The Woodcraft Girls at Camp

"We won't need many to-day for the cupboard, and we need not worry about the future," replied she, smiling.

"Then why not leave them down here?" asked Zan.

"I am not so comfortable down in this dark place with no air, that I would want to call often. We are here now, so the extra lumber can be taken to the upper air when the girls get here."

In a short time, Zan heard the girls' voices and she ran to the side garden to show them the way to the cellar from the back area. A trap-door folded down over the area steps when the entrance was not in use, and opened outward and fastened by means of hooks and screw-eyes to the arbour built over it.

Miss Miller was waiting for the girls and, after they came carefully down the steep stone steps, said, "Here are some boards that Zan and I want piled on the back porch. The ones for our cupboard we will leave to the last."

"I'll tell you what! Shall we tie the cupboard boards in a bundle and drag them across the grass to the Bluff?" cried Zan, as the idea flashed into her thought.

"Ha! Learning to use your thinking-machine, eh?" laughed the Guide. "But think again, unless you are pining to haul burdens."

"Let's get out of this vault with the boards and talk of machines upstairs!" said Hilda, stooping to take a long board.

Elena was close behind her and she also picked up a plank. A pile of kindling wood lay in Hilda's path and she found Nita and Jane in her way if she turned aside, so she endeavoured to climb over the wood. This would have been all right if the ceiling of the cellar had not been so low; as it was, the end of the board that tipped way up in front and down in the back, struck overhead, and threw Hilda backward. The board fell on the kindlings while Hilda stumbled over Elena, who was intent upon getting her plank to the cellar-door. Hilda's sudden impact made Elena drop her burden. Jane dodged the plank but Nita had no time, so the end of the board came down on her toe.

"Wouw! wough! Oo-hoo!" yelled Nita, dancing on one foot while she held the other foot in both hands.

Elena had bumped her head on some short boards Zan was about to carry out, and the expressions on both Elena's and Nita's faces were so funny that the others had to laugh although they immediately apologised for the lack of self-control.

"Well, I just guess you wouldn't see anything funny in your feet!" whined Nita, still holding her toe.

"We were not laughing at your funny feet, but at your ridiculous face!" retorted Jane.

"Perhaps we will all use more caution in our next attempt to get out of this," ventured Miss Miller, skirting about the girls and reaching the area steps with her lumber.

As no further sympathy was vouchsafed the two girls, they soon followed their companions up from the cellar. After all the extra lumber was piled up on the back porch, Miss Miller invited the labourers to rest under the front oak tree.

"As Zan was saying in the cellar, the next thing is to get our boards over to the Bluff," said Miss Miller, when the cool breeze had refreshed the girls.

"Zan said to tie them up and drag them over! Is there any difference between boards and bundles being carted by Nancy?" asked Hilda.

"Of course not! I forgot!" admitted Zan.

Miss Miller laughed at the relief shown in the faces around her. Also, at the progress the girls were making in the use of their thoughts.

"Dear, dear! That means some one will have to get Nancy!" continued Zan, after a minute's pause.

"But your private wire from the house to the cottage is not out of commission, is it?" asked the Guide.

"No-oo! but how will Nancy get here unless Bill leads her?" wondered Zan.

"Bill has to visit the garden and out-houses every morning, he said yesterday, to see if there is anything wrong. Why not ascertain on the 'phone if he has left his home. If not, he can ride Nancy over and we can use her going back; at the Bluff we can let her go down to her stall alone."

Before any comments could be given, Zan had jumped up and was running toward the house to call up Bill.

While waiting for the farmer to bring Nancy, the Band members went to the tool-house and selected what material might be needed at camp. In one corner of the place stood a partly demolished express wagon, such as children play with. Miss Miller saw it in a glance. It also happened that Zan saw it.

"Say, Miss Miller, won't the dragging boards cut up all the grass? Besides, Nancy can't climb over stone walls and snake fences!" declared she.

"What would you advise?" came from Miss Miller.

"Take the wheels of that broken wagon and tie two under the front of the lumber and two under the back end. Then, Nancy can go around by the road and up to Sherwood's cottage, where we can let her drag it up the slope."

"Splendid! Zan, you may consider yourself promoted into the class of advanced thinkers!" commended the Guide.

Zan smiled with pleasure and Hilda remarked in a teasing voice, "Hump! just see Zan preen her feathers!"

The wagon was quickly taken apart and pieces of wire found in the closet which was a catch-all. By the time Bill came up the road with Nancy, the impromptu vehicle was ready to hitch to the horse.

Bill chuckled at sight of the dray, and tipped his old farm hat on one side of his head. "That there's anuther patent o' th' teacher's, hain't ut?" chuckled he.

"Nop! This time you've got to hand me the bouquet!" smiled Zan, proudly.

"Wall, yuh gals'll all be comin' along fine, pritty soon, with such a smart lady as Miss Miller," commented Bill.

He watched the party drive Nancy down the road with the funny wheeled apparatus rattling after, and then went on to inspect the gardens and out-houses.

It was the first time that the members of the Band had walked along the road that ran through a section of the farm. When they neared Sherwood's place, a small section of woodland lay before them. The shade was dense and the ground damp as the location was rather low at the foot of the slope. Fern grew to a great height and wild flowers of every kind blossomed profusely.

"Almost feels like the forests in Florida," said Jane, who had visited the southern part of Florida with her mother.

"Have you ever named these woods?" Elena asked Zan.

"No, we never come this way, much," replied Zan.

"Then let's call it 'Everglades' – it's a lovely glade and the dampness and luxuriant vegetation will bear us out in the name," suggested Elena.

"Now, perhaps, as we have had lots of rain this season; but you'd find it a far different glade during July and August of a dry season," replied Zan.

When the travellers reached the bridge that spanned the creek, and looked up at the Bluff from a new point of view, they were surprised to see how high their camp seemed to be above the road.

"I didn't know the camp was visible from the road," said Nita.

"I had never noticed the road from the Bluff, did you, Miss Miller?" asked Hilda.

"No, I hadn't thought of looking for it, yet I knew it must be in plain sight, as it runs by Bill's cottage and that is in full view from our tents."

"Let's sit down on the bridge and rest a bit before taking that climb," suggested Nita.

"I never did see any one get as tired as you do, Nita. When it is anything that you don't particularly fancy, you are the most tiredest person!" said Zan, impatiently.

"Well, come to think of it, I don't see why it was necessary for me to help when there are so many other useless hands here – Nancy is doing all the work!" retorted Nita.

"You'd better get rid of all the ire you have stored up, Nita, for we are going to pay fines for every mistake – I said mistake for politeness' sake – after our next council!" warned Zan.

Nita laughed musically, but Zan knew that laugh and was aware that Nita was in one of her most stubborn moods.

She sat down on the heavy cross-bar of the bridge to rest but the other girls had no desire to wait, and Nancy kept on going until the foot of the slope was reached. Here, the wheels were removed and the load of wood was dragged up by the ropes.

With the lumber deposited on the Bluff, Nancy was given a piece of sugar and discharged from duty. The old horse stood watching the girls for a short time until Zan spied her standing in the foot-path that led down to the cottage.

"Just look at that horse? Did you ever see a more intelligent look in a dumb animal's eyes? She seems to say, 'What under the sun did you want those old boards for – I'm going to wait and see!'"

The others turned and laughed at Nancy's look. At that the old horse turned and went down the hill.

"There, now she's insulted at our laughter!" said Miss Miller.

The girls undid the rope that held the wood together, while the Guide went to her tent and gathered her books and papers. Coming back to the group she said, "We will hold a council before further work or play is proposed."

"But Nita isn't here – she stopped on the bridge," said Jane.

"I'm afraid Nita will be tardy then, or perhaps miss the meeting altogether!" replied the Guide, positively.

The girls were beginning to understand their teacher better than they had ever thought of comprehending any one; not from her words, for she did not need to say much when her face and voice expressed so much. Thus, they knew that the council called was because of Nita's delinquency.

"Zan, as Big Chief, you will call the roll," said Miss Miller.

This was done and Elena was called upon to read the entries in the Tally Book.

"Now, girls, we must recognize our obligation to each other and not feel as if this camp was started for pure pleasure and indolence. We must feel that a certain amount of fun combines with study or work to make the time well spent. I detest this constant nagging or advising, and regret that it seems necessary to talk so much about duty. I wish to call your attention to a page in the Manual of Woodcraft that I had no idea would ever be needed for us, under the sub-title of Law and Punishments."

The girls looked at each other in dismay. To think that one of their small number should make it necessary to take up the question of punishment!

Miss Miller read: "Punishments are meted out by the Chief and Council, after a hearing of the case. They consist of: Exclusion from the games or boats for a time. Reduction in rank, or of fines, etc. The extreme penalty is 'death'; that is, banishment from the Tribe. Elena, enter these items in the Tally Book."

Silence reigned when Miss Miller finished speaking.

"It is high time our Council took note of the stubborn conduct of one of its members. Last night we were submitted to certain unpleasantness but later the cause of it appeared contrite. Twice to-day the appearance of undesirable qualities has turned our thoughts from duty and pleasure. Now, the Chief is empowered to write down a copy of these fines and place them in Little Chief's possession. Fine will be omitted for any cause occurring before she reads of the Council's decision. After that, penalty will be served on any one committing a fault or omitting a given duty."

Miss Miller was the stern teacher of the school-class as she spoke and the girls felt the same awe with which she inspired them at school.

Nita could not be seen on the bridge or along the road, so Zan placed the paper in their tent on Nita's pillow.

"The Council is adjourned," said the Guide, and they got up with pleasure.

"Now for the cupboard!" cried Miss Miller.

The boards were measured off the same length, and some of the girls began sawing them along the pencil-lines. When the boards had been approved, the two sides were nailed to a bottom section. Then, a top was fastened to the sides. The girls were beginning to thoroughly enjoy the construction work and every one was eager to nail the back on the frame just made. It therefore became necessary for the four to take turns in placing a narrow board at the back. As four boards covered it exactly, one girl after the other took her board and attached it. But Jane had the last board and found it much easier to nail down than the first girl did.

While the back was being fastened firmly, Miss Miller whittled and cut six strips of moulding. These she divided, one for each girl and two for herself. The first two she nailed inside the cupboard on marks made on the side lengths of the boards. The girls saw at once that these strips were rests for the shelves.

Three girls nailed their strips on very nicely, but Zan, impatient to get through with hers, drove the last nail in so that it bent double and forced the strip down from the pencil-line.

"Oh, bother! Will that do, or must I pull the nail out?" asked she, looking up at Jane, who was watching the work.

"Guess Miss Miller wouldn't give a reward for that!" said Jane, meaningly.

"Well, out she comes!" and Zan took the hammer and turned it about to use the forked end on the nail. The head of the wire nail was not broad and the hammer stripped it, leaving the remains of the wire still sticking in the wood.

"Did you ever! I s'pose the old thing will come off altogether, next!" grumbled Zan.

She tried the hammer in every conceivable position but the nail seemed to be stuck for good. "I'll get you this time!" added Zan, placing the hammer under the strip and bending back the handle of the tool until suddenly the strip cracked and half of it came out with the hammer while the carpenter rolled backward.

Miss Miller and the girls came over to see the cause of the commotion and the Guide soon found that impatience and carelessness had made extra work for Zan and delayed the work.

Zan fully appreciated the cause of the accident and felt repentant the moment she saw the damaged strip.

"Miss Miller, my besetting sin did that! Please let me whittle a new strip while the girls and you continue making the doors. I was just crazy to work on those doors and screw on the hinges, but I'll do the other work as a punishment for impatience?"

Miss Miller heartily approved this attitude and smiled.

"Oh, you needn't show how glad you are that I realise my fault – I find it much pleasanter to obey my own dictated punishment than if you had to suggest it!" added Zan, frankly.

The Guide and Zan's companions laughed, for it was a candid statement of truth. Who wouldn't prefer to endure their own suggested punishments than follow some one else's?

"In case your punishment is not sufficient to humble yourself and cure the fault, let us prescribe again," said Miss Miller.

"Foregoing the delight of screwing on those hinges is almost more than I can stand," said Zan, expressing deepest regret in her voice.

The others laughed again and began work on the anticipated treat.

Zan finally whittled a strip similar to the Guide's and this time it was nailed on accurately. The hinges were on the two plain boards that would act as doors of the cupboard and Miss Miller held one in place while the girls screwed them to the side boards. When both doors were on, the finishing touch was the screwing on of a bolt.

Elena whispered something to Miss Miller and the Guide smiled at Zan, who had stood watching the completion of the closet. "We think that your punishment was more severe than the crime, so it is suggested that you be allowed to put in the last screw. Here is the bolt."

"Wh-eee!" squealed Zan, as she jumped to take the screw-driver from Jane and sat down in front of the door and began to fasten the bolt to the door. The others stood close behind and watched, thereby failing to see Nita creep up through the woods and go in her tent.

"Done, giminy crickets! Isn't it a peach!" cried Elena, her hands clasped in admiration.

"Did that rule become effective – about slang?" asked Zan, comically.

"That was an important matter the Council failed to discuss this morning," admitted the Guide.

"Well, don't inflict punishment to-day – the cupboard is too much for my balance!" begged Elena.

"Then one day's grace is allowed the three members who are so given to crime. Hereafter, the fulness of the law will be meted out!" returned Miss Miller.

"The Chief will have to punish herself some more," laughed Hilda.

While some of the girls shifted the cupboard up to the spot near the fire-place where it would be most convenient, Miss Miller walked over to the tents to replace the papers and book of the Band. She thought she saw something move in Zan's tent, and going over found Nita on the cot, pretending sleep.

When the Guide rejoined the girls she said nothing about finding Nita in the tent. The girls, however, were too busy to notice anything in the Guide's expression and the moment she was within hearing, Zan cried, "Ants! Miss Miller, what shall we do to keep out bugs?"

"And supposin' it rains hard! Won't the water leak in?" wondered Jane, examining the wide chinks.

"I'm afraid it will," laughed the Guide.

The girls stared at her and Hilda asked, "What was the use wasting time on something that leaks?"

"But you've learned the use of tools and constructed a useful article as well. The cupboard will prove most useful as you will find," replied Miss Miller.

"There then, Elena, you've got a swell entry for the Tally Book!" announced Zan.

"And Zan is making most of her day of grace!" laughed Miss Miller, looking at her watch.

"How long did it take us, Guide?" asked Hilda.

"What time do you think it is?" asked Miss Miller.

"Must be 'most eleven," ventured Jane.

"Oh, no, it isn't more than ten," added Elena.

"It is ten minutes to one!" announced the Guide.

The girls were amazed. "Where did the morning go?" Zan wondered.

"So, you see, we must prepare lunch. And I was so eager to take you over to the garden and look over the vegetables to select some for our meals," said Miss Miller, with regret.

"And Nita's not back yet! I forgot all about her in the fun over the cupboard," said Zan, looking toward the bridge.

"Nita is in her tent. She was there when I returned to my tent with the papers," said Miss Miller, quietly.

CHAPTER EIGHT

WHAT HAPPENED DURING A THUNDER STORM

No further remarks were made to Nita, but every one wondered if she realised the importance of the written law which had been pinned to her pillow where she must have seen it.

For the next hour the Band was very busy preparing dinner and then removing its traces. Nita did not join them and no one felt inclined to go and coax her out of her sulks.

The food was placed in the cupboard and Miss Miller made two propositions: A walk to Baldy Pate on a Nature Quest, or a swimming lesson. As both could be enjoyed, it remained for the girls to say which should be first.

Zan explained. "If we go on a hike we'll be warm on our return and a swim will feel good and cool us off."

The others agreed, so Hilda was sent for the whittling knife and Zan for the hatchet. Miss Miller went to her tent and took a small bottle of chloroform and several layers of absorbent cotton, besides a few specimen boxes and a butter-fly net. Jane had a note-book in case they wished to enter any items. Nita had not appeared, so the Band started without paying any attention to her, knowing it to be the kindest procedure in the end.

They had not gone a hundred yards when Miss Miller suggested that each one go a different direction through the woods and meet on the top of Baldy to rest and relate experiences.

The idea met with approval and each one started alone to find a new and adventurous way leading to the mountaintop.

While the members of the Band were blazing unique trails leading to the top of Baldy Pate, Nita crept from her tent and read the note which had been pinned to her pillow. She threw it down on the ground and stamped upon it with her heel, simply because there was no other way to vent her spite on the innocent paper. Looking about for something to do, she spied the cupboard. With a shrug of her shoulders, she ran over and flung open the door. She was famished for food, so she took all she wanted to eat and threw the rest out in the pool where the current soon carried the bread and lighter edibles away, but the heavy particles sunk to the bottom. Finding nothing she could do to cause discomfort to the other girls, she decided to take a walk along the road she had seen when she rested on the bridge. The sun was blazing down, so Nita took a sun-shade she found in Miss Miller's tent and started on her lonesome adventure. But she felt sure there must be some other estates near the Baker Farm, and perhaps she might meet some young folks – who knows!

Miss Miller, being an adept in the woods, reached the top of Old Baldy some time before the girls did. As she sat on the high brow of Baldy admiring the wide view down the valley, she followed with her eyes the ribbon of silvery water that wound from the Big Bridge, through the woods, coming out in a great green meadow where many horses grazed. A yellow roadway ran parallel to the stream where it issued from cover of the woods, and Miss Miller saw a tiny form – or it seemed tiny from that distance – carrying a purple parasol, and beside her stood an English dog-cart with a young man in it. Miss Miller wondered where she had seen a purple sun-shade something like that one! She had not noticed particularly the one Zan took from the house in case it would be needed some time for Miss Miller's comfort.

The Guide then looked about her and found the mountaintop covered with low bushes of berries. "Blue berries – so early!" exclaimed she, and began picking them while waiting for her charges' arrival.

One after another the girls came up their particular trail, with stories of what they had seen on the way. While waiting for Elena to appear, they lay in the short grass on the summit. Miss Miller had filled her butterfly box with berries and now sat down.

"The clouds over the valley seem to threaten a storm," said she, turning about to examine the sky overhead and behind her.

"I thought I heard a faint rumble a moment ago," added Hilda.

"Oh, no, you didn't," replied Zan. "That was a farm-wagon rumbling over the Big Bridge."

"Where is the Big Bridge, Zan? We haven't seen it yet, have we?" asked Jane. Thus the subject was turned from any reminder of the storm.

"No, it is down at the end of our property just where it connects with Hamilton's place. The river is quite wide there, as several small streams flow into it after it leaves Bill's place."

"Girls, if we had a few more berries, I could make a berry pudding," said Miss Miller.

"Then we'll pick some more," returned Elena, rolling over to rise to her feet.

As she did so she came directly under a berry bush and took hold of it to assist herself in rising. A piercing scream frightened her companions speechless.

"Augh! A snake! I grabbed hold of a nasty old snake!" she yelled, shaking herself and trying to wipe the contaminated hand on the grass in a mad frenzy.

The others ran over to see the snake and Zan said, "He didn't bite, did he?"

"Mercy no! Wasn't it bad enough to feel his body wriggle!" sputtered Elena, nauseated at the remembrance of the touch.

"Don't think of it again! Quick, Elena, change your thought and think of something else!" came from Miss Miller, as she shook Elena suddenly, to make her take notice.

"Eh – what!" said Elena, wondering at the Guide's queer action, but at the same time forgetting to be ill.

"Show me where it went! Hurry – quick! I want to catch it for observation!" Miss Miller said, excitedly.

"That way – under the laurel! But mercy sakes, Miss Miller! Don't go near the horrid thing!" cried Elena, now forgetting her nausea in her anxiety to keep the Guide from the snake.

Miss Miller ran over to the bush followed closely by Elena and the other girls. No sign of the snake could be seen as, of course, the Guide knew it would have slipped away long before.

She turned with a sigh of disappointment to find Elena as eager to see the reptile again as the others were.

"Feeling quite right again, Elena?" asked Miss Miller, smiling at the girl.

"Wh-y, ye-es! But ugh! It was slippery!" replied Elena.

"Then you forgot to use your 'ready help'! What an opportunity for you to have won a point in advance of the others. I was the only one who took advantage of it, so I am ahead in this race," said Miss Miller.