SAHWAH THE SUNFISH.
Migwan sat on a rock on the beach making notes in her journal,
now and then lifting her eyes to the lake to watch the shadows
gliding across the water, as the clouds floated by overhead.
Sometimes the sunlight was darkened for a few minutes and the
lake looked gray and cold, but on the opposite shore a tiny
village nestled at the foot of a mountain, and over there the sun
was shining, and the white houses gleamed brightly against the
dull brown background. "It looks like a mirage," said Migwan to
Hinpoha, who had dropped down on the sand at her feet.
Hinpoha glanced across the lake at the fairy scene and then back
at Migwan. "What are you always writing in that book of yours?"
she asked curiously.
"Wouldn't you like to know, though!" replied Migwan, closing it
up.
"Oh, let me see some of it, won't you, Migwan, dear?" said
Hinpoha coaxingly. "I love to read what you write and I never
make fun of it, you know that. Please do." After a little more
coaxing Migwan relented and handed Hinpoha the page she had just
written. Hinpoha spread it out on her knee and read:
"I was sitting in the woods rather pensively the other day when I
suddenly became aware of two merry eyes fixed on me from the
ground beside me. There was something so irresistibly roguish in
their expression that my sadness leaked out of me unceremoniously.
As I looked the eyes disappeared behind a leaf, only to appear an
instant later on the other side, and a tiny, round red face nodded
cheerfully at me. Visions of wood sprites went through my head and
I sat perfectly still, so as not to frighten him away. He had
retired behind his leaf after that last nod, but as I made no sound
he soon looked out again to see if I was still there. This time I
got a good look at him. He was no elf, but a berry; a brilliant
round red berry with two little holes in him that looked just like
eyes. 'Such a cheerful berry, I thought, 'deserves a whole face,'
so I made him a nose and mouth with my pencil. When last I saw him
he was still playing peek-a-boo among the leaves, enjoying the world
for all he was worth."
"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Hinpoha, when she had read that far,
"you must let the other girls read this. Wouldn't you like me to
illustrate it for you? I'm just itching to paint that little red
berry."
"That will be fine," said Migwan, and Hinpoha sped after her
paint box. Hinpoha could not have written that little sketch if
her life depended upon it, but her talent with the brush was
unmistakable. With a few deft strokes she pictured Migwan
sitting in the woods and beside her the little red berry with its
comical face. Now it was Migwan's turn to admire. Hinpoha went
on to the next paragraph:
"I walked on through the wood, admiring the little green moss
stars that twinkled up from the ground. 'Oh, I must get a closer
view,' I said, half aloud, and immediately my wish was granted,
for a pine tree put out his foot and tripped me and I fell with
my face right in the moss."
"How I should like to have seen you!" laughed Hinpoha as she
painted Migwan sprawling on the ground. "Haven't you some more
stuff I can illustrate? There's such a lot of paint mixed up.
Oh, here's another one," she said, turning over the pages:
"I am sitting in the woods near Sandy Beach. Have been gathering
blueberries and my cup runneth over. The sun has turned the
beach into a Sahara, but here in the woods it is dim and cool and
pleasant. I am leaning against a big tree with my feet stretched
out in front of me. There is a spider weaving a web from one
foot to the other. I hate to break down his handiwork, or
rather, his footiwork, but I can't stay here forever, much as I
would like to. He ought to have been more careful about getting
a clear title to his property before building. This will teach
him a lesson, I think.
"Just now a tiny red squirrel ran down a tree, paused beside me,
gave an impertinent whisk of his tail and disappeared. 'Lazy
girl,' he seemed to say, 'idling away this beautiful summer
weather when you ought to be storing nuts for the winter. You'll
repent when the snow begins to fly. Idle in summer, hungry in
winter.' With a disapproving cough he disappeared.
"There is a blueberry bush nearby hanging full of large luscious
berries. I never saw blueberries in their native wilds before. I
had a sort of hazy notion that blueberries grew in quart boxes in
market stalls."
"That reminds me," said Hinpoha suddenly, "it must be getting
near time for our promised trip to Blueberry Island." She
painted a bush with berries nearly as big as marbles and read on
eagerly:
"I have surprised an acorn in a gross neglect of duty. He is
lying on the ground where he fell last fall and hasn't sprouted
in the least. I thought all acorns aspired to be oak trees.
Think of being a nut half an inch long, and in that half inch to
have the power of becoming the King of the Forest, and then let
that power lie unused! If I were an acorn I would feel eternally
disgraced if I hadn't sprouted."
Hinpoha duly portrayed the delinquent acorn. "I'll tell you what
we'll do when we grow up," she said, leaning back and surveying
her work critically, "you write books and I'll illustrate them!"
All this time Nyoda and Sahwah had been working on a canoe a
little farther up the beach. Sahwah had crossed the lake in the
dark the night before and had grounded on a sharp rock that
jutted up just underneath the surface, ripping a hole in the
bottom of the canoe nearly a foot long. Now she and Nyoda were
repairing the damage. "Don't anybody take this canoe out for a
couple of days," said Nyoda to the girls, "the pine pitch we put
on isn't hard yet."
Hinpoha showed Nyoda the leaves from Migwan's journal which she
had illustrated and Nyoda was delighted. "You two had better
form a permanent partnership," she advised. "You will produce
something worth while in time." Then she added: "Wouldn't it be
a fine idea for you to make an illustrated book of the camp
doings and send it to Professor Bentley and Professor Wheeler?
As long as they are so much interested in Camp Fire Girls nothing
would please them better." Migwan and Hinpoha were enthusiastic
over the idea and promised to begin that very day.
Sahwah, having determined not to clash with Gladys again, and to
make a friend of her at all costs, lost no opportunity to do her
service. She filled Gladys's water pail in the morning, she hung
up her wet bathing suit when Gladys had gone off and left it
lying on the tent floor, she paddled her out in the heavy sponson
when she was dying to skim over the lake in the sailing canoe,
and in short, sacrificed herself at every turn for Gladys. And
Gladys in time began to look on her as a sort of serving maid,
who would do any unpleasant task she happened to want done.
Nyoda could not help noticing this and wondered how long Sahwah
would stand for it, but she said nothing to either one of them,
preferring to watch matters take their course.
Things finally came to a head one afternoon during rest hour.
Sahwah was out of sorts that day. The night before she had
stayed out on the lake after she had promised to come in and as a
result had injured the canoe in the darkness. While Nyoda had
not scolded her for staying out so long she knew she was
disappointed in her and it made her cross with herself. Then the
first thing that morning she had received a letter from her
mother chiding her for not having written home for two weeks.
That made her crosser yet. During the folk dancing hour she could
not keep her mind on her feet, and blundered so many times that
Gladys, who was her partner, left the ring in disgust. Sahwah
was sensitive about her dancing, which did not come very easy to
her, and tried especially hard when dancing with Gladys, who did
the figures with wonderful grace and skill, and Gladys's conduct
on this occasion filled her with unutterable mortification.
Sahwah rushed away to her tent and got into her bathing suit and
sat down on the dock, impatiently waiting for Nyoda's "All in!"
In swimming hour she managed to get herself into disfavor again.
Hinpoha was taking her test for towing a person to shore and was
swimming with Nakwisi in tow. She was just nearing the dock
where Nyoda stood watching to see if she could land her burden
when Sahwah dove off the high tower, right on top of her and
Nakwisi, carrying them both under the surface and breaking up the
test. Nyoda uttered an impatient exclamation and sent Sahwah out
of the water as a reminder to look before she dove the next time.
Sahwah's heart was nearly broken and she could hardly eat her
dinner. She and Gladys were washing dishes that day, but when
the time came Gladys pleaded a headache and went to the tent to
lie down, leaving Sahwah to do them alone. It seemed that every
dish in camp had been used that day. She finished at last, all
tired out, and flung herself on her bed, resolved not to move
until rest hour was over, and not then if she didn't feel like
it. She was just sinking off into a delicious doze when Gladys
reached over and pulled her by the foot.
"What do you want?" said Sahwah drowsily.
"Come on, take me for a ride in the sponson," said Gladys.
"Can't, it's rest hour," answered Sahwah.
"What of it?" said Gladys, "Let's go anyway. Everybody's asleep.
They'll never know the difference."
Sahwah looked at her with an expression of horror. "It doesn't
matter whether any one knows it or not," she said stiffly. "It
isn't a custom of the Winnebagos to go boating in rest hour."
"It doesn't seem to be a custom of the Winnebagos to do anything
they want to," said Gladys sneeringly. "You girls let Miss Kent
lead you around by the nose as if you were six years old! It's a
pity if girls as old as we are have to take a nap after dinner
like babies. I for one won't stand for it. I don't want to lie
down for an hour every afternoon and I'm not going to do it, so
there! If you had any spirit you'd rebel, too. But you haven't.
You're just like wax in her hands. If she told you to go bed at
four o'clock in the afternoon and stay there, you'd do it! I
dare you to slip out and go for a boat ride with me now, I dare
you! I dare you!"
Sahwah's hair nearly stood on end with fury at this attack on her
beloved Nyoda. "Dare all you like," she said in a choking voice,
"I'll not break a camp rule to please you."
"Very well, then, don't," said Gladys, "and see if I care. If
you would rather abide by silly old rules than have a good time
it's your loss, not mine. I wouldn't be such a baby." She went
back to her bed and lay down with the air of a martyr. Every few
seconds she would look over at Sahwah and pronounce the word
"baby" in a taunting tone.
Sahwah closed her eyes resolutely and pretended not to hear her.
She was filled from head to foot with contempt for Gladys.
Sahwah was heedless and hot-tempered and undiplomatic, but in
matters where honor was concerned she was true blue. All her
admiration for Gladys vanished when she tried to lead her into
dishonor. As she lay there thinking over her attempts to win
Gladys's friendship she saw clearly how Gladys had been working
her all this time, getting her to wait on her hand and foot and
in return treating her in a patronizing manner as if she were an
inferior being from whom such service was no more than due. Her
rage rose at the very thought of Gladys. "Catch me doing
anything for her again!" she muttered to herself.
She lay very still with her eyes closed for a long time, feigning
sleep. After a while a stealthy rustle from Gladys's bed caught
her ear. She opened one eye slightly and then opened both very
wide in surprise. Gladys was in the act of drawing a box of
candy from under her blankets. Opening it, she proceeded to eat
one piece after another. Sahwah was so astonished that she could
not repress an exclamation.
Gladys looked in her direction. "Have a piece of candy?" she
said mockingly, holding out the box, "or are you afraid to do
that too?"
Sahwah disregarded the taunt. "Where did you get that candy?"
she asked sternly.
"I bought it down in the village, Miss Simplicity," answered
Gladys.
"Did you know that we weren't to buy candy and eat it between
meals, or didn't you?" continued Sahwah.
"Certainly, I knew it was against the rules," said Gladys, "but I
don't intend to have any one dictate to me whether or not I shall
eat candy. I've eaten candy all my life and it's never hurt me.
If I can't eat it openly I'll eat it on the sly, but I will eat
it!"
"Didn't it occur to you that it's dishonest to do things on the
sly like that?" said Sahwah in a husky voice. If she had held
Gladys in contempt before there was no name for what she thought
of her now.
"Who says it's dishonest to break silly rules?" said Gladys,
putting another piece into her mouth. "Such rules were made to
be broken."
"What would Nyoda say?" asked Sahwah.
"I don't care what she says," said Gladys recklessly.
"I thought you admired her so much," said Sahwah, remembering how
Gladys was constantly fawning on Nyoda.
"I do admire her, more than any of you," said Gladys loftily,
"but that's no sign she can order me around. Go and tell her if
you like, old busybody!"
"Tell her what?" asked Nyoda, appearing in the door of the tent.
"That I buy candy in the village and keep it in my bed to eat
during rest hour!" said Gladys brazenly.
Nyoda opened her eyes very wide. "That you do what?" she asked.
Gladys held up the box. Nyoda said nothing, but merely looked at
her, and before the expression in her eyes Gladys wilted and was
covered with confusion.
"I don't care, I want some candy," she said, looking ready to
burst into tears.
"Why didn't you wait until supper time and pass it around?" asked
Nyoda quietly, but there was a note in her voice that robbed
Gladys of her air of bravado.
"Because I wanted it now," she said sulkily.
"Gladys," said Nyoda, trying to conceal her disgust at this
untrustworthy trait revealed in the character of her charge by
the episode, "have you any idea why that candy rule was made?"
Gladys shook her head. "It was made," said Nyoda, "to keep me
from dishonor." Gladys looked at her uncomprehendingly. "It is
a very responsible thing," continued Nyoda, "to take a group of
girls so far away from home. Many of the girls' mothers were
unwilling to have them go, and I promised every one of them, on
my honor, that no harm should come to their girls that I could in
any way prevent and that we should all come back in better health
than we went. Now, a change of climate and drinking water is hard
on any one, and you girls have enough to do adjusting your
systems to the new order of things even with a carefully
regulated diet. Eating candy between meals is one good way to
produce an upset stomach, and up here we can't take any chances.
It would be inconvenient to take care of a sick person in camp,
and besides, think of all the fun you would lose! So when we
were discussing the difficulties of camping out for so long we
all agreed, willingly and cheerfully, to live on a strict
schedule recommended by experienced campers, and to run no risks
by eating candy between meals. So you see that the rule, which
you probably consider merely a piece of tyranny on my part, is
not my rule at all, but was adopted by unanimous consent at a
meeting of the group. If I were to allow you to eat candy
between meals I would be breaking my promise to your parents, and
you know that we Camp Fire Girls have taken a vow to be
trustworthy."
Gladys flushed and hung her head, although Nyoda had made no
reference to her breaking of trust. Nyoda continued: "You, of
all the girls here, have need to be the most careful. You are
the least robust of them all, and enter into our sports with the
least vigor. Your racket stroke is weak and your paddle stroke
is weak, and exertion which does not affect the other girls at
all leaves you exhausted. That is a condition of which you
should be ashamed, inasmuch as you have no definite ailment.
'Hold on to Health' is only another form of 'Be trustworthy,' for
it means taking good care of the body which has been given into
our keeping. I know you never thought about it in just that way
and broke the rule because you saw no reason for it, not because
you have no sense of honor.
"And now about this candy you have on hand. I will ask you to
put it in the kitchen where it will keep dry and pass it around
to the girls at meal time as long as it lasts. After that I must
request you not to buy any more, even to eat with meals. We have
home-made candy three times a week and that is sufficient."
Nyoda withdrew from the tent, leaving Gladys feeling very small.
Hinpoha and Migwan had waked in time to hear the last of Nyoda's
speech and saw the candy, and while they were too polite to make
any remarks their attitude plainly showed their disapproval, and
this state of things galled Gladys more than Nyoda's chiding.
Sahwah, with a fine sense of charity, had left the tent when
Nyoda appeared. Her generous nature forbade her to crow over a
fallen foe.
A nature walk was on the program for the afternoon, but Gladys
feigned a headache and remained at home. "Somehow I don't feel
like going on a nature walk, either," said Sahwah, when they were
ready to start. This was so unusual from Sahwah, who was
generally enthusiastic about everything that was proposed, that
Nyoda looked at her in some anxiety.
"Don't you feel well, dear?" she asked.
"Yes, I feel perfectly well," said Sahwah. "That's the trouble.
I feel too well to go on a nature walk."
"Feel too well to go on a nature walk!" repeated Nyoda. "What do
you mean by that?"
"I don't know," said Sahwah. "I feel so full of--of something
that I'd like to wrestle with an elephant!"
Nyoda understood the feeling. She had watched Sahwah's growing
irritation all day long and knew that in her case the only relief
would be strenuous activity. "Then perhaps it would be better
for you to stay at home," she said lightly. "You might do some
damage to us peaceful citizens. By the way, have you ever swum
as far as Blueberry Island? It's a mile, I think. That ought to
work off some of your superfluous energy. You have special
permission to go in this afternoon. When you get there wait
until I come for you in the launch. We can keep our eye on you
from the road while you are swimming." Sahwah jumped for joy and
ran to get into her bathing suit.
The cool water closed around her limbs like the caress of a
loving hand and her irritation vanished like magic. Water was
Sahwah's element, and as she propelled herself gracefully across
the sparkling lake, feeling the absolute mastery of her muscles,
changing regularly from left to right in her side stroke, she
might have been taken for a mermaid by some Neckan of the deep.
She reached Blueberry Island in good time and, climbing up on the
rocky shore, sat down in the sun to dry.
Meanwhile Gladys was not having anywhere near such a glorious
time. She tossed on her bed for a long time, feeling more sorry
for herself every minute. She still thought Nyoda's explanation
of the candy rule a weak excuse for an act of tyranny, and was
furious at the thought of having been caught in an undignified
position. The tears, which she had managed to hold back in front
of Nyoda, came now, and she cried herself into a genuine
headache. But it was all self-pity; there was no real sorrow for
her fault. She considered herself the most abused girl in the
world; deserted by her parents, disliked by girls whom she
considered beneath her, and deprived of her rights by a young
woman who had no real authority over her.
"I bet the other girls eat candy between meals too," she said to
herself viciously, "only they're too clever to get found out. I
wouldn't have been found out either, if it hadn't been for that
snippy little Sahwah making a fuss!" She worked herself into a
perfect fury, and blamed Sahwah for all of her troubles. "I'd
give a whole lot to get even with her," she said to herself, and
immediately began looking around the tent for something of
Sahwah's which she could damage. The only thing in evidence was
her tennis racket, and Gladys took it out and deliberately put a
stone through it. Then, frightened at what she had done, and
thoroughly homesick and miserable, she sat down and began a
letter to her father, begging him to send for her immediately.
"Dear Papa," she wrote, "if you only knew what a dreadful place
this is you would not leave me here another day. The girls are
very rude and horrid and low class; they are continually fighting
and playing rough jokes on each other, and especially on me. I
don't like Miss Kent as well as you said I would. She makes me
go in bathing until I'm all tired out and cold and tries to make
me swim when it's impossible for me to learn. She takes me out
beyond my depth and ducks me under when I don't make my hands go
right. She treats me as if I were a baby and won't trust me out
of her sight. It seems they have a rule here about not eating
candy between meals and I didn't know it and I bought some and
ate it and she called me a sneak before all the girls and made me
throw the candy into the lake. I am very miserable and sick most
of the time as we don't get enough to eat, and what we do get
isn't good. I'm always cold at night and they often let it rain
right in on our beds. If you don't send for me right away I may
get sick and die before very long.
"Your miserable daughter,
"GLADYS
"P.S.: Aunt Sally is going to Atlantic City in August; may I go
with her?"
She gave the letter to the captain of the steamer when he stopped
to bring the supplies and then sat down on the dock and stared
moodily out over the lake. She was lonesome; and in spite of the
fact that she had stayed home of her own accord she resented the
fact that the girls had gone off and left her. The canoes lay
side by side on the beach and Gladys was seized with a fancy to
get into one and go gliding out over the smooth surface of the
lake.
She was not allowed in a canoe because she had not taken the
swimming test, but she considered this another piece of tyranny
on Nyoda's part. She could paddle pretty well, as Sahwah had
taught her to handle the sponson, and she saw no reason at all
why she couldn't enjoy a quiet canoe ride up and down the beach
while no one was around to interfere.
"I'll stay near shore," she told herself, as she laid hold of one
of the canoes and launched it as she had seen the girls do. She
managed to seat herself in the right end and pushed off from the
shore. It was more fun even than she had imagined, and the canoe
seemed so light in comparison to the sponson that she sent it
flying through the water with little effort. "I'll bet they're
keeping me out of the canoes on purpose, so they'll have more use
of them themselves," she thought ungraciously, "and it's not
because I can't swim at all. That was a safe rule to make when
I'm the only one who can't swim. And they're my own father's
canoes!"
Gladys edged a little farther out from the shore, then a little
farther and a little farther. The end of the canoe swung around
until it pointed directly out across the lake, and Gladys kept on
paddling in the way it pointed. When she had reached a distance
about halfway between Blueberry Island and the dock she noticed
with terror that the canoe was leaking. She had not been in the
group when Nyoda had warned them about not using the one canoe
for several days, and as luck would have it, the canoe she picked
out was the very one which Sahwah had grounded on the rock. The
gash was opening again and the canoe was filling with water.
Helpless from fright, Gladys dropped her paddle overboard and
buried her face in her hands after one wild look at the distant
shore. It seemed to her like a swift judgment from heaven for
her outrageous conduct that day.
Sahwah, grown weary of sitting in the sun doing nothing, fixed
her eyes on the camp dock to watch for the putting out of the
launch. No launch was forthcoming, but she saw a canoe gliding
out from the dock. "Something must be the matter with the launch
and Nyoda's coming for me in a canoe," thought Sahwah. "How
slowly she is paddling, it will take her an age to get here!"
Sahwah waited a little while and then slid off the rocks into the
water. "I'll swim out and meet her," she said to herself. When
she had gone about half the distance she saw that it was not
Nyoda in the canoe, but Gladys, and an exclamation of astonishment
escaped from her lips. Coming nearer yet she saw that Gladys was
in distress and had dropped her paddle overboard, and she doubled
her speed, shooting through the water like a speed boat. Raising up
her head once, she shouted to attract Gladys's attention. Gladys
evidently did not hear her, for she did not turn around. When she
was nearly there Sahwah saw that the canoe was sinking, and with a
mighty spurt she reached it just as it settled to the water's edge,
and Gladys, with a wild scream, fell into the lake.
Sahwah caught her by the hair as she came up and held her head
out of water. "What did you take a canoe out for, you goose?" she
sputtered. "You deserve to drown." The canoe had not sunk
entirely yet, and Sahwah thought that if she could turn it over
keel up it would be all right until they could come for it. So,
turning Gladys over on her back, she bade her float while she
kept one hand on her to keep her above water and reached out for
the canoe with the other. Gladys struggled and choked, but
Sahwah paid no attention to her, for she knew that she was safe
and could not get a strangle hold on her. Grasping one end of
the canoe she tried to turn it over. At first it would not move,
and so Sahwah exerted all her strength in a mighty push. The
canoe stood partly on end, and then came down with a crashing
thud on her outstretched arm.
An instant of numbness was followed by the most excruciating
pain, and the arm sank limply through the water. Sahwah knew
that it was broken. But even then her presence of mind did not
desert her. Shoving Gladys out ahead of her with her good arm,
she propelled herself with her legs, swimming on her back, and
slowly they began to move toward the distant shore. The half
mile that was nothing to Sahwah ordinarily now became an endless
stretch. The pain in her arm made her feel faint, and her limbs,
tired from her long swim, seemed suddenly to have turned into
lead. The clouds above turned black, then blood red, then every
color of the rainbow. Strange lights and shadows danced in front
of her eyes, and there were strange noises in her ears. Her
breath came in long, sobbing gasps. The arm that was holding
Gladys became cramped and weak, but there was no relief. "Draw,
kick, close! Draw, kick, close!" The monotonous rhythm beat
itself into her brain. "Draw, kick, close!" Throb! Throb!
Throb! Would the nightmare never come to an end? Through the
sound of strange voices that were echoing in her ears Sahwah
heard a cry that sounded like Nyoda's, and then darkness settled
around her and her efforts ceased.
Nyoda, coming down to untie the launch, reached the dock just as
Sahwah and Gladys came alongside of it, and held out her hand to
help Gladys up. She thought she was being towed for fun.
"Sahwah, you naughty girl, what did you swim all the way home
for?" she began, and then gasped in astonishment as Sahwah
stiffened out in the water and went down. She grasped her by the
collar as she came up and pulled her out on the dock, limp and
dripping. "What does this mean?" she asked Gladys.
"She towed me in when the canoe went down," said Gladys, her
teeth chattering with fright. "She broke her arm and held me up
with the other while she swam with her legs." Gladys's knees
gave way and she sank down on the dock, burying her face in her
hands.
And Sahwah the Sunfish, the lover of maiden bravery, the envier
of heroines, was the greatest of them all, and knew it not.