THE TRAMPS GUARD THEIR SECRET
Tommy and Margery were the only girls to ran away. Harriet, Jane, Hazel
and Miss Elting stood their ground. Hazel for a few seconds was on the
point of running when she saw that Harriet seemed to understand the
meaning of the sudden uproar, which was still going on.
There came a lull in the whooping and the shouting. Harriet spoke then.
“Now that we are properly scared, you may come out, boys,” she said.
“Boys? My stars!” muttered Jane. “What boys are you looking for,
darlin’?”
“Come out! We know you,” commanded Harriet.
Captain George Baker of the Tramp Club stepped out into the light of the
campfire, a little shamefaced and uncertain as to how his attempt to
frighten the Meadow-Brook Girls might be received.
“Mr. Baker!” exclaimed the guardian.
“Yes, ma’am,” answered George, twisting his hat nervously in his hands.
“I—I hope we didn’t frighten you too much. I—we—I thought you knew we
were here.”
“We certainly did not. We did know that some one was up yonder in the
woods, because Harriet saw and answered signals. Was it you who made the
smoke signals?”
“I and the Pickle,” he answered, referring to his friend, Dill Dodd. “How
do you do, Miss Brown? Why, what has happened? Been hit by a cyclone?”
Certainly Margery looked much the worse for her tumble. Her skirt was
torn, and her face and hands were scratched, but her chin was not too
much injured for her to be able to elevate it.
“I haven’t met a cyclone, nor is anything the matter with me, Mr. Baker,”
replied Margery, rather haughtily. “When did you come in? Until just now
I didn’t know that you were here.”
George smiled sheepishly.
“But where are the boys, George?” asked Harriet.
“Out yonder in the bushes,” he replied, conscious that his face was
redder than usual.
“That is too bad. I should have thought of them before this. Boys, come
into camp!” called Harriet. “We wish to see you.”
“It’s all right, fellows. Hike along!” commanded Captain George.
So one at a time the boys of the Tramp Club filed into the camp of the
Meadow-Brook Girls. They tried to look solemn-faced, yet their eyes were
full of merriment. Dill Dodd led the way; then came Fred Avery, Sam
Crocker, Charlie Mabie, Will Burgess and Davy Dockrill. The boys were
about the same age as the Meadow-Brook Girls, though taller and of
stronger build.
As the reader of this series knows, this was not the first meeting of the
two clubs. Harriet and her friends were introduced in the first volume of
this series, “The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas,” which told of their
enjoyable adventures in the Pocono Woods. In that volume the reader
became acquainted with the grit, zeal and purpose of Harriet Burrell and
her chums, and with the fine influence that Miss Elting, their
teacher-guardian, exercised over them.
In the second volume, “The Meadow-Brook Girls across Country,” the five
girls and their guardian were shown on their long “hike” homeward, as
they had elected to go on foot rather than resort to comfortable travel
by train. Though at this time the Meadow-Brook Girls met with some
unexpected hardships, the pleasant experiences through which they passed
repaid them for their many troubles. In this volume, too, as our readers
will recall, the girls first made the acquaintance of the boys of the
Tramp Club, who were destined to prove valued friends in many a
difficulty. But the pranks of these mischievous lads forced the girls to
retaliate in kind, and not only did they pay their score, but proved
themselves the boys’ equals in achievement and endurance on the homeward
hike.
In “The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat,” as the third volume of the series is
entitled, the little company of girls encountered stirring adventures as
well as mirth-provoking incidents during their vacation spent under
decidedly trying circumstances on an old houseboat. With the help of the
Tramp Club a mysterious enemy, who had caused the Meadow-Brook Girls no
little annoyance, was captured, but not until he had succeeded in setting
fire to and burning their vacation home.
After the destruction of the “Red Rover,” their boat, they started at
once for the White Mountains on a long, muscle-trying experiment in
mountain-climbing. All that befell them of adventure, mystery and
rollicking good times is set forth in “The Meadow-Brook Girls in the
Hills.”
Not one of our readers has yet forgotten the great enjoyment furnished by
the fifth volume, “The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea.” Here Harriet and
her friends were found setting forth on an expedition without knowing
whither it led, that secret being in the possession only of Miss Elting,
their high school teacher, who accompanied them on all their jaunts.
However, the trip proved the most exciting that they had yet had either
ashore or afloat.
And now we return to the Meadow-Brook Girls in camp, to find them at the
outset of still another vacation hike. So far, however, this experience
had proved anything but exciting. So much adventure on previous trips
made the present life in the woods seem dull by comparison. So even the
coming of the boys was welcomed as a real event by the Meadow-Brook
Girls.
As the boys came one by one into camp they were greeted with smiling
faces and cordial handshakes. There could be no doubting the pleasure of
the girls. Harriet had promptly suspected the presence of the boys when
she observed the smoke signals earlier in the evening. She knew of no
others who would understand this ancient method of signaling.
“I should like to know how you found us?” said the guardian.
“We found out at Meadow-Brook where you were. The girls’ folks told us,”
replied George. “We’ve a great surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” asked the girls in chorus.
“Yes”—George looked wisely at his companions—“the greatest ever. Don’t
try to guess it, for you can’t.”
“Wath that why you thaw our folkth?” demanded Tommy shrewdly.
Captain George flushed to the roots of his hair. Tommy had come nearer
the mark than she perhaps thought. Even Margery showed her curiosity.
“We are ready to hear about this great surprise,” said Miss Elting
smilingly.
“All right, I’ll tell you about it, and——”
“Funny place to pitch a camp, this,” observed Sam Crocker, interrupting
what Captain George was saying.
“Yes, I was thinking about that,” declared George. “Whatever induced you
to come up to this hole?”
“Thith ithn’t a hole, it ith a thide hill,” corrected Tommy.
“You didn’t finish telling us about the surprise, George,” reminded Jane.
“That is so, I didn’t, did I? Oh, you will be surprised and delighted,”
chuckled George. “It’s a dead secret, but I’ll tell you about it. As I
was about to say, this is no sort of place for girls to camp. Now _we_
have picked out a much better place.”
“Where?” asked the guardian.
“Up yonder in the woods, or thereabouts. You must move up there.”
“We are very well satisfied where we are,” replied Harriet Burrell,
smiling mischievously. “Of course, if you can give us any really good
reason why we should move our camp, we will carefully consider your
suggestion.”
“We have a nice place picked out for you. That’s why we want you to
move,” declared George bluntly.
“Thay, are you trying to play trickth on uth?” demanded Tommy.
“Not at all. Hope to die, we’re not. You’ll see that we are not when you
get to the camp we have chosen for you. Now, we’ll be down here early in
the morning and move you right up to it. You won’t have to lift a hand
toward making the new camp. But we must be going. It is getting late.
You’ll surely be ready, won’t you? We shall be on hand early,” announced
the captain, rising. “Come along, fellows, we have stayed too long
already. The girls will begin telling us to go home if we don’t move.”
“Wait! You haven’t told us about the great secret,” cried Margery, unable
to restrain her curiosity any longer. “Tell us now.”
“We’ll tell you all about it in the morning,” called back the captain.
“I want to know now about the great thecret,” shouted Tommy.
The boys scrambled up the side of the hill, shouting their good-byes as
they hurried on toward their own camp, leaving the curiosity of the
Meadow-Brook Girls unsatisfied.