PLANS FOR THE SUMMER
Bobby Hargrew came to school the next morning with rather a sour
face for her. "What's the matter, dear?" asked Nell Agnew,
sympathetically.
"I wish I were a bird," grumbled Bobby.
"So you could soar into the circumambient ether and leave all mundane
things below?" queried Jess Morse, with a chuckle.
"No," said Bobby, in disgust. "So I wouldn't have a toothache. I was
up with one of my old grinders half the night."
"Have it pulled," suggested Laura.
"Say!" cried Bobby. "That's the easiest thing in the world to say and
the hardest to do. And you know it, Mother Wit! You can have an old
toothache that will make you feel like committing suicide; and when
you get to the dentist shop you wish you _had_ committed suicide
before you got there," and jolly little Bobby began to grin again.
"Suicide is a serious matter," said Nellie, gravely.
"Surely, surely," the cut-up replied, dropping her voice to a gruesome
pitch. "Listen!
"'Beside a sewer a man lay dead,
A dagger in his side;
The coroner's decision read:
"He died of suicide."
'Now if this man at home in bed,
Had in this manner died,
Then could the coroner have said:
"He died of homicide"?'
"Never joke about serious things, Nell."
"Hush, Bobby!" commanded Laura Belding. "Tell us, do, if your father
has agreed to let us go camping on Acorn Island?"
"Of course," replied the younger girl. "And he says there is a cabin
there that can be made tight for ten dollars. It's all right to camp
under canvas; but if a big storm should come up he says we'd be glad
of that cabin."
"Great!" announced Jess Morse.
"The cabin shall be your mother's particular shelter," said Laura.
"Eh, girls?"
"If she is kind enough to go with us," said Nellie, "she should have
the very best of everything."
"She can have _my_ share of the wood ants and red spiders," chuckled
Bobby. "But it's all right, girls. Father Tom says we can have the
island to ourselves. And believe me: this bunch of girls of Central
High will sure have a good time!"
Which was a prophecy likely to be fulfilled, if the past adventures of
these same girls were any criterion of the future.
For more than a year now the girls of Central High, together with
those of the other two high schools of Centerport and the high schools
of Lumberport and Keyport--all five--had been deeply interested in the
Girls' Branch League athletics. In following the various games and
exercises approved by their instructor, Mrs. Case these six girls
introduced above, had engaged in many and varied enterprises and
adventures.
In "The Girls of Central High; Or, Rivals for All Honors," the first
volume of this series, Laura Belding ("Mother Wit") was enabled to
interest one of the wealthiest men of Centerport in girls' athletics
so that he gave a large sum toward the preparation of a handsome
athletic field and gymnasium for Central High.
The second volume is entitled: "The Girls of Central High on Lake
Luna," and the third is "The Girls of Central High at Basket
Ball"--the titles of which tell their own story.
"The Girls of Central High on the Stage," the fourth volume, tells of
the writing and first production by her mates of Jess Morse's
successful play, while the fifth of the series is entitled: "The Girls
of Central High on Track and Field; Or, Champions of the School
League."
Laura, Jess, Nellie, the Lockwood Twins and Bobby were girls of
dissimilar characters (that is, if we count Dora and Dorothy as "one
and indivisible" like the Union of the States). Laura's brother
Chetwood, his chum, Lance Darby, Billy Long, and some of the other
Central High boys were usually entangled in the girls'
adventures--sufficiently to give spice to the incidents.
So, all considered, it was only reasonable that the girls should have
eagerly agreed upon the site of their summer camp--Acorn Island. They
knew that the boys would probably have their own camp on one shore or
the other of the lake, and within sight of the island.
Chet, who seldom failed to walk home with Jess and carry her
books--unless the gymnasium called the girls after the school
session--and Lance, who filled like office of faithful squire to
Laura, joined the girl chums on this afternoon.
"Got it all planned, have you?" Chet said. "I hear Acorn Island is
going to be overrun with a gang of female Indians right after
graduation."
"We have got to go up there to keep watch of you boys," laughed his
sister. "But it's nice of Bobby's father to let us camp there."
"Pull--sheer pull," grumbled Lance. "We fellows tried our best to get
permission to camp on the Island."
"Well," said Jess, demurely. "You can come to the island visiting. It
will be perfectly proper. My mother says she will go to chaperon us,
now that she knows there is a cabin there."
"And Bobby's father is going to send a couple of men up from
Lumberport to make the cabin tight and fix things up a little for us.
We'll pitch our tents on the knoll right by the cabin," Laura said,
eagerly.
"Pretty spot," agreed Chet. "We'll probably have our camp in sight of
it and the lake between the south shore and the island is only about
two miles broad."
"Oh! we'll have a bully time," his chum agreed.
"Say!" Chet said, suddenly, addressing Lance Darby. "What was
professor Dimp saying to you about camping? I heard a word or two.
Something about going to the island?"
"Why! I forgot to tell you about that," returned Lance, quickly,
while the two girls cast enquiring glances at each other. "Old Dimple
is certainly an odd stick."
"As odd as Dick's hat-band," agreed Chet.
"And no-end forgetful. He's been worse than ever lately. There
certainly is something worrying him."
"You boys," laughed Jess.
"Something worse than boys," Lance returned. "It's a shame how
forgetful he is. Say! did you hear what he did at Mr. Sharp's the
other night?"
"No," said the others, in chorus.
Lance began to chuckle. Mr. Franklin Sharp was the principal of
Central High, and was very much admired by all the pupils; while
Professor Dimp, because of his harshness and his queer ways, was the
butt of more than a few jokes.
"It was night before last when it rained so hard," resumed Lance. "He
was there going over Latin exercises or something, with the Doctor.
Mrs. Sharp asked him to stay all night, when it came on so hard to
rain, and the old Prof thanked her and said he would.
"Mr. Sharp went into his office to do something or other and left Old
Dimple in the library for a while. The family lost track of him then.
Right in the middle of the hardest downpour, about eleven o'clock,
the front door bell rang, and Mr. Sharp went to the door.
"There was Old Dimple, under a dripping umbrella, his pants wet to the
knees, and his pajamas and toothbrush under his arm----"
"Oh, Lance!" ejaculated Laura. "That is too much to believe."
"Fact. He'd gone home for his nightclothes. I got it from our hired
girl and she got it from Mrs. Sharp's maid. So, there you have it!"
"But you didn't tell us what the old Prof was saying to you about
camping," reminded Chet, when the general laugh was over.
"Why! that's so. And it was odd, too, that he should take any interest
in what we fellows were going to do this summer."
"What about it?" Jess asked.
"He wanted to know if we were going to pitch our camp, too, on Acorn
Island? He seemed to know you girls were going there."
"How odd!" murmured Laura and Jess, together. And the latter added:
"Bobby said he seemed mad when he found out _we_ were going to Acorn
Island."
"Well," drawled Lance, "he seemed sort of relieved when I told him we
fellows were going to camp on the mainland."
"Funny he should trouble his head about us out of school hours at
all," Chet said again.
His sister made no further comment upon the professor's queer actions.
Nevertheless her curiosity was aroused regarding the old instructor's
sudden interest in anything beside Latin exercises and Greek roots.