not!" defended Hilda.
"I will offer my services to the Band and inquire of an interior
decorator I know, to see what would be the best hanger," said the Guide.
"All right, Miss Miller, you do that and we will attend to the rest,"
added Jane.
"I suppose two white-wash brushes ought to be better to paint with than
camels-hair No. 0," laughed Elena.
"Use whatever you like but for goodness' sake, girls, don't put your
'atmosphere' on too thick! It will take an age to dry out if you do,"
commented Zan.
Then the Council ended with the singing of the Zuni Sunset Song and the
quenching of the Council Fire--in this case the electric current was
switched off and the log fire-place taken back to the closet. When
everything was in order, the girls left and went home, eagerly talking
over the beautiful scenery-to-be.
CHAPTER THREE--HEARD IN THE "SCENIC FOREST"
After leaving the other girls at the corner of Maple Avenue, May Randall
and Eleanor Wilbur walked on alone. May was large for her age, but most
enthusiastic over Woodcraft as she was a devotee of gymnastics and all
out-door exercises.
"Isn't that Woodcraft foolishness a perfect scream?" said Eleanor,
jeeringly.
May looked at her companion with surprise. "A scream! Why don't you
think it is splendid?"
"Oh, it answers well enough when one has nothing else to do, but you
won't catch me giving my time to making things or helping work just to
boost a League that wants free advertising," retorted Eleanor.
"Why Eleanor Wilbur! You know that isn't true. Why would the Woodcraft
League want advertising? They should worry whether we girls boost or
not. The cost of keeping this thing going is far beyond what we pay in.
That Manual alone is worth ten times the price we are charged for it.
Then too, each Band has the free right to make its own individual laws
and work or meet as it likes," defended May.
"I suppose you are so mesmerised by Zan and Miss Miller, who are crazy
about the thing, that you can't see how silly the ideas of Council, or
singing, or obeying laws are! Of course the camping and fun are all
right!"
"If that's the way you feel about it why not resign now before your name
is posted on the Totem? You know there is one too many."
"Why should I resign when I want some fun this Winter? Resign yourself
if there is one too many! If I had the money Jane Hubert or Zan Baker
have for an allowance, you wouldn't catch me wasting time with your old
Band. I'd go to a matinee every chance I'd get, and have other fun, too.
But I never get enough spending-money to buy decent candy, let alone go
to a good show!" complained Eleanor.
May made no reply but she looked at her companion, and Eleanor, glancing
at her as she concluded, read May's thoughts.
"I suppose you are such a Pharisee that you couldn't think of anything
so wicked as a theatre or a little supper-party," ventured Eleanor, with
a mean sneer.
"I guess I'll turn down this street and walk home alone. I prefer it to
any such company as you can offer me," retorted May. And that sentence
caused all the after trouble.
"Old hypocrite!" muttered Eleanor to herself, as she went on alone. "She
thinks by pandering to the first Woodcrafters she'll push herself in.
But those five girls are too clannish to admit outsiders into their
charmed circle, and that sweet pussy-footed Miller is worst of all!"
Hence Eleanor was not in the friendliest of moods when she met May at
school the following morning. She pretended not to see her and only when
May spoke directly to her, did she reply. May said nothing to the other
girls about the conversation that took place between them on that walk
home the day before, although Eleanor thought she had.
The names of the six members-to-be were posted on the Totem Pole which
was placed at the entrance to the gymnasium where every scholar going in
or coming out could read the notice.
At recess-time the Woodcrafters were the centre of attraction and many
eager requests from other girls to be allowed to join the Tribe, was the
result of the notice on the Totem Pole.
"Just can't do it, girls! We have one too many as it is. A Band is only
allowed ten members and we have eleven proposed, so one has to be
dropped," explained Zan.
"Which one?" asked Martha Wheaton, curiously.
"We won't know until the time for testing is up. The one that falls
short will have to make a graceful exit, I s'pose," replied Jane.
"It ought to be Eleanor Wilbur, then. She's going around telling
everybody what a farce the whole business is. She acts as if she had a
bone to pick with you girls. Did anything happen at the Council to
antagonise her?" said Martha.
"Why--no! I thought she was enjoying herself immensely. I'll go and ask
her if she intends to drop out," said Zan.
"But don't tell who told you! I don't want to get in bad with her--you
know what a mean tongue she has!" hurriedly cried Martha, wishing she
had kept quiet about the entire affair.
"Hey, there, Ella! Wait a minute--I want to see you!" called Zan,
running after the girl who was making for the doorway.
"What do you want? I'm going in to study!" snapped Eleanor, fearing Zan
meant to find fault with her about May Randall.
"I just heard something about your way of looking at our Woodcraft work,
so you'd better make up your mind to-day whether you meant what you said
or not. There're piles of other girls only waiting a chance to grab what
you laugh at!" Zan spoke angrily as she stood at the foot of the
door-steps looking up at Eleanor.
Eleanor half-turned at the entrance door and sneered: "I read part of
that poky Manual last night, and I couldn't find a single thing there
that would authorise a Chief to call down a member of the Tribe outside
of Woodcraft meetings. I can do or say what I please without your
over-bearing dominion of my rights!"
Zan felt like throwing her Latin book at Eleanor's head, but Jane ran up
and whispered: "Forget it! Give her rope enough and she'll hang herself,
all right!"
And as Zan turned away with Jane, Eleanor watched them and thought to
herself: "I'd better not say anything that'll get to that Miller's ears,
or she'll remove my name from the Totem without as much as saying 'By
your leave!' But I'll have it out on that May Randall, all right, for
tattling what she should have considered a confidential talk."
Down in her heart, Eleanor knew she wanted to be a member of Woodcraft,
not for the fun alone, but because she saw what it had done for the five
girls that Summer. She longed to be a different type of girl from what
she generally was, but so all-powerful was her human will that it kept
her from doing or saying what she really wished to; and so cowardly was
the trait to make strangers believe her charmingly perfect, that she
generally found herself in trouble about one friend or another. Even at
home, she praised the maid to her face and then denounced her to her
mother. Had she dared she might have carried out the same hypocrisy
between her mother and father, but Mr. Wilbur was the one being for whom
she had any fear or respect, so she never misrepresented things to him.
It was not the _real_ Eleanor that scoffed at Woodcraft and gossiped
injuriously about it, but the weak mortal self that was the wretched
counterfeit of the real and true Eleanor. The girl had not yet
discovered this duality in her nature, but she had felt a growing
dissatisfaction with herself and her environment since entering High
School, and this unhappy state of mind aggravated her desire to belittle
others or their efforts to climb to a higher plane of living.
Had Eleanor stopped to diagnose her feelings and actions she would have
realised that the "misunderstandings" (as she termed the quarrels and
trouble resulting from her poisoned darts of gossip) could be easily
traced to the vindictive and malicious desires she entertained, while
the sweet and pure and altogether attractive qualities that had been
paramount in her early childhood years were becoming weaker and weaker
through lack of expression. So at fourteen, at the character-forming
time when a girl needs to be on guard that all undesirable tendencies
are carefully eliminated to keep them from taking root for all future
years, Eleanor, and those she associated with, were in a constant state
of confusion and irritation created by her stubborn and selfish
wilfulness.
During the week following the first Council meeting of the new members,
the Band bought materials and began work on the forest scenery and
wooden upright stands. Elena, Nita, and May Randall were given the roll
of white duck to paint, while the other girls measured and sawed and
hammered the 2 x 4 timbers to make the uprights necessary to hold the
scenic walls of the woodland camp.
All that week Eleanor had been one of the first of the Woodcrafters to
be on hand, but the moment the actual carpentry began, she would sigh,
and scoff, and belittle the efforts of the others, or wonder why anyone
spent good time on such foolish ideas!
Miss Miller had heard rumours of Eleanor's gossip and she overheard
several disturbing criticisms made during the work on the carpentry, but
she said nothing at the time.
Of all the people who knew Eleanor well, Miss Miller was about the only
one who studied the girl and understood the _chemicalisation_, so to
speak, of the processes going on within the girl's consciousness. The
evil desires were fermenting and souring her nature while the sweetness
and purifying elements were gradually being spoiled so that presently, a
Judas-natured individual would claim the victory over the true, and the
battle would be lost for the side of the divine and eternal self.
It was with a thrill of gratitude then, that the Guide recalled her deep
perplexities over the waywardness of Nita, that same Summer on the Farm.
How she had studied every phase of the problem and finally won out to
the ever-growing betterment of the girl.
"If I can only win the slightest hold on this girl's innate goodness and
learn how to appeal to her higher self, I feel sure I can weed out the
'tares' even if it takes a long time. It is well worth the fight for the
'wheat' waiting to be garnered," murmured Miss Miller as she reached the
Gymnasium door. Which goes to show what the Guide really thought of
Woodcraft and the privileges given her whereby to improve the morals and
manners of the girls entrusted to her care.
"Everybody waiting for me to-day?" cheerily called the Guide as she
hurried in where the girls were waiting to hold a Saturday afternoon
Council.
"Yes, we're crazy to pass judgment on the scenery. Elena makes such a
secret of it that not one of us has seen it since she had it sketched
out with charcoal. It's back there in that huge roll. The boys brought
it in the car a few minutes ago," explained Zan.
"And did you finish the uprights so we can hang the duck?" asked Miss
Miller.
"Everything is back in the corner where we decided to have our forest,"
replied Jane.
"Then we can go right to work and place our trees and seats, and some of
you can build the log fire-place in the centre for a Council," said the
energetic Guide.
A hubbub of instructions and calls and running to and fro continued
after this for some time. Miss Miller tried to superintend the raising
of the "huge forest timbers."
"Say! Won't one of you girls with nothing to do help me hook up this
side of the trees?" called Elena, anxiously, as she found the weight of
the duck too heavy to manage alone.
"You've got the trees upside-down!" laughed Jane.
"No I haven't! That's the way Nita painted this piece," retorted Elena.
"Why it looks more like an early settler's log stockade than the
beautiful woodland hillside back of the Bluff," replied surprised Jane,
eyeing the painting with her head on one side.
"S-sh! Nita'll hear you! She is so proud of it! She says it is a much
better line of trees than my forest!" whispered Elena, proudly
displaying her art work.
Zan came over to assist in hanging the duck and smiled behind the
painting as she heard Elena explain the various "scenes" depicted on the
great stretch of cotton.
"This is the flat rock where we sat telling bedtime stories; here is the
swimming pool, and up there is Fiji's cave. I tried to get in Bill's
cottage below the Bluff but my paint gave out," explained Elena, as the
three girls lifted and stretched the canvas and hung the hooks over the
taut wire.
"But the way you measured and cut the scenery, we'll have to unhook the
cave and Bluff every time we need one side open. You made the other
three sides all stockade, you see," commented Zan.
"That's so! I never thought of that. We will have to omit one whole side
at times, won't we?" responded Elena,
"Still, I think it will be easier to fold down or hang up a Bluff than
to hew through a great row of giant tree-trunks, Zan," laughed Jane.
Finding Elena too serious over her painting to laugh or enjoy a joke
about it, the other two girls called that all was ready for the admiring
audience.
As the group stood about the Council circle looking over the woodland
scene, some smiled, some sniffed, and some looked delighted at the
result. Miss Miller saw the disappointment on Nita's face and remarked:
"We joyfully accept this attempt to paint the cherished mental picture
of Wickeecheokee Camp--a scene that defies all words or arts to
describe."
"But Miss Miller, you must admit that this scenery is misleading to new
Woodcrafters. We have ranted of stars, and streams, and the breath of
balsam pines; but where, oh where, is there any such 'atmosphere' to be
found in this painting!" Zan cried dramatically, as she posed and threw
out both arms towards the canvas.
"Atmosphere! Good gracious, Zan, can you ask for more!" laughed Jane, in
response to Zan's call. "Did you ever smell such an odour of the
turpentine that comes from pine?"
The girls all laughed but Nita complained pathetically:
"If you girls _knew_ the job it was to smear all that paint on the old
stuff, you wouldn't poke fun at the trees. Why, the duck soaked up my
paint as fast as I put it on, so of course I had to use gallons of turp
to make it spread at all. Even then, it dried before I could shade any
bark on my trees."
"You all say I am too matter-of-fact a cook to be an artist, but I bet I
could take a handful of the superfluous paint on those trees and knead
it into something resembling 'tall timbers'," now commented Hilda.
"No one could! Why we had to hang the duck along the wall of our attic
and stand on an old library table while we painted the tops of the
trees! Just try to make bark or leaves on a tree that has to be painted
with a heavy kalsomine brush. Our arms got so lame before we painted an
hour that we fairly cried with the ache in the bones," said Elena,
defiantly.
"Yes, and Elena's attic is so bespattered with raw umber and ivory black
that Mrs. Marsh says she will have to stain the entire floor now to make
it look decent again," added Nita.
"Well girls, we are all genuine Woodcrafters, so we hail with
thanksgiving this scenery that fills our lungs with the pungent odour of
the forest. I, for one, will breathe deeply of this pine product!"
laughed Miss Miller, turning the criticism to fun.
"Well, all I can say is that I feel grateful for these great stout logs
that will protect us from Winter's icy winds and the hungry horde of
howling wolves--the menace of pioneers in the forest!" added Zan.
"They're all right in Winter but how about the longed for shade in
Summer when the fierce rays of the sun beat upon our unprotected heads?
We have no branches overhead," remarked May, whimsically.
"Now you've all joshed Nita and me quite enough--let's proceed with the
Council," said Elena, looking beseechingly toward Miss Miller.
So the meeting was opened and during the singing of the Prayer of
Invocation, the Guide focussed her camera and took a snap-shot of the
girls standing in the "Scenic Woodland Council."
After the Tally of the last meeting had been read and other business
disposed of, Miss Miller said:
"Is there any particular work you girls plan to do this coming week?"
"O Chief!" said Nita, jumping to salute Zan. "We really must plan some
new dances for this Fall, especially if we are going to celebrate a big
Hallow E'en Council and invite our friends."
"As this is the last week of September, we haven't any too much time,
either," added Jane.
"Well, let's commission Nita to dig up some new and entertaining folk
songs that can be acted out in a dance," suggested Zan, looking to the
Guide for approval of the idea.
"Elena, make a note in your Tally that Nita will find us some new
dancing songs before next Council," replied Miss Miller.
"O Chief!" now spake Hilda. "When we broke camp for the Summer we were
all quite keen to win _coups_ for needle-craft, carpentry, and other
work. Besides, we want to secure degrees for some of the big stunts like
Mrs. Remington's Tribe have won."
"Oh, that reminds me! Elizabeth Remington said she would gladly help us
to learn how to start the pottery and carpentry work. Then too, she said
her mother thought we ought to plan to have a Little Lodge attached to
our Tribe, as many Big Lodges have," cried Zan, eagerly.
"It is very good of Elizabeth to offer her time to help you girls; as
for the Little Lodge, I would not think of it till your two Bands are
filled and the Tribe is chartered and well under way," replied the
Guide.
"O Chief! Can't we start the pottery work first 'cause Zan knows a lot
about designing since she started that class-work in school," suggested
Hilda.
"I was not aware that Zan had graduated from the School of Design so
soon. Did you really finish in two lessons, Zan?" teased the Guide.
"Oh, you know what Hilda means--she thinks that now I can find out about
real designing we all can profit by it," explained Zan.
"Instead of pottery which is a step beyond carpentry, I would suggest
that the Band make some objects in wood according to the Manual rules
for winning _coups_," advised Miss Miller.
"Why can't you old members wait a little while and give us new members
time to win the flower, star, and tree _coups_ such as you earned at
Camp this Summer?" asked Frances Mason.
"We can all begin together on carpentry and at times when we are not
together, or you new members are not in on some of the things we do, you
can catch up on those easy winners," said Zan.
So the entry was made in the Tally Book directly after the note reading:
"Nita will find new folk songs for a dance before next Council."
It read: "Begin some object in carpentry using own designs and material,
suitable to claim a _coup_ with all provisions met."
"Now that that is off our minds let's have Miss Miller tell us an Indian
myth or story. We haven't heard one since that last week on the farm,"
petitioned Jane.
"And I happen to know that she received a package of books from the
Smithsonian Institution at Washington," added Zan.
"How! How!" chorused the other girls, so the Guide felt called upon to
contribute her share to the Council meeting.
"I really had planned something so different from this, that I must have
a moment in which to think," murmured the Guide.
"Oh dear me! That's always the way with us! We are so impatient to make
Miss Miller work for her honourable position, that we generally manage
to 'cut off our noses to spite our faces,'" sighed Elena so plaintively
that the others laughed.'"
"My original idea will not spoil by delay, so I will tell the story now
which is really much easier than the work I planned," rejoined Miss
Miller.
"Well, at least tell us what your plan was and let us judge of its
merits," declared Zan, coaxingly.
"I never satisfy idle curiosity if I recognise it, but I will tell you a
story of what happened to some Eskimo Indian children who indulged in
this undesirable inclination to their undoing.
CHAPTER FOUR--THE ESKIMO INDIAN LEGEND
"This myth is told by the Sea Lion-town People from Alaska and is
called, 'A Tale of a Red Feather,'" began Miss Miller.
"A group of children were playing ball with a woody excrescence which
they had found in the bole of a tree. It had been rubbed down and
polished until it was smooth and shiny as could be.
"As they knocked the ball back and forth, shouting with glee if one of
their band happened to miss it, a small red feather floated down from
the clouds and blew gently to and fro just over their heads. As it was
wafted about in the eddying breeze, it attracted the attention of the
youngsters who watched it with eager curiosity.
"It never came nearer the earth than just above the heads of the
children and as they speculated concerning it, one of the boys declared
it must be a magic feather. Another said it might be a prince bewitched
by an evil spell-binder, and still another said it was from a Red Eagle
that soared from the Happy Hunting Grounds.
"The latter idea seemed to take hold of the children and they cried 'We
want it if it fell from the Happy Hunting Grounds.'
"So most of them jumped up trying to catch it as it floated over their
heads. The tallest boy, making a high leap, seized it, but instead of
bringing it down to the ground with him, his hand stuck fast as if by
some unseen power. He struggled but could not release himself and
gradually he was drawn up from the earth.
"He screamed, and his brother seeing the awful magic working, caught
hold of his hand to stay him. But he, too, was stuck fast to his
brother's hand and was lifted up against his will.
"Then another boy caught hold on to the second lad's feet and he, too,
was drawn up unwillingly. Soon, all the children, then the parents who
sought to save their little ones, next the townspeople, and lastly the
dogs and cats and donkeys, and every living creature in the town--all
but the niece of the Town Chief were drawn up.
"This girl remained sleeping upon a couch behind a screen and was quite
unaware of what was happening to her kinsmen and townspeople and the
creatures that had lived in the town.
"The victims of Red Feather were carried up, up, up, to a great cloud
that hung waiting to receive them. There they were kept until the waters
in the cloud washed them all to bones and then bleached the bones white.
But that comes later.
"The niece, strangely enough, was awakened by the great stillness. She
listened and then sprang out of bed wondering what kept everyone so
silent. No shouting of children, no braying of donkeys, no fighting of
cats and dogs, no bargaining of townspeople!
"She peered from behind the screen and found no moving or living being,
so she quickly dressed and ran out to call, but no answer came. She ran
through the houses and found them vacant, and left as if they had been
abandoned in a great hurry. The canoes were still tied to their posts or
lying upon the beach, so it was quite evident that her people had not
gone by the water-way. The great mountains back of the village offered
no temptation to the villagers and the maiden knew they had not
disappeared that way.
"She went home to think over this strange thing and as she thought, she
feared some evil worker had succeeded in making magic against her
people. Reaching this conclusion, the maiden ran out and stood near the
spot where her cousins first saw the feather. She, too, saw a tiny red
feather dance about her head but she was too troubled to account for her
friends to give the temptation another thought.
"Having no curiosity or desire to possess the red feather gave her the
power to see it as it was. As the feather still fluttered about, the
girl was able to witness the whole sight of her people and every living
creature of the village excepting herself, drawn up to the black cloud
and left dangling there.
"Then she ran back to her tepee and wept. She wept gallons of salty
tears before she became reconciled to her fate. But the tears relieved
her sorrow and she went forth to seek for a memento of her brothers and
sister. Where the children had been playing ball she found a shaving her
brother had whittled from the wood from which he was making a spear just
before he was caught up. She next found a feather from the arrow her
cousin had been making. Then she found a chip of red cedar bark her
brother had held, and a wild crab-apple blossom her little sister had
plucked. Lastly, the maiden saw the footprints in the mud, of another
brother as he had stood catching at the heels of his cousin. All these
relics she gathered up carefully and placed them in a blanket.