask but herself? + +But of all things to happen just at this time, the very next day Hinpoha +came down with the mumps, or rather the mump, for only one side of her +throat was affected. The first half she had had in childhood. + +"That horrid mump stayed away on purpose before," she wailed, "and waited +all these years to jump out on me just at this time. And my new party +dress is too sweet for anything, and my gilt slippers--oh-oh-oh-oh was +there ever such a disappointment?" Gladys and Sahwah and Katherine, who +had all had theirs "on both sides" and were therefore allowed to call, +were consumed with sympathy, and were loud in their efforts to console +the stricken mumpee. + +"Has _he_ come to see you?" ventured Gladys. + +Hinpoha shook her head, which was a somewhat painful process. + +"Of course he can't come," said Sahwah, "he probably hasn't had them." + +Katherine's expression seemed to say that a really brave knight wouldn't +hesitate to expose himself to any danger for the sake of seeing his lady, +seeing which Hinpoha croaked hoarsely, "They probably wouldn't let him +come," the "they" in this case presumably referring to the school +authorities. + +"I saw him down in Forester's this noon when I was ordering the flowers +for mother's birthday," said Gladys, and they all sighed. + +Just then the doorbell rang and Gladys, who was sent to answer it, +returned with a long box in her hand addressed to "Miss Dorothy +Bradford." + +"From Foresters," said Sahwah breathlessly. + +"Flowers!" said Gladys. "Hurry and open them." + +The box disclosed a dozen, long-stemmed pink roses. "Oh! Ah!" echoed the +four in unison. + +"From--him?" asked Gladys. + +"There's no card in the box," said Hinpoha, vainly searching. + +"They must be from him," said Gladys decidedly. "Wasn't he in Forester's +this morning? And it seemed to me I heard him asking for pink roses." + +Hinpoha put the flowers in a tall vase and regarded them with rapture. +They were the first flowers ever sent to her by a man. In them she found +comfort for having to miss the dance. + +"Was he there?" she inquired falteringly of Gladys, the day after the +party. + +Gladys answered in the affirmative. "Did--did any of you dance with him?" +Hinpoha wanted to know further. + +Gladys shook her head. "I saw him dancing once or twice with Miss +Snively," she said. "I don't believe he stayed very long. He disappeared +before it was half over." + +Hinpoha was satisfied. He had not enjoyed himself without her. "Wasn't it +noble of him to dance with Miss Snively?" she said enthusiastically. "No +one else would, I'm sure." + +At Commencement time the year before an old Washington High graduate, who +had attained fame and fortune since his school days, presented the school +with funds to build a swimming pool. Work had progressed during the year +and now the pool was completed and about to be dedicated. An elaborate +pageant was being prepared for the occasion. Mermaids and water nymphs +were to gambol about in the green, glassy depths and lie on the painted +coral reefs; Neptune was to rise from the deep with his trident; a +garland bedecked barge was to bear a queen and her attendants; and then +after the pageant there were to be swimming races, an exhibition of +diving and then a stunt contest. + +The Winnebagos, being experienced swimmers, were very much in the show. +Sahwah had invented a brand new and difficult dive, which she had +christened Mammy Moon; Hinpoha had learned the amazing trick of sitting +down in the water and clasping her hands around her knees; Gladys could +swim the entire length of the pool with the leg stroke only, holding a +parasol over her head with her hands, thus giving the impression that she +was taking a stroll on a sunshiny day. Katherine, alas, could not swim. +The largest body of water she had seen at home had been the cistern, and +most of the time it was low tide in that. But this did not prevent her +from thinking up new and ludicrous stunts for the others to do. It was +she who invented the "Kite-tail" stunt, which was one of the signal +successes on the night of the pageant. In this one of the senior boys, +who was a very powerful swimmer, swam ahead with a rope tied around his +waist, to which another performer clung. Behind this second one four or +five more boys were strung out like the tail of a kite, each one holding +on to the heels of the one ahead, and all towed by the first swimmer. + +The great night arrived and the building which housed the pool was +crowded to the doors. The Senior girls and boys had spent hours +decorating the hall with festoons of greens and potted palms and ferns, +so that it looked like the depths of a forest in the center of which the +pool glittered like a magic spring. Cries of admiration rose from the +audience all around. Hinpoha, who in the first part of the performance +was a mermaid, with water lilies plaited in her shining hair, saw only +one face in the crowd, and that was Professor Knoblock, as he leaned over +the polished brass rail and looked at her, and looked, and looked, and +looked. Only that day Hinpoha, filled with the spirit of romance, had +slipped a note into the dictionary on his desk, at the beginning of the +letter "L," the place where she had put the lock of hair, thanking +Professor Knoblock for the flowers. An hour later, in sudden terror that +he would not find it there and someone else would, she had gone to remove +it. But it had vanished, and in its place was another verse from Gareth +and Lynette: + + "O birds that warble to the morning sky, + O birds that warble as the day goes by, + Sing sweetly; twice my love hath smiled on me." + +The opening of the pool was a success in every way. The nymphs nymphed, +and the mermaids wagged their spangled tails to the delight and wonder of +the spectators, and the royal barge swept up and down to the strains of +stately music. Then the pageant retired, the islands folded up their +tents and vanished, and the swimmers went behind the scenes to prepare +for the races and the stunts. To bridge over this interval, Hinpoha had +been left in the pool all alone to amuse the crowd by floating on a +barrel and trying to balance a tray on her head as she bobbed up and +down. The crowd shouted with laughter and cheered her wildly. All but +one. With arms crossed triumphantly over her breast and tray steady on +her head, Hinpoha looked up to see Miss Snively standing by the edge +regarding her with a coldly sarcastic expression. It was as if she said +in words, "Only such a flathead as you could balance a tray on it." But +the great happiness that surged inside of Hinpoha made her charitable and +forgiving toward all the world, and she sent a sweet and friendly smile +into Miss Snively's face. But that marble-hearted lady looked away. The +next minute there was a slip, a shriek, the flash of a silk dress, and a +splash, and Miss Snively had disappeared beneath the surface at the deep +end of the pool. Hurling the tray into space Hinpoha made a magnificent +plunge for distance toward the spot where Miss Snively had gone down. +Simultaneously with her plunge there was another movement in the crowd, +and Professor Knoblock, stripping off his coat, jumped over the rail into +the pool. Hinpoha reached Miss Snively first, just as the blue silk +appeared on the surface, and, evading her wildly clutching hand, managed +to hold her head above water while she struck out for the rail toward the +hands that were stretched down to her everywhere. Then she became aware +of another figure struggling at her side. Professor Knoblock had come up +after his plunge, struck out blindly and then suddenly doubled up and +gone down again. Thrusting Miss Snively hastily toward the helping hands, +Hinpoha turned and rescued her professor, who had miscalculated his leap +and struck his head on the side of the pool. The whole business had not +taken two minutes since the first alarm, but Hinpoha was the heroine of +the hour. She was cheered and praised and petted and patted on the head +and exclaimed over until she was quite bewildered. Her heart was thumping +until it deafened her. She had saved her lover's life, and, bashful as he +was, she knew that now he must speak. It would not happen tonight. They +had rushed him home in a taxicab. But tomorrow---- + +Somehow she managed to finish her part in the program and drink fruit +punch in the gymnasium afterward. While she stood in a corner cooling her +burning cheeks at an open window somebody came and stood beside her. +Hinpoha turned and faced the Captain, and listened absent-mindedly to his +words of praise. Then one sentence he said caught her attention. "Say," +he said bashfully, "how did you like the flowers?" + +"What flowers?" asked Hinpoha wonderingly. + +"The roses--pink ones--I sent you when you had the mumps." + +Hinpoha stared at him blankly, unbelievingly. No, no, it could not be +true, the roses had come from her light-haired professor. "Did _you_ send +them?" she asked in a tone in which no one could have detected any degree +of appreciation for the favor. + +"Wasn't there any card in the box?" asked the Captain. "I gave one to Mr. +Forester to put in." + +"No," answered Hinpoha, with a gulp, "there wasn't; and I +thought--somebody else sent them." + +"Didn't you like them?" asked the Captain, feeling in the air that +something was wrong somewhere. "Don't you like roses?" + +Hinpoha pulled herself together with an effort. Tears of disappointment +were standing in her eyes. "Ye-es," she answered politely, but without +enthusiasm, "they were lovely; perfectly lovely." And she ran hurriedly +out of the corner, leaving the Captain staring after her in bewilderment. + +"I don't believe he sent them to me at all!" she told herself in the +solitude of her own room that night. "The horrid thing found out that I +got them and told me that just to tease me. Anyway, it doesn't make a +particle of difference about Professor Knoblock." And she fell asleep +whispering to herself with bated breath, "Tomorrow!" + +She walked to school with lagging steps the next morning. Now that the +great hour was at hand she was filled with a desire to flee. Then she +heard footsteps behind her, and, glancing out of the corner of her eye, +saw the professor approaching. With a wildly beating heart she walked on, +her face straight to the front. He was coming. He was overtaking her. Now +he was upon her. With a great effort she turned her head to look at him, +her lips parted in a tremulous smile. Professor Knoblock raised his hat +stiffly, nodded frigidly and passed on without a word, leaving Hinpoha +staring after him stunned. Unseeingly she stumbled on to school. One +question was racing back and forth in her mind like a shuttle in a +loom--what was the meaning of it? Classes recited around her in school; +she heard them as in a dream. Professor Knoblock did not look at her as +she entered the Literature class room; he was taking two of the boys +sharply to task for never being able to recite. Hinpoha sat with her eyes +fixed on her book. Professor Knoblock was evidently ill-humored this +morning, though apparently none the worse for his mishap the evening +before. He was dealing out zero marks right and left if the recitations +did not go like clock-work. And as was only to be expected the morning +after such an elaborate affair as the dedication of a swimming pool, +clock-work recitations were very few and far between. + +The professor finally lost all patience. "Take your books," he commanded, +"open and study the lesson the remainder of the hour, and the first one I +see dawdling or whispering will be sent back to the session room." +Hinpoha's eyes followed the lines on the page, but she could not have +told what she was reading. The question was still beating back and forth +in her mind. + +"Lend me your pencil," whispered her neighbor. Mechanically she held it +out to him and when he took it he thrust a stick of gum into her hand. He +was still in a festive mood. Professor Knoblock caught the movement. At +the same moment another pair in the back of the room began giggling about +something. + +"You two are out of order!" shouted the professor. "Leave the room!" All +eyes were turned toward the two in the back. + +"I mean you, George Hancock, and you, Dorothy Bradford," said the +Professor severely. Hinpoha turned pleading, unbelieving eyes on him. +"Leave the room," he repeated with rising anger, "go back to your session +room!" And with the world rocking under her feet, Hinpoha went. + +As the pupils came back from their respective classes that noon there was +a sensation in the air. Groups of girls stood around whispering to one +another and exclaiming. "Did you ever hear anything like it?" rose on all +sides. "Who would ever dream of her getting----" + +Hinpoha, dumb and miserable, sat apart, until some one dragged her into +the center of a group. "Have you heard the news?" + +"No," she answered dully. + +"Miss Snively's engaged!" announced a young lady, in the same tone she +would have said: "The sky has fallen!" + +"She is!" said Hinpoha. "To whom?" + +"Professor Knoblock!" continued the speaker. "They've been engaged a long +time--but it just leaked out yesterday in a teachers' meeting. That's why +he came here to teach." + +"But the notes he wrote me," moaned Hinpoha to the Winnebagos, who had +gathered for an indignation meeting that afternoon. "And the curl I gave +him---- Oh-oh-oh!" and she hid her face in her hands and groaned. + +Katherine had been poking about in a corner of the room during the +preliminary wail. She now came forward carrying a box in her hand which +she laid on Hinpoha's knee. + +"What's this?" asked Hinpoha. + +"Open it and see," advised Katherine. + +Hinpoha complied and there fell into her lap a long, curling, red ringlet +and a piece of paper written over in Hinpoha's hand. + +"I have a confession to make," said Katherine, striking a dramatic +attitude. "I put that note into your book asking for the lock of hair, +and watched until you put it into the dictionary. Then I took it out +after you left the room. I wrote the notes that followed to keep the ball +rolling. I don't believe Professor Knoblock knows a thing about his great +romance with you." + +"You did it!" cried Hinpoha blankly, turning fiercely upon Katherine. +"You made such a fool out of me that I'll never be able to show my face +again as long as I live. You--you----" sobs choked her and cut off all +utterance. + +"But the flowers," gasped Gladys, "who sent them?" + +"Captain did, the mean old thing!" sobbed Hinpoha. + +"But the Key, and the Horoscope, and the Fortune Teller," continued +Gladys, "they all said he would be the one. I don't see how it could have +come out any other way." + +Katherine rose from her knees and rapped on the table for attention. +"Girls," she said seriously, "I suppose you think it was a very unkind +and low-down sort of joke I played on Hinpoha, getting her all worked up +like that with those notes, and under ordinary circumstances it would +have been. But isn't there a saying somewhere 'that awfully sick people +need awfully strong medicine,' or something to that effect? Here you all +were gone completely loony--excuse the expression, but it's just what you +were--gone perfectly loony about this fortune-telling business. You did +it so much that I actually believe you began to think it was true. Then +that fool fortune-teller told Hinpoha about the light-haired man that was +coming into her life soon, and when the new professor arrived you all +thought he was the one. I just happened to find out soon after he came +that he was engaged to Miss Snively. I knew if I told you then you +wouldn't believe it, so I waited until it came out. But I was afraid +Hinpoha would do something really silly before she got through, and +decided to take a hand in the game myself. When I wrote that note about +the hair I was sure she would see through it and come to her senses. The +fact that she swallowed it shows how far out of her right mind she was. I +never believed she would put a lock of hair into the dictionary. But when +she seemed to take it all for gospel truth I couldn't resist the +temptation to go on and have some more fun." + +"But--his handwriting," said Hinpoha faintly. + +"Easiest thing in the world to imitate," said Katherine, saying nothing +about the weary hours it had taken her to accomplish that feat. "And I +signed my own initial, 'K.,' which was certainly not taking the +professor's name in vain. I never told a soul, so there's nobody to crow +over you. You stand just exactly where you did at first with the +professor." + +"But," said Gladys, still not satisfied, "why did he always look at +Hinpoha when he read the sentimental passages?" + +"Because he's built that way," answered Katherine scornfully. "There are +plenty of men who will make eyes at every pretty girl they see, whether +they have any right to or not. Besides I heard him tell one of the other +teachers once that your red hair reminded him of the hair that belonged +to a dear friend he 'lost in youth.'" + +After hearing Katherine's clean-cut and sensible version of the affair +the whole thing seemed unutterably ridiculous and one by one they began +to think that she was right, and had played the part of the friend +instead of the mischief-maker, in shocking Hinpoha back into common +sense. Hinpoha advanced shakily and held out her hand. "I thank you, +Katherine," she said, "for 'saving me from myself'!" And Katherine seized +her hand in a crushing grip, and soon they were hugging each other, and +their friendship, instead of being shaken to its foundations, was +cemented more strongly. + +"I think he's horrid," said Gladys, "and if I were you, Hinpoha, I'd +never look at him again--the way he treated you this morning, after you +had taken the trouble to fish him out of the pool last night. He's an +ungrateful wretch, and doesn't deserve to be rescued." + +Katherine was looking at them with a queer expression. "There's something +else I suppose I ought to tell you," she said, "although I wasn't going +to at first. But now he's acted so you really ought to know. Miss +Snively's falling into the pool wasn't exactly an accident." + +"Did he push her in?" asked Gladys in a horrified tone. + +"Goodness, no," said Katherine. Then she added: "Yes, in a way he did, +too, for he was responsible for her falling in. You know what a dub the +boys all think him; they never call him anything but 'that mutt,' or +'that cissy.' He couldn't help seeing it, and it bothered him that he +wasn't a hero in their eyes. Besides," she continued shrewdly, "if he was +thinking of getting married he probably was looking for promotion, and he +never would get it as long as he couldn't control the boys. So he +complained to Miss Snively about it and she obligingly offered to fall +into the pool and have him rescue her, and so make a hero out of him +overnight. I heard them planning it yesterday; they were on one side of a +big pile of greens waiting to go up and I was on the other. She was to do +it during the intermission when no one was in the pool. They didn't seem +to know that you were going to be in then. But she did it anyway, +thinking that the professor would reach her first. But you were too quick +for them. That's why he's so furious with you; you kept him from being a +hero, and got all the praise he expected to get. Then when he bumped his +head on the side of the tank and had to be rescued himself, it put the +finishing touch to the tragedy." + +"Gee!" exclaimed Hinpoha and Sahwah and Gladys and the other two girls, +all in a breath. In moments of great emotional stress refined language +seems an utter failure as a vehicle of expression. Slang is the only +thing that adequately expresses the feelings. They said it again, +intentionally and emphatically--"_Gee!_" + +"What a foolish thing to do," said Sahwah, when they had all recovered +somewhat, "falling into the pool to give a man a chance to be a hero. She +might have been drowned." + +"She didn't run such an awful risk," observed Katherine, the all-knowing. +"She's a good swimmer herself; I've heard people say so." + +And again the girls sought relief in the expression not sanctioned by the +grammar. + +"Going to the Lodge?" said the Captain's voice in Hinpoha's ear a few +days later, as she swung along the street. The Captain's manner was +decidedly diffident. He was not at all sure how she would treat him this +time. + +Hinpoha nodded companionably. "I'm going to practice with the handball," +she said energetically. "Come on, I'll race you across the field." + +"That was great, wasn't it?" she cried laughingly, as she stopped before +the door, breathless, with her hair flying around her face. + +"Say, give us a curl, will you?" begged the Captain, tugging at one that +hung over the collar of her coat. + +"Don't be silly, Captain," she said reprovingly. "You know I hate people +who are sentimental." + +Hinpoha's romance was a thing of the past. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + RANDALL'S ISLAND + + +"I can't help it, it simply won't roll!" exclaimed Katherine in despair. +"I've tugged and tugged until my fingernails are all broken, and it just +naturally won't turn over!" And Katherine sat down with a discouraged +thud and fanned herself with a hair-brush. + +"Well, we'll 'just naturally' have to stop and see what's the matter with +it," said Nyoda soothingly. The Winnebagos were having a contest in +poncho rolling to be in practice for the coming summer's camping trips. +The aim of each one just now was to accomplish this in two minutes. Two +minutes to spread out a poncho, two blankets and enough clothes for an +overnight trip, roll it up into a neat stove-pipe, bend it into a tidy +horseshoe and fasten the ends together with a rope tied in square knots. + +The record was held by Medmangi, quiet, neat Medmangi, who, while the +others were working like mad, had serenely completed her task in a minute +and three-quarters. + +"She's a regular phenomenay, that woman," said Sahwah, who had thought +she was doing wonders when she straightened up at the end of two minutes +exactly. "She must have four hands, or else she packed with her feet. But +what else could you expect of a girl who's going to be a doctor?" + +Poor Katherine, alas, made no time at all that could be recorded in +Nyoda's book. It was only her second attempt at poncho rolling, but it is +doubtful whether it would have been any different if it had been her +hundred and second. She simply was not built for order and speediness. At +the end of ten minutes she still sat beside her pile of belongings, the +poncho askew, the blankets askew on it and hanging over the edge, the +extra middy bundled up into a wrinkled lump and the small articles +sliding off on all sides. She had begun to roll it from the wrong end, +and after one or two turns it absolutely refused to go any farther, in +spite of forceful attempts. + +"Here, spread your things out properly, and then it will go," said Nyoda +patiently, picking up the blankets. Out rolled the object which had +obstructed the wheels of progress--an umbrella, which had been tucked +under the blankets lengthwise of the roll. "No wonder it wouldn't roll!" +exclaimed Nyoda, laughing aloud. "Did you expect the umbrella to bend +round and round like a hose? Whatever would you want an umbrella for, +anyway?" + +"For rain," answered Katherine with touching simplicity. Nyoda and the +other Winnebagos doubled up in silent mirth. Katherine's inspirations +invariably left them without power of comment. + +"Katherine, you're _positively_ hopeless," sighed Gladys affectionately. +"The only safe way is to divide your things up among the other ponchos; +yours would never arrive at a journey's end, anyhow." + +"Oh, if I had only been born neat instead of handsome!" said Katherine +plaintively, and then joined heartily in the irresistible laughter that +followed. + +"Hush, girls!" said Nyoda. "There's somebody down at the door. Don't you +hear somebody rapping?" + +Hinpoha, who was nearest the window, peeped down. "It's a whole bunch of +girls," she reported in an excited whisper. "All strangers. I don't know +any of them. What can they want?" + +"Want to see us, probably," said matter-of-fact Sahwah. "Isn't somebody +going down to let them in?" + +"The way this place looks!" sighed Nyoda, looking at the floor strewn +with the contents of Katherine's poncho. "Gladys, you and Hinpoha go down +and let them in and detain them downstairs until the rest of us can put +this room in order. It's a disgrace to the Winnebagos." + +Gladys and Hinpoha descended the ladder and threw open the door. +"Welcome," they cried, "whoever you are! Welcome to the House of the Open +Door!" + +The six strange girls came in. One who was tall and thin and had hair +almost as red as Hinpoha's, stepped forward. "We are members of the +San-Clu Camp Fire," she said. "We have heard quite a bit about you +Winnebagos and thought we would come and call. Is this your famous +Lodge?" + +"It certainly is," said Gladys hospitably. "We are delighted to become +acquainted with you. Make yourselves at home. This gymnasium outfit +belongs to a club of boys who share our Lodge, and over there is +Sandhelo's stall. Sandhelo is our pet donkey; you must see him right +away." She led the girls to the stall and kept them there telling about +Sandhelo's exploits until she was sure from the sounds above that the +room was in order. Then she invited them to ascend the ladder. + +"The San-Clu Camp Fire have come visiting," she announced, as she stepped +out on the floor. + +"All Hail to the San-Clu Camp Fire from the Winnebagos," chanted the +hostess ceremoniously, and seven pairs of hands performed the fire sign. + +"San-Clu returns All Hail," responded the guests with no less ceremony. + +The newcomers were shown the beauties of the Winnebago Lodge, and it +seemed they would never get done exclaiming over the rugs and skins and +pottery, and most of all, the beds. + +"They aren't so terribly hard to make," the Winnebagos assured them +modestly, but at the same time glowing with a feeling of superiority. The +San-Clu girls were plainly older than the Winnebagos; they all wore +dresses down to their ankles and seemed quite grown up, almost enough to +be guardians themselves; yet they did not appear to have won nearly so +many honors as the younger Winnebagos. + +During the tour of inspection Nyoda and Gladys held a whispered +consultation in one end of the room. "Nothing here to make a spread +with," said Gladys. "I'll have to hurry out and get something." + +"Do," said Nyoda. Gladys nudged Hinpoha and drew her down the ladder and +together they sped after canned shrimp and condensed milk. + +"Now, if you'll excuse us a minute," said Nyoda to the San-Clus, "we'll +retire behind our curtains and prepare to do the stunt with which we +always inflict company. Come, girls," she added in a whisper, "the Battle +of Blenheim." And the players retired to array themselves in the +necessary sheets. + +Five minutes later the curtains were shoved aside, and the players stood +before the audience. They looked in bewilderment. For seated where they +had left the San-Clu Camp Fire Girls were the Captain, Bottomless Pitt, +the Monkey, Dan Porter, Peter Jenkins and Harry Raymond. The girls had +vanished. + +"Why, when did you come in, boys?" asked Nyoda in surprise. "And where +are the girls?" + +"What girls?" asked the Captain. + +"Why, the San-Clu Camp Fire girls," said Nyoda, "who were visiting us." + +"Here they are," said the six boys, rising and speaking together. "We are +the 'San-Clu' Camp Fire Girls. 'San-Clu'--short for Sandwich Club! +Ho-ho-ho, Katherine! You'd know us in a minute with girls' clothes on, +would you!" And from under the rugs and furniture they drew the dresses, +hats, gloves and wigs which the late San-Clus had worn a-calling. +"Oh-h-h, Katherine, we do this to each other!" + +The girls sat staring, speechless for a minute, unable to believe that +there really had been no girls there. But the evidence was before their +eyes and it could not be doubted. And they were far too game not to see +that the joke was on them, and laughed just as heartily over it as the +boys did. + +"We'll have to have the spread, anyhow, for your benefit," said Nyoda, +taking up the cans of supplies that Hinpoha and Gladys had just brought +in. "You carried that off too splendidly not to be rewarded. We +congratulate you on your ability to act, and confess that we were +completely taken in. Where's Slim?" + +"We left him behind the fence," said the Captain, with a start of +recollection. "We didn't dare let him come in with us, because you'd have +recognized him right away." + +"Figures never lie, especially stout ones," laughed Nyoda. "Go and bring +him to the spread." + +"Are you folks going on a trip?" inquired the Monkey, with his mouth full +of Shrimp Wiggle and his eyes on the ponchos piled in the corner. + +"We are, next Saturday," answered Sahwah. "We were just practicing +rolling the ponchos today. Saturday we're going to take the steamer +across the lake to Rock Island. Some friends of Nyoda's have a cottage +there, but they haven't gone up yet and they said we might stay in it all +night if we wanted to. We're coming home on the boat Sunday night." + +"Are you going by yourselves?" asked Slim, leaning across the table and +listening to the conversation. He was fishing for an invitation for the +Sandwiches. + +"We certainly are going by ourselves," said Sahwah, to his +disappointment. "We haven't been off by ourselves for a long time. We're +going in a lonely place and have a Ceremonial Meeting on the shore of the +lake and tell secrets and do stunts and have a beautiful time. It's +strictly a Winnebago affair--a hen party, you'd call it." + +Slim sighed and consoled himself with five pieces of fudge and an apple. +He was one of those boys who like to be around girls all the time. Too +fat to enjoy the more strenuous society of the boys, he preferred to sit +with his gentler friends and dip his hand into the dishes of candy that +they usually had standing around. The fact that they made no end of fun +of him and never took him seriously only increased his desire for them. +And, like the Captain, he delighted to look upon the hair when it was +red. He admired Hinpoha with all his corpulent soul. + +The winter and spring months had flown by with swifter wings than the +white-tailed swallow, and the clock of the year was once more striking +June. Saturday found the Winnebagos skimming over the blue waters of the +lake in the big daily excursion boat bound for Rock Island. Nakwisi, of +course, had her spy glass and was carefully scrutinizing the empty +horizon. "Has Katherine come into your range of vision yet?" asked Nyoda, +a trifle anxiously. Katherine had boarded the boat with them safely +enough, for she had been personally conducted from home by the whole six, +but had disappeared within ten minutes after the boat started. + +Nakwisi lowered her glass and laughed. "No, I don't see her in the sky," +she said, "though I shouldn't be very greatly surprised if I did." + +And they began a thorough search of the boat from top to bottom and +finally found her hanging over the rail of a gangway, trying to touch the +snowy foam flying in the swirling wake of the paddle wheel. It was the +first time she had ever been on a lake, and she took a perfectly childish +delight in the racing water. Pulled back to safety by Nyoda, she gave an +animated account of her adventures since seeing them last, in the course +of which she had nearsightedly walked into the pilot house and caught +hold of the wheel to steady herself when the boat gave a lurch, and had +been summarily put out by an angry first mate. "I've been everywhere on +the boat except down the smokestack," she concluded triumphantly. + +Soon Rock Island appeared as a speck on the horizon in Nakwisi's glass, +then as a long black streak which they could all see, and finally grew by +leaps and bounds into a beautiful wooded island with trees and lawns and +beautiful summer cottages shining in the sunlight. Shouldering their +ponchos, they went ashore, and walked around the point of the island to +the cottage where they were to spend the night. It was close to the +water, where a curving indentation of the shore line made a lovely little +beach. If Sahwah did not make the record at poncho rolling, she left them +all behind in getting into her bathing suit, and five minutes after the +door was unlocked her hands clove the water in a flying dive from the end +of the pier. + +Katherine splashed about courageously, trying to swim, and finally +succeeded in propelling herself through the water by a series of jerks +and splashes unlike any stroke ever invented by the mind of man. "This is +too hard on my dellyket constitooshun," she remarked at last, clambering +out and draping her ungainly length around a rock, thereby disclosing the +fact that her bathing suit was minus one sleeve. Katherine regarded the +yawning armhole with mild vexation. "Broke my needle when my suit was all +done but putting in the one sleeve," she remarked serenely, "and there +wasn't time to go out and buy one--I finished the suit at eleven o'clock +last night--so I just pasted that sleeve in with adhesive tape, and it +didn't show a bit. But it must have let go in the water," she finished +plaintively. Nyoda looked at the girls, and the girls looked at Nyoda, +and once more they were dumb. + +Tired of swimming, they dressed and explored the island and then sat down +on the big boat dock and dangled their feet over the edge. Soon a tug +came up alongside the pier and the sailor who ran it chanced to be a man +whom Nyoda had met the previous summer on the island. "Hello, Captain +McMichael," she called. + +The sunburnt sailor looked up. "Hello, hello," he answered. "What are you +doing up here so early in the season?" When Nyoda had explained that she +had brought the girls up on a sightseeing trip, Captain McMichael +promptly offered to take them for a ride in the tug. "Got to go over to +Jackson's Island and get a lighter of limestone," he said. "I'd have to +set you ashore on Randall's Island while I went over to Jackson's to get +the lighter," he continued, "because you'd get all covered with lime dust +if you stayed in the tug while they were loading, and it's no place for +ladies to go ashore. But Randall's is all right. The quarries there +aren't worked any more and there are only a few summer cottages. But +there are excellent wild strawberries," he finished with a twinkle in his +eye. "I'll call for you on the way back and get you here before dark. +Will you come?" + +"Oh, Nyoda, may we?" cried the girls, delighted at the prospect. + +"Why, yes," answered Nyoda. "I think that will be a delightful way to +spend the afternoon. I have always wanted to explore Randall's Island; it +looks so interesting from the steamer. We accept your invitation with +pleasure, Captain McMichael." + +"Glad to have you," responded the tug master heartily, as he set the +powerful engine throbbing. + +"Don't fall overboard," he yelled above the steam exhaust a minute later +as Katherine hung over the stern and trailed her hands in the water. +Nyoda clung to her dress and the rest sang in chorus: + + "Sailing, sailing, + Over to Randall's I, + And dear Sister K would fall into the bay + If Nyoda weren't nigh!" + +The run to Randall's Island took just fifteen minutes and Katherine +managed to get there without accident, other than upsetting an oil can +into her lap. The wild strawberries were as abundant and as delicious as +Captain McMichael had promised, and it was with sighs of regret that they +finally admitted they could hold no more. Then they scrambled around in +the abandoned limestone quarries until Nyoda, coming face to face with +Katherine, announced it was time to play something else. Katherine had +torn her dress on sharp points until it was nearly a wreck; she had +stepped into a puddle up to her shoetops, her hat brim hung down in a +discouraged loop and her hands and face were scratched with briers. + +"If one more thing happens to you, Katherine Adams," said Nyoda sternly, +"you'll have to spend the rest of your life on this island, for you won't +be respectable enough to take home." + +"Then I'll be Miss Robinson Crusoe," said Katherine, "and eat up all the +strawberries on the island, and not have to write the class paper. I +believe I'll consider your offer. Our literary member, Migwan, can write +a book about it--_Living on Limestone_, or _The Queen of the Quarry_. +Wouldn't that be a fine sounding title!" + +"What is that long stone building way over there?" asked Hinpoha, as they +promenaded decorously over the island beyond the quarries, two of them +arm-in-arm with Katherine, to keep her in the straight and narrow path. + +"Looks like a fort," said Sahwah, with immediate interest. "Is it a fort, +Nyoda?" + +"I doubt it very much," answered Nyoda. "I never heard of a fort on any +of these islands. Let's go over and investigate." + +Katherine hung back, screwing up her face and rolling her eyes like an +old negress. "Don' lead dis child into temptation," she begged. "Feel lak +de climbin' debbil would get into mah feet agin foh sartin sure, ef ah +went near dat pile of stone, an' den good-bye, dress! Only safe way's to +keep dis child far away!" + +Her veiled, husky voice made her imitation indescribably droll, and the +girls shouted with laughter. "Never fear, my weak sister," said Gladys, +"we'll all keep you out of danger." + +"I can't imagine what this could have been," said Hinpoha, when they had +reached the ruin. "It looks more like a mill than a fort." + +"Mill!" exclaimed Sahwah scornfully. "There isn't any wheel, and there +isn't a sign of a stream. Mills are always on streams." + +"Maybe this was a windmill," suggested Katherine. "It's windy enough to +set any kind of machinery going," and she started in pursuit of her hat, +which that moment had been whirled from her head by a mischievous zephyr. + +The ruin which the girls had found that afternoon was the remains of an +old wine cellar which had been used for storing great quantities of grape +wine in the old days when Randall's Island had been in the heart of the +grape region, before quarrying became the chief industry. Nothing was +left now to tell what valuable stores it had once sheltered, only stones +and crumbling brick walls, overgrown with high weeds and wild vines. + +"It's an enchanted castle," said Hinpoha. "A beautiful princess used to +live here, only she got married and moved to--to the big hotel on Rock +Island, and when she left the bad imps came and knocked out the mortar +with their little hammers and it all fell to pieces." + +"Oh, wonderful," drawled Katherine. "Let's poke about a bit in the ruins +and see if we can find any of the solid gold toothpicks the princes used +to strew around after a meal." + +The ruined wine cellar proved utterly fascinating. They could still see +where it had been divided into rooms; and here and there a thick wall +still stood higher than their heads. + +"Hi, what's this?" asked Katherine, as they stood before a doorway +partially filled with debris, behind which a black hole yawned. + +"It's a cave," said Sahwah, poking her head forward into the hole like a +turtle. "Let's explore it," she continued, stepping carefully over the +pile of bricks. "Come on," she called over her shoulder; "it's perfectly +wonderful. It's a room, but it's under the hill. Come on in." + +"Are there any bats?" asked Gladys, hanging back. + +"Nothing but brickbats," came Sahwah's cheerful voice from within. + +Gladys and Hinpoha crawled through the opening, and Katherine, with a +resigned, "Goodbye, dress," followed with Nyoda and Nakwisi and Medmangi. +The room was nothing more than an extension of the cellar, built into the +side of the hill, but to them it was filled with romantic possibilities. + +"What do you suppose it was?" asked Hinpoha, straining her eyes in the +semi-darkness. + +"The dungeon, of course," answered Katherine promptly. "Here's where your +beautiful princess confined the lovers that didn't suit her +fancy--light-haired ones and fat ones, especially. She chained them to +the wall and the rats nibbled their toes." + +"Oh-oh-oh!" shrieked Hinpoha, stopping her ears. "Don't say such dreadful +things. I can feel the rats nibbling at my toes this minute." + +The walls of this cellar were badly crumbled, and at the farther side the +girls discovered another cave-like opening. This was entirely dark and +they hesitated before going in. Then Nyoda took her pocket flash and +Gladys found hers, and by the combined glimmer of the two the girls found +their way into the farther cave. At first they had to keep the light on +the ground to see where to put their feet and they were all inside before +Nyoda turned her flash on the walls. Then a great cry of amazement burst +from every girl, ending in a breathless gasp. The walls and roof of the +cave seemed to be made of precious stones--pearls, sapphires, emeralds, +amethysts and diamonds. They caught the gleam from the pocket flashes and +twinkled and reflected in a hundred points of dancing light. Great masses +of crystal, faceted like diamonds, hung suspended from the roof almost +touching their heads, seemingly held up by magic. + +"Am I dreaming," cried Hinpoha, "or is this Alladin's cave? What is it, +Nyoda? Where are we?" + +Nyoda laughed at their open mouths and staring eyes. "Only in one of +Nature's treasure vaults," she said. "This is one of the famous crystal +caves that are found throughout these islands. It's a form of rock +crystal, strontia, I believe some people call it, and I don't doubt but +what it's related to the limestone in the quarries. Take a good look at +it, for some of these crystals are simply marvellous." + +Their voices echoed and re-echoed weirdly, as they called to each other, +the sound seeming to roll along the low ceiling. "Look at this mass over +here," cried Sahwah, penetrating deeper into the cave, "it looks like a +man standing against the wall." + +"And this one looks like a dog lying down," said Hinpoha, pointing to +another. + +Laughing, shouting, exclaiming, they explored the wonders of the cave +until a heavy shock as of something falling, accompanied by a deafening +crash, rooted them to the ground with fright. "What is it? What has +happened?" they asked one another, and made their way back to the +entrance. But the entrance was no longer there. Where it had been there +was a solid wall of stone. Their climbing around among the ruined walls +had sent some of the bricks sliding and these had released a large rock +which had rolled down directly over the opening into the crystal cave. +With desperate force they pushed against the rock, but their sevenfold +strength made no more impression than a fly brushing its wings against +it. With white faces they turned to each other when they realized the +truth. They were imprisoned in the cave! + +"The other direction!" cried Sahwah, shaking off her terror and setting +her wits to work. "We may be able to get out the other way." Taking the +flashlight from Gladys, whose trembling fingers threatened to drop it, +she led the way into the gloomy recesses of the cave, whose depths they +had penetrated only a short distance before. They shuddered at the icicle +like crystals, which now seemed like long fingers reaching down to catch +a hold of them, and shrank back from the crystal masses that took the +forms of men and animals. These now seemed like ghosts of creatures that +had been trapped in the cave as they were. For trapped they were. In a +few moments their progress was barred by impassable masses of crystal. +Back again they went to the rock-blocked entrance and beat upon it and +pushed with all their might. All in vain. The rock stood firm as +Gibraltar. They shouted and called and screamed until the echoes clamored +hideously, but no answering call came from the outside. From somewhere, +far in the distance, came the dismal sound of falling water, chilling the +blood in their veins. + +Helplessly the girls all turned to Nyoda, asking, "What shall we do?" + +Nyoda stood still and tried to face the situation calmly. She held her +flashlight close to the rock and looked carefully all around the edge. At +one side there was a tiny fissure, not more than half an inch wide and +about six inches long, caused by the irregular shape of the rock. Nyoda +regarded this minute opening thoughtfully. "If we could put something +through that opening which would act as a signal, we might attract +somebody's attention who wouldn't be able to hear us calling," she said +at length. "Our voices are so muffled in here they can't carry very far +outside." + +"Is there anybody on the island to see it?" asked Gladys doubtfully. + +"There are some people here," answered Nyoda, "because the fishermen stay +all the year round. You remember those houses we passed on the other side +of the quarry, where the nets were hanging in the yard?" + +"What shall we use for a signal of distress?" asked Gladys. "Not one of +us has a tie or a ribbon on today." + +"Use my dress skirt," said Katherine generously. "It's so torn anyway +that it'll never feel the same again, even if it recovers from this +trip." Which was perfectly true. So they tore the wide hem from her +dress, which made a pennant about six feet long. Then Sahwah had a +further inspiration, and, dipping her finger into a dark puddle formed on +the floor by a thin stream of moisture trickling down the wall, she wrote +the word HELP on the strip. Nyoda poked the end through the opening and +shoved the rest out after it, keeping the other end in her hand, and she +could feel by the tugging at the strip that the high wind had caught the +portion outside and was whipping it about. + +"Now shout for all you're worth," commanded Nyoda. + +Early that Saturday morning the Captain had aroused Slim from his +peaceful slumbers unceremoniously. "Hurry up and come over," he said, in +response to Slim's protesting grunt. "Uncle Theodore's here with his +automobile and he's going to take a run over to Freeport this morning and +he said he would take all the fellows along that were ready at nine +o'clock. Hurry." + +Slim needed no second invitation and roused himself immediately, while +the Captain sped to collect the remainder of the Sandwiches, which was +accomplished in short order, as none of the other invitations involved +resurrection. Nine o'clock found them all on the curbstone before the +Captain's house, standing beside Uncle Theodore's big car, waiting for +the word to pile in. The ride to Freeport was accomplished in a few +hours' time and after dinner Uncle Theodore turned the boys loose to see +the town by themselves while he transacted the business which had taken +him thither. Freeport had no attraction outside of its harbor, and +thither the boys betook themselves without delay. Passenger steamers left +every half hour for the various islands nearby; lime boats, tugs and +scows crowded the mouth of the river, and the whole atmosphere breathed +of ships. The boys stood and watched a while and then pined for something +to do. + +"Let's hire a launch," suggested the Captain, who felt that it was up to +him to furnish the amusement, inasmuch as he had invited them to come +along, "and go out on the lake." + +Launches were readily to be had and soon they were curving around in +great circles through the waves, drenched with the spray, and enjoying it +as only boys can enjoy the sensation of riding in a speed boat. + +"Let's go to Rock Island," said Slim, who had not forgotten who else had +planned to go there that day. + +"What for?" asked the Captain. + +"Oh, nothing," answered Slim, "except that there's a pretty nice aquarium +there, and--and the girls said they were going to be there." + +"But we were politely invited to stay home, if I remember rightly," said +Bottomless Pitt. "They're going to have a pow-wow, or something like +that." + +"But if we should run into them accidentally they would probably be glad +to see us," persisted Slim. Slim was fond of picnics gotten up by girls +on account of the superior quality of the "grub"; he was especially fond +of Winnebago picnics, because the Winnebagos treated him better than any +other girls he knew, and as mentioned before, he had a decided weakness +for red hair. Hence his ingenuous desire to go to Rock Island. The +Captain, knowing Slim like a book, laughed. But he, too, wished he had +been invited to the picnic, and his reasons coincided in their last item +with Slim's. + +"All right," he said, and turned the boat's head toward the green outline +of Rock Island. Half of the distance across the bay the launch wheezed +and stopped dead. + +"Pshaw," said Slim disgustedly, when the Captain announced that they had +run out of gasoline. They had come to a stop just off a small rocky +island and with the aid of the one oar the launch boasted the Captain +proceeded to paddle in to shore, in the hope that he could obtain +gasoline there. + +"Regular desert island," grunted Slim, as they walked and met no one. +"None of the cottages seem to be occupied." + +"Cheer up; we'll find someone," said the Captain. "The fishermen live on +these islands all winter. Look at the limestone quarries over there." + +"And the ruined something or other behind them," said the Bottomless +Pitt. + +"Let's cut across here," said Slim, who was ever on the lookout for short +cuts. "I see some houses over there." + +"And break our necks crawling over those stones," said Monkey. "Not +much." + +So they started to follow the path that led around the curve of the +shore. "Wonder if it wouldn't have been better to cut across, anyway," +said the Captain, when they had gone some distance. "These blooming +little stones are worse to walk on than spikes. Those rocks couldn't have +been much worse." And he stood still and looked thoughtfully back at the +ruined cellar. + +"Hi!" he exclaimed suddenly. "What's that?" + +"What's what?" asked Slim. + +"That white rag flying from the rock over there. It surely wasn't there a +minute ago." + +"Probably was, only you didn't see it," said Slim, impatient to go on. + +"I'm positive it wasn't," said the Captain. "I'm going over to have a +look at it. When rags start out of rocks there's something in the wind." +And he walked briskly toward it, the rest following. As they drew near +their startled eyes fell on the black letters of the word HELP, traced in +wobbly lines. + +"Yay!" shouted the boys at the top of their lungs. "Where are you and +what's the matter?" + +Apparently from inside the rock came the feeble echo of a shout: "We're +in the cave! The rock covered the doorway!" + +"Wait a minute!" called the Captain in answer, and boylike tried to move +the rock himself. "Lend a hand, fellows," he said, after one shove +against its solid side. They lent all the hands they had, but could not +budge it. "Pull the bricks out from around it," commanded the Captain, +taking charge of the affair like a general, "and look out for your feet +when she lunges over!" They set to work, dislodging the bricks that held +it in, and before long it moved, tottered, grated and finally, with a +great crash, lunged over and rolled down a little slope. + +Pale and shaken, the Winnebagos emerged into the light of day. Had the +ghosts of their great grandmothers appeared before them the boys could +not have been more surprised. Questions and answers flew back and forth +thick and fast until the tale of their finding the cave was told. + +"And I'll never, never, explore anything again!" finished Hinpoha, in an +emphatic tone. + +"Oh, yes, you will," said Gladys; "and so will we all, but the next time +we'll have a company of guides fore and aft." + +"Wouldn't it be a better plan," suggested the Captain mildly, "to take us +along with you wherever you go? I notice we generally have to come to the +rescue, anyway." + +And the Winnebagos promised to consider the matter. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + KINDLING THE TORCH + + +Hinpoha and Sahwah were patiently teaching Katherine hand signs one +Saturday afternoon when Gladys burst in with a tragic face. + +"Girls," she cried, with extravagant emphasis, "have you heard the +_news_?" Then, without waiting for reply, she continued: "Nyoda's going +to be _married_!" + +"We know she is," answered Hinpoha, "a year from this summer." + +"No, not a year from this summer," said Gladys, swelling with the +importance of the announcement she was about to make, "_this_ summer. +This very month!" + +An incredulous exclamation burst from the three. + +"It's true," continued Gladys. "Sherry's going to be sent away on a long +trip and he wants to take her with him, so they're going to be married +right away." + +All four sat stricken, trying to realize that the evil day which they had +dreaded so and which they had thought far in the future was actually upon +them. Only two more weeks and their idolized Guardian, who for three +years had been a part of nearly everything they did, would be gone from +them. It seemed that the world was coming to an end. + +In the days that followed gloom hung thick over the House of the Open +Door. Now that Nyoda was to be in it no longer the Winnebagos lost all +joy in its possession. Each article of furniture that she had helped to +make, each sketch of hers on the wall telling in clever little +pictographs the tale of some adventure or frolic, gripped them with a +fresh pang. Plans for summer excursions and activities were dropped. + +"And we were all going ca-camping togu-gether!" wailed Hinpoha, and damp +weather prevailed for many minutes. + +But this was the end of their Senior year in high school, crowded to the +limit with all the bustle and excitement and festivity of Commencement +time, and the Winnebagos were so busy with examinations and essays and +clothes and songs and parties that there was no time to fold their hands +and grieve. Katherine, as editor of the class paper, was the star +performer on Class Night, although Miss Snively, who trained the +speakers, had tried to sandpaper her speech of everything clever. +Katherine agreed to every change she suggested with suspicious readiness, +and then when the night arrived calmly read her original paper, while the +chandeliers dripped giggles and Miss Snively made sarcastic remarks about +the cracked-voice orator. Somehow the story of Miss Snively's attempt to +make a hero out of her fiance had gotten out, although Katherine always +looked preoccupied whenever the subject was mentioned, and of late Miss +Snively had found the seats in her recitation room occupied by rows of +wise grins, which somewhat disturbed her lofty dignity. It was well that +this was to be her last year of teaching. + +One of the big events of the last week was the interscholastic track meet +and athletic contest, to be held on the Washington High athletic field, +in which ten big schools took part. The field was thronged with +spectators, the grand stand was crowded, school colors floated from tree +and pole, cheers burst from groups of students every few minutes and the +air was electric with suppressed excitement. + +First came the track events, and in these Washington High was tied with +Carnegie Mechanic for second place. The Winnebagos were glad it was so, +because now the Sandwiches could not crow over them. The Captain finished +first in one of the hundred-yard dashes right in front of Hinpoha, where +she sat in the grandstand, and he looked over the heads of the cheering +boys straight at her. Hinpoha dared not applaud him, because he belonged +to Washington's bitterest rival, but she smiled brightly, and he dropped +his eyes, flushing suddenly. + +The girls' events opened with a game of volley ball between Washington +High and Carnegie Mechanic. Much to the surprise of the Winnebagos, they +saw Katherine come in with the Washington players. Katherine was not on +the team. But just before the game opened the girl's gymnasium director +had spied Katherine sitting at one side of the field, unconcernedly +shaking a pebble out of her shoe in full view of the grandstand, and +hurried over to her. "Will you fill in this game?" she asked +breathlessly. "One of our team can't come and we're short a girl." + +"But I've never played volley ball," protested Katherine. + +"Oh," said the gymnasium teacher disappointedly. Then she added in a kind +of desperation, "Well, I don't know as it makes any difference. I don't +seem to be able to find a girl who has played. Just stay in the +background and strike at the ball with the palms of your hands every time +it comes near you. Let the girls in front get it over the net." + +Katherine uncurled her length from the ground and followed the gymnasium +teacher obligingly. She was not in the least sensitive about being asked +at the eleventh hour to "fill in," when she had not been asked to be on +the team before. Washington's volley ball team was not a very strong one, +and went all to pieces against the concentrated team work of the Carnegie +Mechanicals. The score rolled up against Washington steadily. The +deafening yells from the grandstand bewildered them, and they could +neither volley the ball over the net nor return the Mechanicals' volleys. +They were helpless from stage fright. + +Katherine dutifully stayed in the background, sending the ball to the +girls at the net, her brow drawing into anxious puckers, as they fumbled +it time after time. She began to comprehend the rules of the game and was +"getting the hang of it." The Mechanicals, with fifteen points to their +credit, had just lost the ball by sending it out of bounds. It was time +to do something. Katherine had noticed that most of the Washington girls +had been trying to volley the ball across the net from the back line, +instead of passing it on, as she had been doing, and had been falling +short nearly every time. With a commanding gesture, she claimed the +attention of her team. + +"Get back on the volley line in a row," she ordered. They obeyed her like +sheep. Then she took her place half-way between the volley line and the +net, facing the girls. "Now," she said crisply, "whosoever's turn it is +to volley, shoot the ball to me and not an inch farther. I'll get it over +the net. The first one that shoots it over my head is going to get ducked +in the swimming pool!" + +In their surprise at this sudden rising up of a leader, they forgot the +racket around them, and the triumphantly clamoring team on the other side +of the net, and calmed down. The girl with the ball sent it straight +toward Katherine, and with a windmill motion of her powerful arms, she +hit it a sounding whack and sent it over the net like a meteor. There was +no returning such a volley. + +"One!" cried the scorekeeper, and the Washington corner of the grandstand +gave its first yell of triumph. + +"Now, everyone of you do just the same thing, one after another," +commanded Katherine to the volley line. Her utter lack of excitement was +bringing them out of their confusion. The next girl made an equally good +throw and another loud whack announced that Katherine was volleying. +Backing the net, she could not see where it was going, but a squeal told +her that the girl who should be returning the ball was fleeing it. Then +the machine started to work. As long as one side scored it was privileged +to keep the volley. + +When in operation the machine sounded like this: "Next!" Whack! Bump! +That was all. Katherine's command to the server; the impact of her palms +on the ball; and the thump of the ball on the ground on the Mechanical +side of the net. Up went the Washington score. + +Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Eleven! Twelve! + + "Washington Rah! + Washington Rah! + Katherine Adams, + Rah! Rah! Rah!" + +The atmosphere was rent with the yell. + +Thirteen! Fourteen! Fifteen! + +"Next!" Whack! Bump! + +SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN! EIGHTEEN! NINETEEN! TWENTY! + + "WASHINGTON RAH! + KATHERINE RAH! + KATHERINE AD----" + +TWENTY-ONE! + + +The umpire ran along the net, holding up her hands, and the teams broke +ranks. + +"Washington High winner in the volley ball game!" shouted the scorekeeper +through her megaphone. "Score, twenty-one to fifteen!" + +And the grandstand thundered at Katherine, who suddenly got stage fright +when it was all over and stood pigeon-toed with her head hanging down. +Then she noticed for the first time that her middy was on hind side +before and the long collar was down in front. Her horrified expression +threw the spectators into convulsions. They had been laughing at it all +through the game, but her amazing performance had made it a secondary +consideration. + +A few moments later she strolled nonchalantly into the grandstand and sat +down among the Winnebagos. "That certainly is a strenuous game for a +person with a dellyket constitooshun like mine," she remarked ruefully, +rubbing her swollen knuckles. Three fingers were sprained as a result of +doing all the volleying for twelve girls, but she didn't think it worth +while to mention the matter. + +Thus passed the days, filled to overflowing with fun and excitement. +Katherine, thoroughly uncomfortable in a crisp new white dress and blue +sash, tripped blithely along the elm-shaded avenue in the glow of the +late June sunset. It was the night of the class banquet, and her mind was +intent on the speech she was to make. Thus absorbed, she did not watch +where she was going, and a sprawling root from a big tree tripped her +unexpectedly and brought her to her knees on the soft lawn. Brought into +such close contact with the ground, she spied something lying at the foot +of the giant oak beside which she had fallen. It was a black leather bill +fold, with a heavy elastic band around it. + +"Daggers and dirks!" said Katherine, borrowing the Captain's favorite +expression. "What's this?" She slipped off the elastic band and opened +the bill fold. Across the inner flap there was a name printed in gold +letters. Katherine squinted at the name and explored the inner recesses +of the wallet. She took one look and hastily bound the wallet together +again with its elastic and dropped it gingerly into her hand bag, as if +it were red hot. Then she proceeded on her way, more absorbed than ever, +but the thing her brain was intent on now was not her banquet speech. + +Crossing the little park-like square, which lay on the way to school, she +came upon Veronica walking slowly up and down the sidewalk, intently +searching for something on the ground. She was very pale and showed signs +of great agitation. It was the first time Katherine had met her face to +face since she had left the group. + +"Have you lost something?" asked Katherine abruptly. + +"No," said Veronica, straightening up and flushing deeply, "that is, +nothing much, I--I just dropped a--something out of my purse along here +somewhere." + +"What was it?" asked Katherine. + +Veronica gave a last frantic look along the walk. + +"It was a--" She hesitated, and then burst out: + +"Oh, Katherine, it was my bill fold, and it had five hundred dollars in +it!" + +"Five hundred dollars!" echoed Katherine faintly. + +Veronica ran back and forth along the walk, looking desperately into +every crack and crevice. Every few minutes she held up her hand and +looked at her wrist watch; then she would return to the search with more +energy than before. Katherine also looked at her watch. + +"I'll help you hunt," she said, taking the other side of the walk. "Are +you sure you lost it along here?" she asked. + +"Pretty sure," answered Veronica. "I know I had it when I was back on Elm +Street, because I looked to make sure." + +"The last time you saw it was back on Elm Street," mused Katherine. +"That's two blocks behind us. We'll have to go all the way back." + +"By the way," said Katherine, a few minutes later, "it's none of my +business, I suppose, but what on earth were you doing with five hundred +dollars in your bag?" + +Veronica started and looked confused for a minute. But she answered +naturally enough. "I drew it from the bank this afternoon to give my +uncle to pay for some investment he is making for me, and I was to take +it over to his studio, but I was detained and he had gone when I got +there, so I was just bringing it home when I lost it." She stared up the +road with widening eyes, not toward Elm Street, where the purse might +lie, but toward the big avenue in the other direction, where the +streetcars clanged townward. Katherine stared thoughtfully at the +suitcase Veronica had with her. + +"Have you been away?" she asked casually. + +"No," said Veronica, with a start. Then, as her eyes followed +Katherine's, she added: "I've just been carrying some--things in there." + +Katherine looked at her watch again. "What did your bill fold look like?" +she asked. + +"It was a small black one," answered Veronica, "with an elastic band +around it. It had my name in gold letters across the inner flap." + +"Hadn't we better go home and tell your uncle," suggested Katherine, "and +get him to help us find it?" + +"No, no!" cried Veronica, shrinking back in alarm. "Don't tell him! I +wouldn't have him know for worlds that I've lost it." + +"But if you don't find it he'll know about it, anyway," said Katherine +practically. + +Veronica's face went white again and she returned to the search with +desperate haste. "I must find it! I must find it!" she was saying over +and over again under her breath. + +Katherine was just as diligent in her search. She pawed through the +bushes with her white gloves and sank on her knees in the soft grass, +accumulating more and more grass stains all the while. The last streak of +daylight faded and the big arc lights began to blaze among the tall +trees, and still they searched--Katherine in a patient, systematic way, +Veronica hysterically. The few people who crossed the square were closely +questioned as to whether or not they had found anything, but the same +disappointing answer came from all of them. Veronica looked at her watch +with ever-increasing anxiety; Katherine looked at her furtively almost as +often. + +After two hours of nerve-wracking search a steeple clock nearby boomed +out nine strokes; slowly, deliberately, its clamor shattered the summer +night's stillness. Veronica sank down on a stone which bordered the walk +and covered her face with her hands. Katherine straightened up and stood +for a moment looking thoughtfully at Veronica; then she went on searching +methodically. Veronica sat huddled on the stone for fully five minutes; +then, with an expression which was strangely like relief, she rose up and +followed Katherine's example. Fifteen minutes more went by with scarcely +a word from either girl. Then the steeple clock chimed the quarter hour. +A moment later came the sound of a train whistle, far off, but borne +clearly on the still air, followed by the faint rumble of distant cars +going over a culvert. + +Katherine stood still until the sound had died away, then she went up to +Veronica, led her to an iron bench nearby, and shoved her into it. Then +she opened her handbag and took out a small black wallet fastened round +with an elastic band, and laid it on Veronica's knee without a word. + +Veronica looked at it and uttered an incredulous scream of joy. "Where +did you find it?" she gasped. + +"Back on Elm Street, before I met you," said Katherine quietly. + +"Back on Elm Street, before you met me?" repeated Veronica wonderingly. +"You had it all this while?" Katherine nodded. "Then why did you keep it +all this while?" demanded Veronica. "Why didn't you give it to me at once +and save all this agony?" + +Katherine looked at her narrowly. "I didn't dare give it to you _before +nine o'clock_," she said significantly. + +Veronica started and clutched Katherine's arm nervously. "What do you +mean?" she asked faintly. + +Katherine put her arm around Veronica and drew her toward her so she +could look into her face. The light from the swinging arc was directly +upon her. "You were going to run away on that nine o'clock train, weren't +you?" she asked quietly. + +Veronica jerked away and turned dreadfully pale. "How--how did you know?" +she faltered. + +"I didn't, for sure," said Katherine. "But I made a pretty good guess. +You see, when I found that wallet, I naturally looked inside. There I saw +your name, five hundred dollars in bills, and a note which read: + +"'Take the New York Central Flyer at nine o'clock Wednesday night.' It +was signed with the initials A. T., which I suppose stand for that friend +of yours with the plush whiskers, Alex Toboggan." + +"Alex Tobin," corrected Veronica under her breath. + +"That looked suspicious to me," continued Katherine. "I've seen him +around with you a good deal, and I don't like his looks, not a little +bit. Then a minute later I came upon you with a suitcase, hunting your +wallet and looking at your watch as if you were crazy. So I came to the +conclusion that you were planning to run away on that nine o'clock train, +and decided to hold you up by keeping the money until the train was gone. +Am I right?" + +Veronica's eyes dropped and her face was crimson. "You are right," she +said unsteadily. "I was planning to run away on that train. After I +dropped out of the Camp Fire Group I had no girl friends and became +lonelier and lonelier all the while. The only interest I had was my +music, and the only place to which I went was to hear the Symphony +Orchestra rehearse. There, Alex Tobin, who is really a fine violinist, +was always very friendly to me and kept telling me I should go to New +York and study with Martini, who is the best teacher in the country. +Uncle would not let me go because he said I was too young and he could +not go with me. But Alex Tobin kept telling me that uncle was jealous of +my talent and was trying to keep me back on purpose, and if I had any +money in my own right I should take it and go anyhow. Uncle quarreled +with Alex Tobin and after that he forbade me to have anything to do with +him, but he used to meet me outside, and always he talked about my +talent, and what a shame it was I could not study with Martini, and +things like that, until I began to think I was abused. I was very lonely, +you know, and had nothing else to think about. + +"Well, this week was the end of the Symphony Orchestra rehearsals, and +Alex Tobin was going home to New York. He promised me that if I would +play in a restaurant there in which he is interested he would see me +safely there and introduce me to Martini. He talked so much about it that +I finally yielded and said I would go. I had money in the bank, but could +not draw it out without uncle's consent. However, just this week he +wanted to invest five hundred dollars for me and gave me his signature so +I could get it. You know how easy uncle is about money matters, and he +thought it was perfectly all right to send me to the bank alone. I have +gone about by myself so much, you know. But instead of going to his +studio with it, as I was supposed to, I kept it with me and did not go +home at all. + +"I was to meet Mr. Tobin in the station at a quarter before nine. If I +was not there when the train went he was going without me. I was so +excited all day I did not have time to stop and think what I was doing, +and how terrible it was to run away from uncle and aunt, when they had +been so kind to me, even to study with Martini. I looked upon Alex Tobin +as my friend and benefactor, instead of a horrid, scheming man, as I see +he is now. He just wanted me to play in that restaurant of his for +nothing, and draw crowds, and beyond that he really didn't care what +became of me. + +"When I lost the money I was nearly frantic, because I was afraid I would +miss the train. But when the clock struck nine and I knew the train was +gone, I suddenly felt glad, glad, although I had been so anxious to go. +For I had come to myself and felt sick at the thought of what I had +almost done. Oh, Katherine, how can I ever thank you for keeping me from +doing it?" + +"Don't try," said Katherine cheerfully, rubbing away at a grass stain on +her skirt with the wreck of a white silk glove. + +For the first time Veronica noticed Katherine's white dress. "Oh, +Katherine," she exclaimed in distress, "tonight is your class banquet! I +heard some of the other girls talking about it. And you have missed it +for my sake!" + +"Why, so it is," said Katherine, with a well-feigned start of +recollection. "I had forgotten all about it." + +"No, you didn't forget it," persisted Veronica; "you deliberately spent +the time here with me." + +"Well, never mind about that," said Katherine soothingly. "It was worth +it." + +"Worth it? Oh, Katherine, after the way I have treated you! I once called +you a peasant, but you are noble--you are a princess! It is I who am not +fit to associate with you!" + +"O Glory!" exclaimed Katherine in an embarrassed way. Katherine was like +a fish out of water when anyone began to express emotion. "Forget about +the whole business," she said, "and come back into the group. You need to +have something on your mind." + +"They will never take me back now," said Veronica sadly, "after this +dreadful thing I did." + +"But you didn't do it," maintained Katherine, "you came to your senses in +time. We all have done some pretty foolish things, I guess, if they +weren't quite so startling as the one you planned. But anyway, they'll +never know a thing about it, so they can't have the laugh on you." + +"You mean you'll never tell anyone?" cried Veronica unbelievingly. + +"Not a soul," said Katherine earnestly. "Not any of the Winnebagos, nor +your uncle, nor your aunt, nor even Nyoda. Never a word, on my honor as +a--a peasant! If I had intended telling anyone I'd have taken your wallet +to your uncle right away, with the note in it, instead of keeping you +back in the way I did. But I knew you'd come to yourself presently, and +there was no use making a fuss. I'll keep your secret, never fear. I +won't even have to explain my absence from the class banquet. They all +know how absent-minded I am, and they will simply think I forgot. That's +the advantage of having a reputation!" And Veronica, looking into +Katherine's homely, honest face, knew that her word would stand against +flood and earthquake. + +"Do you really think the Winnebagos will take me back?" she asked +timidly. + +For answer Katherine picked up Veronica's suitcase, linked her arm +through hers, and started homeward at a lively pace. "You _are_ back," +she said simply. "You never were really 'put out,' you know. You left of +your own accord and we have missed you very much and were just waiting +for you to say the word. Oh, I'm so glad!" And her feet began to shuffle +back and forth in a lively manner, and she began to hum in sprightly +tones the tune, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Thus it was that the +Torch, carried by Katherine, drew Veronica to the Fire after all, +although Katherine did not even know that she held the Torch in her hand. + + +The last meeting of the Winnebagos with Nyoda came, oh, much too soon! +The boys were warned to stay away, for not even these dear friends were +to be allowed to disturb the sacredness of that gathering. They cooked +supper for the last time, trying to be riotously cheerful, with the tears +dripping off the ends of their noses into the dishes. All the favorite +Winnebago messes were cooked, because Nyoda couldn't decide which one she +wanted most. There was Shrimp Wiggle and Slumgullion and scones and ice +cream with Wohelo Special Sauce, which was a heavenly mixture of maple +syrup, chocolate and chopped nuts. + +The feast was soon spread, and they gathered around the table to sing the +Camp Fire blessing, + + "If we have earned the right to eat this bread," + +and most of the voices quavered before they came to the end. + +That supper remained in their memories many years afterward. Katherine +had to deliver all her familiar speeches over and over again; Migwan, who +had come home from college in time to attend the farewell meeting, gave a +fine history of the group from its beginning; Gladys danced her best +dances; and all the favorite stunts were gone through and the favorite +songs sung. And Nyoda looked upon and listened to it all with a smiling +face and tear-dimmed eyes. The Winnebagos had formed a large part of her +life for the past three years. Veronica, who was at the supper, and had +been welcomed back into the group with open arms upon her humble apology, +wept disconsolately most of the time. To have been restored to the good +graces of this wonderful young woman, only to lose her again immediately +afterward! She bitterly regretted her withdrawing from the group during +the winter and thus losing her last opportunity of comradeship with +Nyoda. + +Supper over they wandered out into the warm June twilight to watch for +the evening stars before beginning the ceremonial meeting. "We'll have +the same stars as you do, anyhow," said Hinpoha, "and when they come out +we'll think of each other, will you, Nyoda?" + +"Indeed I will," said Nyoda, heartily. + +"And when Cassiopea comes out the W will stand for Winnebago," added +Gladys. + +"And that long scraggly constellation will remind you of me," said +Katherine, and they all had to laugh in spite of their sadness. + +By and by they wandered back to the House of the Open Door and Nyoda went +up alone and left them standing before the door. Then pretty soon the +signal bird calls floated up and Nyoda's voice called down from above, +saying, "Who's there?" and they answered with the foolish passwords and +countersigns that they loved because they were so foolish. One by one +they climbed the ladder and took their places in the circle, their eyes +on Nyoda, as she twirled the drill with the bow, kindling their last +Council Fire. The spark came immediately and leapt into flame and kindled +the fagots piled on the hearth. Feeling the spell of it as they never had +before, they sang "Burn, Fire, Burn." + +Then came the last roll call. Nyoda's voice lingered lovingly on each +name: "Hinpoha; Sahwah; Geyahi (Gladys); Iagoonah; Medmangi; Nakwisi; +Waban (Veronica)." + +Migwan read the Count, written in her inimitable lilting metre, which +touched on the many happy times they had had together, and ended, + + "All too brief that Moon of Gladness, + Long shall be the years of parting!" + +Then Hinpoha put her head on her knee with a stifled sob, and at that +they all broke down and cried together, with their arms around Nyoda. + +"Come girls, be good," said Nyoda, after a minute, sitting up and wiping +her eyes. "Stand up and take your honors like men!" + +And she proceeded to raise all the girls who had not already taken that +honor, to the rank of Torchbearer, excepting, of course, Veronica. As she +awarded the pins she spoke a few words to each girl, telling in what way +she had become worthy of this highest rank. When she came to Katherine, +she laid her hand on her shoulder. "Good wine needs no bush," she said +with a whimsical smile. "And Katherine needs no advocate. Her actions +speak for themselves. Her masterly handling of that volley ball game the +other day gives the keynote to her character. The ability to snatch +victory from seeming defeat is a gift which will carry one far in the +world. And do not forget that Katherine went into that game as a humble +filler-in, simply to oblige the team, and without a thought of gaining +any glory thereby. That is what I meant by losing one's self in the +common cause which is a necessary qualification for a Torchbearer. +Katherine would go to any trouble to help somebody else get glory for +themselves, or to help them out of trouble." And Veronica almost burst +with the desire to tell of the last great service Katherine had done her. + +Katherine blushed at Nyoda's words and winked back the tears and dropped +the pin, and murmured brokenly that she would try to be a worthy +Torchbearer, and would do her best to stop being so absent-minded. And +then all the Torchbearers, new and old, joined hands in a circle and +repeated their desire: + + "The light that has been given to me + I desire to pass undimmed unto others." + +"And now a word about the future," said Nyoda, putting wood on the fire +and sending the flames roaring up the chimney. "You girls declare you do +not want another Guardian. I heartily agree with you in this. That does +not mean that I would be jealous of a possible successor. But I think the +time has come when you no longer need a Guardian. For three years you +have been bound together by ties stronger than sisterhood, and have had +all the fun that it is possible for girls to have, working always as a +unit. You have stood in a close circle, always facing inward. Now you +must turn around and face outward. You have been leaders from the +beginning, and I have trained you as leaders. And a leader must stand +alone. Each one of you will have a different way of passing on the light. +The time has come to begin. The old order has passed when you did every +thing under my direction. You must kindle new Camp Fires now and teach to +others the things you have learned." + +"Oh, Nyoda," cried Gladys sorrowfully, "do you mean that all our good +times together are over? That this is the end of it all?" + +"No, dear, this is not the end," said Nyoda cheerfully, "this is the +'beginning of it all.' I do not mean for a moment that you girls are not +to meet and frolic together any more; but that must not be the main +thing. You must begin leading groups of younger girls and teaching them +to have a good time as you have learned to. What wonderful Guardians you +will make in time!" she said musingly. + +"Besides," she added, after a moment's silence, while the girls +thoughtfully pondered the new idea she had given them, "you had come to +the parting of the ways, although you didn't seem to realize it. You have +graduated from school, and next year Hinpoha and Gladys and Katherine are +going away to college, each one to a different city, and Nakwisi is to +travel with her aunt, and Veronica will be going to New York to study +music sooner or later. That leaves only Sahwah and Medmangi here in the +city. You couldn't go on as you have in the past, even if I were not +going away. But come," she cried in an animated tone, "enough of solemn +talk! We've had three years together, and nobody can take them away from +us, never. And we're all together now. Let the future take care of +itself; this is today! Come, come, a song!" + +And once more the rafters rang: + + "O we are Winnebagos and we're loyal friends and true, + We always work in harmony in everything we do, + We always think the weather's fine, in sunshine or in snow, + We're happy all the time because we're maids of Wohelo!" + +The echoes died away and then sprang into life again. + + "For we are Winnebagos, + For we are Winnebagos, + For we are Winnebagos, + And that's why we're so spry!" + +"A toast!" cried Nyoda, "a toast to the future!" And they drank it in the +remains of the cocoa. Their eyes met as they clinked the cups, and +overflowed. "Oh, my girls," cried Nyoda, trying to get her arms around +all of them at once, "there never _was_ such a group! And there never +_will_ be such a group! I just can't leave you!" Then she pulled herself +up again. The time was passing and she must hasten, for she was leaving +on the train late that night. Her marriage was to take place in the East. +"Come, girls, 'Mystic Fire.'" And once again their voices rose in musical +chant: + + "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's flame will show + Us the way to go." + +And so on to the end. + +But when they stood in the close circle with which the song ends, Nyoda +stooped to the hearth, and, plucking forth a burning brand, held it aloft +as a torch, and the girls passed in front of her, each carrying a tiny +torch in her hand, which she lit from the big one. Then the circle stood +complete once more, a ring of shining light. Silence fell on all. The +moment of parting had come. + +"Don't say good-bye," begged Nyoda. "Act as if I were a guest just +leaving for a short time." + +And bravely, with voices that did not falter to the end, they sang the +familiar guest song: + + "Our guest, may she come again soon----" + +and followed it with a fervent cheer: + + "O Nyoda, here's to you, + Our hearts will e'er be true, + We will never find your equal + Though we search the whole world through!" + +Then the circle turned resolutely and faced outward. A moment more they +lingered, and then they went forth into the night, carrying their torches +with them. + + + THE END + + + + + Transcriber's Notes + + +--Silently corrected palpable typos in spelling and punctuation + +--Adjusted front matter to give a complete list of the series + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls' Larks and Pranks, by +Hildegard G. 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