IN THE HEART OF THE BERKSHIRES
A crimson automobile was climbing the steep inclines of the Berkshire
Hills. Now it rose to the crest of a road. Again it dipped into a valley.
It looked like a scarlet autumn leaf blown down from one of the giant
forest trees that guarded the slopes of the mountains.
Mollie Thurston stood up in the back of the motor car, waving a long
green veil.
"Isn't the scenery just too perfect for words?" she called to Ruth.
The day was wonderful; the September sun shone warm and golden through
the shadows of dancing, many-colored leaves. "The Automobile Girls" had
left summer behind them in Kingsbridge. Three days of traveling found
them in the early autumn glory of the Berkshire woods.
Ruth did not answer Mollie's question.
"My dear child, wake up!" commanded Miss Sallie, leaning over to give her
niece a gentle poke with her violet parasol. "Have you grown suddenly
deaf? Can you not hear when you are spoken to?"
Ruth glanced up from her steering wheel. "Did some one speak to me?" she
queried. "I am so sorry I did not hear. I am afraid I am both deaf and
dumb to-day. But we simply must get to our mountain by noon. Driving a
car over these mountain roads isn't the easiest task in the world."
Barbara laughed back over her shoulder at the occupants of the end seat
in the car. "Miss Sallie Stuart," she said in solemn tones, "please, let
our chauffeur alone! Suppose the dark descends upon us in the woods and
you have 'nary' a place to lay your head!"
"Then I should immediately find a hotel and ask for a room and a bath,"
protested Miss Stuart, who did not favor the idea of the log cabin in the
woods. "Remember, children, you may pretend as hard as you like that we
are a thousand miles from civilization; but, unless we are perfectly
comfortable in the woods, I shall take you to the best hotel in Lenox.
From there you may do your mountaineering in a respectable way."
"All the more need for you to hurry, Ruth," whispered Bab in her friend's
ear. "I feel sure we shall find the guides and wagons waiting for us at
the foot of the hill. If we get an early enough start up the mountain we
can get fairly settled by night time."
Ruth nodded with her eyes straight in front of her. She kept her car
moving swiftly ahead.
"Barbara, it is quite idle to talk to Ruth," broke in Miss Sallie, who
had not heard just what Bab had said. "She is her father's daughter. Once
her mind is made up to accomplish a thing, she will do it or die! So we
might as well resign ourselves to our fate. She will reach 'her
mountain,' as she calls it, by noon, even if we have to jump a few of
these embankments to succeed."
Miss Sallie was growing tired.
"Why did I ever allow myself to be brought on such a wild expedition
after the experiences you girls led me into in Newport!" she said.
"Now, Miss Sallie!" said Grace Carter gently--Grace was always the
peacemaker--"you know you love these glorious woods as much as we do.
Think how jolly things will be when we go down into Lenox after it grows
too cold to stay in camp. Who knows but you will turn out the best
sportsman in the lot? And we shall probably have our guide teach you to
shoot before we are through this trip."
Miss Stuart sniffed indignantly. Then she laughed at the thought of her
plump fingers pulling the trigger of a gun. "What is our guide's
outlandish name?" she inquired in milder tones.
"Naki, and his wife is called Ceally," Grace answered. "You remember Mr.
Stuart explained they were originally French Canadians, but they have
been living in these mountains for a number of years. Because they used
to be guides up in the Canadian forests they don't know any other trade
to follow in these peaceful woods."
"These woods were by no means always peaceful, my lady Grace!" asserted
Bab. "You can't even be perfectly sure they are peaceful now. Why," she
went on in thrilling tones, "these hillsides once ran red with the blood
of our ancestors and of the friendly Indian tribes who fought with them
against the French."
"Oh, come! come! No more American history!" remarked Mollie. "Beg pardon,
but I do object to Bab's school-teacher manner. Did you ever see anything
so lovely as these hills are now? The scenery around here is like the
enchanted forests of Arcady."
"Oh, Miss Sallie, girls, look!" called Grace. From the high crest of a
hill "The Automobile Girls" gazed down upon one of the loveliest valleys
in the Berkshires. Afar off they could see the narrow Housatonic River
winding its way past villages and fields, from the hillsides, which gave
it the Indian name; for Housatonic means "a stream over the mountains."
Nestling in the valleys lay a chain of silver lakes.
Ruth paused an instant. "Over there ahead of us is 'our mountain.' I
think we can reach it in an hour or so."
While they were pursuing their journey, another small party was gathering
on the slope of the hill opposite. A long, lean man burned to the color
and texture of leather sat on the front seat of a wagon drawn by two
strong mountain horses. By his side was his wife, almost as thin and
brown; behind them, piled up in the wagon, were trunks, rolls of steamer
rugs, kitchen utensils, making altogether as odd an assortment of goods
as if the couple were peddlers.
Strolling around near them was a younger man, evidently the driver of a
well filled grocery wagon. His horse stood patiently cropping the fine,
hillside grass. Farther up the roadside a chauffeur nibbled a spear of
mint. He had no car near him, but his costume was unmistakable. Evidently
something was in the air. Somebody or something was being waited for.
Soon after twelve o'clock, there was a whirr along the road. The cart
horses raised their ears, and without a motion from their drivers, moved
farther to the right side of the path. Berkshire Hills horses, in
whatever station of life, needed no further notice. An automobile was
approaching!
"Here they come!" cried the grocer's boy, jumping back into his wagon.
The chauffeur dropped his piece of mint and gazed down the road. Now at
least there was something worth seeing!
"Hip! hip! hurrah!" "The Automobile Girls" landed with a flourish beside
the wagons. Their laughter woke the sleeping echoes in the hills.
"Are you Naki and Ceally?" cried Ruth, jumping out of the car and running
forward with her hand extended. "And are these our things you have in the
wagon? I am so sorry we are a few minutes late; but these mountain roads
take longer to drive over than I had expected. I hope I haven't kept you
waiting very long."
"No'm," said the guide, sliding slowly down from his perch on the camping
outfit. He emptied the pipe he had been comfortably smoking. "Time
enough," he answered. Naki was a man of few words.
The chauffeur had walked over to Ruth's car and was assisting Miss Sallie
to descend. "You are to take this car into Lenox, I believe," Miss Stuart
began. "My niece will explain matters to you more fully. I am told we
cannot take the car any further up this side of the hill. Where is the
carriage in which we are to drive?"
"Oh, Aunt Sallie!" cried Ruth in consternation. "What are we to do? When
Naki wrote there would be seats in his wagon for those of us who wished
to drive up the hill, I am afraid he meant those seats in front by him
and his wife."
The guide looked perfectly solemn, even when he beheld Miss Sallie's
face. Imagine, if you can, Miss Sallie Stuart, nervous, as she was,
perched on top of a rickety wagon! Add the fact that she was to be driven
up an unexplored hillside by the side of the two queer, brown people to
whom they were confiding their fates!
"We don't ride 'longside of you, Miss," explained Naki to Ruth. "I leads
the horses up and my wife walks by their side. There's room for three of
you up there on the front seat. It's more comfortable than it looks. The
other two of you had better walk or you can ride in the grocery wagon.
The man's coming along behind us with the provisions."
Miss Sallie had not spoken again. Her expression was that of a martyr.
"Do you think you can manage, Miss Sallie?" Bab pleaded.
Ruth was explaining matters to the chauffeur. He was to take the car to
Lenox. Every afternoon at one o'clock he was to return with it to this
fork in the road and wait for half an hour. If "The Automobile Girls"
decided on a trip to one of the nearby towns, they would join him at this
place; for here the good road ended and the trail up the hillside began.
The camp was a long way from any town, but an automobile defies distance.
Miss Stuart looked truly miserable when she saw their car disappear down
the foot of the hill. Then she looked around her carefully. The place was
entirely deserted.
"Very well," she declared, resignedly. "I suppose there is nothing for me
to do but to climb up into that wretched wagon."
Ruth, Barbara, Grace, Mollie, Naki and his wife all assisted her to mount
over the wheel to the seat of honor. Violet cushions were piled back of
her, Grace sat on one side of her, Mollie on the other. Ruth and Barbara
were determined to walk.
"We are dreadfully tired sitting still, Aunt Sallie," Ruth begged.
"Please let us follow the wagon!"
"Certainly, you can walk if you are able. In fact, you have no way to
ride except in the grocery wagon, where you would probably get mixed up
with the pickles and preserves," responded Miss Stuart. "Walk by all
means!"
The cavalcade started.
"Let's pretend," proposed Bab to Ruth, "that we are starting out on what
the Indians called 'the long walk.'"
"Surely, Bab, it's a long walk, all right. But why introduce the
Indians?"
The girls were climbing up the steep path ahead of the wagon. Bab
laughed. "Oh, I read somewhere," she explained, "that the Indians used to
sell their land that way. Suppose you and I were early settlers, who were
trying to purchase this hillside from the Indians. They would tell us we
could have, for a fixed sum, as much land as we could cover in the 'long
walk.' That would mean that we were to walk along quietly from sunrise to
sunset, sitting down occasionally to smoke a pipe of peace, to break
bread, and to drink water. That reminds me, are we ever going to break
bread again? I am starving!"
But Ruth was not sympathetic at the moment. "It is curious," she replied.
"These mountains are so full of Indian legends, we shall think, hear and
dream of nothing but Indians in the next few weeks. The names of all the
places around were once Indian. I suppose we shall do almost everything
except see an Indian. The last of them has vanished from here. Oh, Bab,
do look at Aunt Sallie!"
Miss Stuart had forgotten her fright. Fortunately, she did not realize
how absurd she appeared.
"Ruth!" she called from her throne on the wagon seat. "Here is a
perfectly good place for our lunch. There is water near and view enough,
I am sure. I must be given food before I am taken another step up these
hills. I am famished!"
The party found a clear space in the woods. In a short time Naki had
built a fire of pine twigs, and Ceally had a giant pot of coffee boiling
over it. Its delicious perfume mingled with the fresh mountain air.
"I declare I haven't been so hungry since I was a girl," Miss Sallie
avowed. She was seated on a log, with a sandwich in one hand and a cup of
coffee on the ground by her. Her hat was on one side of her head, and her
pompadour drooped dejectedly, but Miss Sallie was blissfully unconscious.
The color in her cheeks shone as fresh and rosy as the tints in the
cheeks of any other of "The Automobile Girls."
Mollie flitted around like the spirit of the woods. Nothing could induce
her to keep still. "Do let me get the water," she coaxed the guide. Like
a flash she was off and back bearing a heavy bucket. "Here, Ruth," she
volunteered, pouring a stream of water into the tiny silver cup that Ruth
always carried. Ruth was just in time. With a jump to one side, she
escaped, but the splash descended on unsuspecting Bab, who Was nibbling a
doughnut.
In her ardor at playing waitress in the woods Mollie had turned her
bucket upside down. Instead of dispensing nectar, this little cup-bearer
to "The Automobile Girls" had nearly drowned one of them.
"It's a blessed thing you are my sister," cried Bab.
Mollie apologized, dabbing at Bab with her small pocket handkerchief.
"You can tell me exactly what you think of me. Ruth and Grace might be
too polite. I am so sorry; I was trying to be useful."
"Go over to the fire, Barbara, and dry your dress," advised Miss Sallie.
"It is just as well you have on a thick suit. We must learn to expect
occasional mishaps."
Barbara winked solemnly at Ruth as she arose from the table. Miss Sallie
was sure to be in a good humor when she talked in this philosophical
fashion.
For an hour after luncheon the camping party continued their climb.
Finally Ruth and Bab, who were in front, came to a sudden stop. "Hurrah!"
they shouted, turning to wave their handkerchiefs to the occupants of the
wagon.
Mollie nearly pitched out of the wagon in her excitement, but Grace and
Miss Sallie clutched at her skirts in time.
"Have we arrived?" Mollie cried. "Oh, do stop the wagon!" The little log
cabin in the woods was now plainly in view.
"It's the gingerbread house, I know it is," exclaimed Grace, making a
flying leap over the wheel of the cart. "The logs are the soft, brown
color of good gingerbread, and the little windows must be made of sugar
frosting."
In a clearing on top of a hillside stood the "hut," as the girls
christened it in an instant. A circle of pine and cedar trees hid it from
sight. All around it were thick woods. Higher hills rose at the back of
it. A roaring brook tumbled down the hillside fifty feet from their cabin
door.
By nightfall the little house in the woods was made thoroughly livable.
The girls hammered and worked, assisted by Naki and his wife. Miss Sallie
sat by the big fire in the living room and gave directions. Adjoining
this big room, which ran across one side of the cabin, were two bedrooms.
Farther back Naki and Ceally shared a small chamber that connected with
the kitchen.
Just before supper time Ruth took Miss Sallie by the arm; Grace, Barbara
and Mollie followed them; around and around their new home "The
Automobile Girls" marched.
"See your elegance!" said Ruth to her aunt, pointing to a mirror, which
hung by a nail over Miss Sallie's rough pine wood dressing table. Her
favorite toilet articles were already laid out upon it, her wrapper hung
over the back of a chair.
"Most noble lady," continued Ruth, "behold what miracles your willing
slaves have performed for your comfort! Everything is here for your
convenience except your perfumed bath."
"Don't speak of a bath, child!" cried Miss Sallie, with a real shudder of
horror. "It is the lack of a proper bathtub that makes this camping
business truly awful!"
"Come, Miss Sallie," called Barbara, quick to change the subject. "I want
you to see the wonderful sunset." Overhead Miss Sallie beheld a golden
radiance that bathed the hilltop in a wonderful light. In the west the
sun was sinking behind a line of blue mountains.
That evening the girls sat around an open campfire piled high with pine
logs. It was a cool night, and although they were tired, no one would
suggest going in to bed. Every now and then Mollie would tumble forward
and awake with a start. She was half listening, half dreaming as Grace's
lovely voice floated out through the still night air, singing, while she
strummed idly her guitar:
"Lovely moon that softly glides,
Through the realms where God abides."
"I wonder," said Mollie to Grace, as she finally followed her into bed,
"what wonderful adventures we shall have in this forest? Perhaps we shall
awaken a wood nymph and teach her to become a mortal maid. Do you suppose
she would like the change?"