AT HOME BY THE SEA
"Oh, my dear Meadow-Brook Girls!" cried the woman. "And I did not know
you were coming. Why did you not let me know?" Mrs. Livingston, the
Chief Guardian of the Camp Girls, held her young friends off the
better to look at them.
"We did," replied Miss Elting. "When you wrote that you would be glad
to have us join the camp, I made the arrangements and wrote you that
we would be here yesterday."
"I never received the letter."
"But why do you call thith plathe Camp Wau-Wau?" demanded Grace. "Camp
Wau-Wau ith in the Pocono Woodth, Mrs. Livingthton."
"Yes, my dear; but a camp may move, may it not? This is the same old
Camp Wau-Wau, but in a different location. This year we concluded to
make our camp by the sea shore, and chose Lonesome Bar for our camping
place."
"Lonesome Bar!" exclaimed Miss Elting.
"That explains it. We Were looking for Lonesome Cove."
"Which we found," chuckled Harriet.
"We've had the most awful time, and Harriet got drowned," put in
Margery Brown.
"Drowned?"
"Yeth, thhe did," nodded Tommy eagerly. "And we had thuch a time
undrowning her! Thhe thwallowed a whole ithe pond of water."
Miss Elting here explained to the Chief Guardian what had happened.
Mrs. Livingston was amazed. She gazed curiously at the smiling
Harriet.
"I suppose I should not be surprised at anything Harriet does, but
that you all should have fallen into a pond with your car is
incredible. What became of the car?"
"It's there!" chuckled Jane. "They'll be cutting it out in sections
when they take ice from the pond next winter, I reckon. Where can I
send a letter? I must have another car, and that quickly! It's
something like hard labor to get in and out of this place! But let's
be introduced to these nice girls that I see in camp here."
"You are the same old Jane, aren't you?" answered the Chief Guardian,
with an indulgent smile. "I trust your father is well?"
"He is, thank you, but he'll be wanting to have nervous prostration
when he hears about my driving into an old pond. Hello, little girl!
Have I seen you before!" questioned Crazy Jane, catching a little
golden-haired girl by the arm and gazing down into the latter's blue
eyes.
"This is Miss Skinner, from Concord, young ladies," introduced Mrs.
Livingston.
"How do you do, Mith Thkinner," greeted Tommy. "Like mythelf, you
aren't fat, are you?"
"I am not," replied Miss Skinner.
"Where do we stow our belongings?" asked Miss Elting.
Mrs. Livingston looked puzzled.
"Every tent in the camp is full," she replied. "Really, I do not know
what I am going to do with you, girls."
"That is easily answered. We will sleep out-of-doors," proposed Jane.
"We were out all last night, and in our wet clothing at that."
"How soon will you have vacancies?" asked Miss Elting.
"Four girls will be leaving the last of next week, Miss Elting.
Others, I don't recall how many, are to go about the middle of the
week following. Until then I fear you will have to shift for
yourselves."
"We can have something to eat, can't we?" interjected Margery, in a
hopeful tone.
"Yeth, Buthter mutht have thomething to eat all the time," averred
Tommy.
"There is plenty for all. Now, come and meet our girls. We have a very
fine lot of young women at Camp Wau-Wau this summer, and we think we
have an ideal camp, too. I am so sorry that I did not know you were
coming. I might make room for two of you on the floor in my tent.
There isn't a bit of floor space left in any of the other tents."
"I think we all should prefer sleeping out-of-doors, so long as the
weather remains fine," answered Miss Elting.
"That is just the point. What will you do when it rains?" smiled Mrs.
Livingston.
"I know," spoke up Tommy. "I'll jutht run and jump into the othean and
get wet all over, all at onthe; then I won't mind it at all. Do you
thee?"
"I do," replied the Chief Guardian gravely.
Mrs. Livingston already had begun introducing the Meadow-Brook Girls
to the Camp Girls, most of whom had not been in Camp Wau-Wau when the
Meadow-Brook Girls had visited it in the Pocono Woods two seasons
before. By the time the introductions had been finished and the camp
inspected, supper time had arrived. The girls sat down at long tables
in brightly lighted tents and enjoyed a delicious supper. It was the
first real meal the newcomers had enjoyed in more than a day, and they
did full justice to this one, especially did Margery, though openly
teased by Tommy because of her appetite.
Mrs. Livingston had been kept thoroughly informed of the progress of
the Meadow-Brook Girls through her correspondence with Miss Elting, so
that she was fully prepared to bestow the rewards that the girls had
earned. A council fire was called for that evening, at which the
achievements of Harriet Burrell and her companions were related to the
camp, and the beads that each, of the five girls had earned were
bestowed. Harriet now had quite a string of colored beads, the envy of
every Camp Girl. Each of the other girls of the Meadow-Brook party had
performed either heroic or meritorious acts, for which they were
rewarded by the gift of beads according to the regulations of the
order. Unfortunately, the now badly damaged trunk that had been
carried at the rear of Jane McCarthy's car contained their ceremonial
dresses, so that the Meadow-Brook Girls were unable to appear in the
regulation costume; and they also lacked other important equipment,
namely, blankets in which to wrap themselves for outdoor sleeping.
"There is not an extra blanket in camp," said Mrs. Livingston, when
the situation was explained to the Chief Guardian. "I don't know what
we shall do. I fear you girls will have to go into town and stay at a
hotel."
"Oh, no. We have slept out-of-doors under worse conditions," declared
Harriet. "Please do not concern yourself over us. We shall get along
very nicely. Do you happen to have an extra piece of canvas in camp?"
"There is a side wall that we use for covering our vegetables, such as
potatoes. You may use that if you wish, but I warn you it is not very
clean."
"We will give it a good dusting. It will answer very nicely to lie on
and we'll sleep close together to keep warm. I am not sure but I
should prefer sleeping out in that way. The Indians many times slept
in the open without covering. I don't see why we shouldn't do the
same."
"Are there any thnaketh here?" inquired Tommy anxiously.
"Oh, no," the Chief Guardian replied smilingly.
"Any bugth?"
"Naturally, there are some insects; fleas, perhaps, but you don't mind
those."
"No. My father thayth I hop around like a thand flea at a clam bake
mythelf, but if I wath fat I couldn't do that, could I?" asked Tommy
with a sidelong glance at Buster.
Margery, who had been an interested listener to the conversation, now
turned her back, elevating her nose disdainfully. She made no reply to
Tommy's fling at her. Harriet already had gone to bring the canvas,
which was to be their bed for the night. She determined on the morrow
to make bough beds for herself and companions, provided any suitable
boughs were to be had. The canvas was dragged to a level spot. Jane
and Hazel scraped the ground clean and smooth while Harriet was
beating the canvas to get the dust out of it. This done, the canvas
was spread out on the ground and folded over twice, leaving sufficient
of it to cover them after they had taken their positions for the
night.
Tommy regarded the preparations with mild interest.
"Who ith going to thleep next to the wall?" she asked.
"We thought we should place you next to the fold," replied Miss
Elting. "You can't kick the cover off there."
"And where ith Buthter going to thleep?"
"In the middle."
"That ith all right. I don't withh to be too clothe to her. We might
thquabble all night."
"Now, Tommy, you first," nodded Harriet.
Tommy took her place on the canvas with great care, gathering her
skirts about her, turning around and around as if in search of the
softest possible place on which to lie.
"You are thure Buthter ithn't going to thleep near me?" persisted Miss
Tommy.
"Yes, yes. Please get in," urged Miss Elting.
"I jutht wanted to know, that ith all." She lay down, then one by one
her companions took their places on the canvas. Harriet was the last
to turn in. Before doing so she drew the unoccupied half of the canvas
over the girls, leaving Tommy at the fold, as had been promised. There
were no pillows. It was a case of lying stretched out flat or using
one's arm for a pillow. The latter plan was adopted by most of the
girls, though Harriet lay flat on her back after tucking herself in,
gazing up at the stars and listening to the surf beating on the shore
as the tide came rolling in. Now and then a roller showed a white
ridge at its top, the white plainly visible even in the darkness, for
the moon had not yet risen.
The campfire burned low, the camp itself being as silent as if
deserted. Now and then twitterings in the tree tops might have been
heard; were heard, in fact, by Harriet Burrell, but not heeded, for
her gaze was fixed, as it had been for some moments, on two tiny
specks of light far out on the dark sea. One of the specks was green,
the other red. They rose and fell in unison, now and then disappearing
for a few seconds, then rising, high in the air, as it appeared. The
two lights were the side lights of a boat, red on the port and green
on the starboard, and above them was a single white light at the
masthead.
"According to those lights the boat is heading directly toward the
beach," mused Harriet reflectively. "I wonder if I ought to show a
light? No. They know where they are going. Besides, they can see the
light of the campfire. The wind is increasing, too."
Harriet dozed. She awakened half an hour later and gazed sleepily out
to sea. The same lights were there, though they now appeared to be
much nearer. All of a sudden they blinked out and were seen no more.
The girl sat up, rubbing her eyes wonderingly.
"Could they have sunk? No, of course not. How silly of me! The boat
has turned about, and the lights are not visible from behind." But she
did not lie down at once. Instead, she rested her chin in the palms of
her hands and gazed dreamily out over the water. A fresh, salty breeze
was now blowing in. She could hear the flap, flap of the canvas of
the tents off in the camp, a thin veil of mist was obscuring the
stars, the pound of the surf was growing louder and the swish of the
water on the beach more surly.
All at once what looked to her to be a huge cloud suddenly loomed
close at hand, then began moving along the beach.
"Mercy! what is it?" exclaimed the girl under her breath. She crept
from beneath the canvas and ran down to the beach. "It's a ship! How
close to the shore they are running, and they have no lights out."
Harriet watched the vessel for some moments. She saw it swing around a
long, narrow point of land a short distance to the south of the camp
and boldly enter a bay. She was unable to make out with any
distinctness what was being done there, but she heard the creak of the
boom as it swung over and the rattle of the tackle as the sails came
down, though unable to interpret these sounds. Soon there came a sharp
whistle from human lips, answered by a similar whistle from the shore,
then all was quiet.
Harriet Burrell crept back under the canvas, wondering vaguely what
could be the meaning of this. She was too sleepy to think much about
it and soon dropped into a sound sleep, from which she was destined to
be rudely awakened.