IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST
"Is the wagon for Camp Wau-Wau here?" asked Miss Elting.
Four happy-faced girls, accompanied by the teacher, had left the train at
Jamesburg, from where they were to be conveyed by wagon into the woods.
Miss Elting was directed to a three-seated buck-board wagon. Jasper, the
handy man about the camp was on the driver's seat. He was an old man who
said little. It was rumored that three seasons spent at Wau-Wau had
thoroughly subdued him.
"What about the trunks?" asked the young woman.
"Fetch 'em to-morrow," he answered tersely.
Tommy regarded the slender looking buck-board apprehensively.
"Buthter better walk," she decided. "The wagon won't hold her."
"Now, now, Tommy, do stop teasing Buster. If the wagon goes down Margery
will go down with it," answered Harriet laughingly.
"And she will fall a great deal harder than will you," added Miss Elting,
at which there was a merry laugh.
It was late in the afternoon when they finally climbed into the buck-board
which sagged in the middle until all the girls began to grow apprehensive.
They started away along a country road a gay party, indeed, but Harriet
noted that horse and driver were not well matched. The horse she could
plainly see was young and fractious, and she wondered what the old man
would do should the animal prove unmanageable. Their driver, however,
appeared to have perfect control over the animal, so Harriet dismissed the
disturbing thought from her mind and prepared to enjoy the ride.
The drive to the camp was fully twenty miles. Having come by train they
had covered nearly twice the distance that would have been necessary had
they driven direct from Meadow-Brook. The fields through which they were
driving were green, the air was fresh and fragrant after a shower that had
fallen earlier in the day and the girls in the buck-board wagon were in
high spirits.
"I'll tell you what, girls," cried Harriet after they had sung all the
songs they knew and discussed the country through which they were passing
until the latter subject had been worn out. "I'll tell you what we ought
to have."
"Ith it thomething nithe?" questioned Grace.
"It is a yell, Tommy."
"A yell? I can yell."
"I don't mean it in that way. Something like a high school or a college
yell. We are the Meadow-Brook Girls, you know. We have a name, now we must
have a yell."
"Oh, Mith Elting, give uth a yell, a loud one," urged Tommy, her eyes
sparkling.
Miss Elting smiled tolerantly.
"You had better arrange one to suit yourselves," she answered. "Harriet,
you will have to provide the yell now that you have suggested it."
Harriet already had a pencil in her hand. She sat holding the pencil
poised above the fly leaf of a book that she had brought along to read,
but had not up to this moment, so much as opened. Her brow was wrinkled in
thought. Tommy was regarding her keenly.
"Well, aren't you going to yell!"
All at once Harriet's face relaxed. She began to write. Margery craned her
neck to see what was being written, but Harriet held the cover of the book
in such a position that Buster could not see what was being jotted down.
"It isn't polite to look over another person's shoulder in that way,"
reproved Hazel.
"Well, you wouldn't exthpect Buthter to be polite when she ith away from
home, would you?" demanded Grace.
"I have it," announced Harriet. "Listen, girls and see how you like this:
"'Rah, rah, rah,
Rah, rah, rah
Meadow-Brook, Meadow-Brook,
Sis, boom ah!'"
"What do you think of that, girls? Isn't that simply fine?" cried Miss
Elting enthusiastically. But her voice was lost in the chorus that welled
forth from the throats of the Meadow-Brook Girls, who had taken up the
yell with a will. Tommy's "thith boom ah!" at the end of the yell sent not
only the girls, but Miss Elting as well into peals of merry laughter.
Jasper never smiled. He stroked his long whiskers reflectively. Harriet
who occupied the seat beside him, stole a glance at the old man out of the
corner of one eye.
"I suppose you are used to girls, aren't you!" she asked.
"Ya-a-a-s," drawled Jasper then relapsed into silence. The girls promptly
broke the silence again by giving the Meadow-Brook yell. They continued to
give it until their throats ached. Now and then three of them would stop
short of the last line in order to catch more clearly Tommy's "thith boom
ah!" which always sent them into screams of laughter. Finally Tommy became
angry and refused to yell. But the little lisping girl was like an April
day. Her frowns of displeasure were replaced by smiles within a very few
minutes. The girls had learned not to take Grace's fits of temper
seriously. When she became ruffled, they simply left her to herself for a
few moments well knowing that the clouds would soon pass and the sun shine
again.
"There are the woods! Oh, girls, look at them," cried Harriet. The wagon
had reached the top of a high knoll in the road, when below them was
revealed the dark blue of a forest that stretched straight ahead and to
the right and left as far as the eye could reach.
"Yes, that is Pocono Woods," Miss Elting informed them. "Are they large
enough to suit you?"
"What would we do if we were to get lost in there?" gasped Margery.
"I know what I'd do," piped Tommy. "I'd yell like thixthty."
"You are likely to do that even though you are not lost," chuckled the
guardian.
"How far into the woods do we go?" wondered Harriet.
"'Bout ten mile, I reckon," answered Jasper.
"Ten miles? Listen to that, girls. Oh, isn't it perfectly splendid?"
exclaimed Harriet. "I never dreamed that I should have such a glorious
vacation as this is going to be. How many girls are there in camp, Miss
Elting?"
"Forty or fifty I should say. I do not know the exact number. You will
find a happy lot of young women. Are you hungry?"
There was a general assent to the question.
Miss Elting produced a small hamper in which were sandwiches, cold tea,
milk and fruit. It was a delightful surprise to the girls. They showed
their further appreciation by eating every crumb of the luncheon, while
Jasper contented himself with nibbling at a single sandwich which he held
in one hand, driving the young horse with the other.
In this way they drove into the forest, entered the cool dark shadows of
the big woods, and were greeted with a chorus of piping twitters from
hundreds of forest birds, varied now and then by the hoarse caw of a
distant crow whose voice perhaps had started the woodland chorus. The
fragrance of the woods mingled delightfully with the perfume of the wild
honey-suckle. The Meadow-Brook Girls fell silent under the majesty of the
forest. Tommy was the first to break the spell.
"Thith ith a thpooky old plathe," she declared with a shiver. "Oh, Mr.
Jathper, are there any fairieth in thethe woodth?"
"Any what?"
"Fairies," explained Harriet, smiling absently.
"Never seen none," answered the old man gruffly.
"Isn't it simply glorious?" breathed Hazel.
"It is too wonderful for words," agreed Harriet.
Miss Elting nodded, smiling happily at the enthusiasm of the girls. The
wagon was following an old logging road. Small bushes grew up in the
middle of the road. The wheels sank down into deep ruts that had been cut
by the tires of the heavy logging wagons, but in general the way was free
of obstructions, though the bushes in the road tickled the hide of the
young horse until he began to prance from one side of the road to the
other in an effort to avoid them. Harriet wanted to suggest to Jasper that
he use both hands to drive, but she did not quite like to do so. He
undoubtedly would resent her interference, nor could she blame him for
doing so.
"Jasper, are you sure the horse is perfectly safe?" questioned Miss Elting
apprehensively.
"Hasn't been doing nothing for nigh onto a week. Jest feels his oats,
that's all."
Harriet was not fully satisfied with the explanation, though the others
appeared to be. Harriet watched the animal now even more closely than she
had done before.
"Gid-ap!" commanded Jasper, giving the horse an unexpected slap with the
reins after a particularly quick swerve to one side of the road on the
animal's part. The horse cleared the road with a single leap sideways. He
had been pricked by the sharp top of a bush at the instant the reins were
brought down on his back. The reins not being under the full control of
the driver at that moment, the animal took advantage of the fact and
shying clear out of the narrow road, plunged in among the trees in a panic
of fear.
There followed a crunching grinding crash.
"Thave me! Oh, thave me!" screamed Tommy.
With a ripping sound the canopy top was stripped clear of the vehicle and
left dangling from the low hanging limbs of the trees under which the
buck-board wagon had been dragged.
"Hold fast! Don't try to jump!" commanded Miss Elting without the least
trace of excitement in her voice. Hazel placed a firm hand on the arm of
the terror-stricken Tommy.
The right forward wheel of the wagon collided with a tree. The wheel was
shattered, and the end of the axle broken off short. At the same instant
the horse sprang sharply to the left evidently in an effort to get back
into the log road, facing almost in the opposite direction.
Jasper being on the downhill side when the wheel collapsed, plunged head
first from the seat, landing heavily on the ground. His head coming into
contact with the base of the tree, Jasper sank over on his side,
unconscious.
Harriet had not lost her head for a second. As the driver fell she
snatched at the reins. She caught one of them, the other falling to the
ground on the wrecked side of the wagon.
The thills of the wagon broke off short with reports like the explosions
of a pistol. Then the horse bolted. Harriet grasping the one rein with
both hands shot over the dashboard of the wagon as though she had been
projected from a cannon. Hazel and Tommy were also pitched from the
vehicle, Miss Elting and Margery clinging to the seats as the wagon
toppled over on its side.
"Let go!" shouted Miss Elting. "You'll be killed!"
But Harriet clung to the single rein, the frantic animal dragging her away
at a frightful rate of speed.