FULFILLMENT
"Of course, she'll come over. Didn't I say I'd leave a flap up?" asked
Wyn. It was so early that the very Chickadees, after whom the patrol had
been named, were still asleep in their own tree-top scout tents.
"As if she could get out of bed----"
"Why couldn't she? After last night I wonder if she will ever feel safe
in bed again. Seems to me," said the incorrigible Wynnie, "she could do
lots more good sitting up--raiding attics and things like that."
"But Chicks," said Thistle from a rumpled pillow, "isn't that child a
dream?"
"You mean didn't that child dream----"
"No, I do not. I think she is the most adorable thing. Why, she looks
exactly like a painting we have----"
"There--there," soothed Treble.
"Don't get homesick," Pell called out. "We have a few more days to go
before time to break camp and you want to be in at the big party, don't
you?"
"I think the prince part simply the most marvelous story I have ever
heard," said Treble, under her breath. It was too early to join in a
general wake-up.
"Leave it to Alma," whispered Laddie. "I always said these quiet little
girls have the most fun. I heard Wyn groaning in her sleep after every
one else was aslumber. That's the kind of fun _she_ has."
"Looks as if Nora had not walked in _her_ sleep, at any rate," put in
Betta. "I move we get up and slick things up early. How do we know but
the myth flew away in the night?"
"We don't, but she didn't," replied Treble crisply. "But hark to a
familiar sound. It calls arise----"
Then began the duties, and in spite of their anxiety to get over to the
Nest, the Scouts did succeed in performing their tasks with the usual
accuracy and unusual alacrity.
At nine o'clock they were free.
No need to ask what anyone was going to do that morning. Every Girl
Scout who had been in "the raid" was ready to run before the day's
orders had been read from the bulletin.
They headed for the Mantons' cottage.
"Did you ever?"
"No, I never!"
This was a part of the meaningless contribution in words offered as the
girls came up to the Nest. They had seen the tableau on the front porch.
"Hello!" called out Nora.
"'Lo, yourself," sang back Thistle.
"Too early for a fashionable call?" asked Treble.
"Come along, girls," Mrs. Manton welcomed them. "I am sure Nora has been
anxiously waiting for you. I'll let her tell you the news," she
finished, indicating the chairs for the party.
Lucia was in a big steamer chair. It almost swallowed up the tiny
figure, but she had a way of reclining, quite gracefully.
"How are you today, Lucia?" asked Alma.
"Oh, I'm all right," replied the child, pinking through her dark skin.
She looked very pretty in one of Nora's bright rose dresses, with the
same color hair ribbon, and her feet encased in a pair of white
slippers. No wonder she was "all right."
"She's going to stay," said Nora proudly. "We've adopted her."
"Quick work," remarked Laddie. "But I don't blame you. She looks as if
she grew right here in this lovely big wild wood. Don't you like it,
Lucia?"
"Lots, much," said the child.
"We found out all about it, of course," continued Nora. "Lucia won't
mind if I tell you?" she questioned.
"No," said the stranger. The single word indicated her timidity.
"You see, she is the daughter of Vita's daughter who died last year,"
Nora explained. "She has been living with cousins, and the man Nick, of
whom she was so frightened, is the cousin's husband."
Lucia now seemed to shrink back, and at that sign Nora signaled the
girls to leave the porch and adjourn to more convenient quarters for
their confidences.
Once away from the restriction, words flew back and forth in questions
and answers, until Wyn wanted to know if it was all a duet between Alma
and Nora, or could they make it a chorus?
"And he didn't beat her?" demanded Pell.
"And she is really related to Vita, not kidnapped?" asked Betta.
"You didn't find her all bruised up----"
"Now girls," scoffed Nora. "I know perfectly well you don't think
anything of the kind. You all know Vita was always kind and
generous----"
"Whew!" whistled Wyn. "How we can change! I thought she was a regular
bear this time yesterday morning."
"I think your cousins are perfectly splendid," said Betta, sensibly. "Is
she really going to adopt the child?"
"We had a doctor this morning," said Nora with an important air, "and he
advised change of scene----"
"Let's take her over to Chickadee!" interrupted Thistle. "That would be
a distinct and decided change."
"Oh, hush," begged Alma. "What else did the doctor say, Nora?"
"She is hysterical--all came from the fright of her mother's sudden
death," continued Nora. "But girls, I don't know how much to thank you,"
she broke off. "Being a Scout has done much for me."
"We believe you," said Wyn in her usual bantering way. "But say, little
girl, are you going back to that school where they teach you to wear
silk underwear in the cold, blasty winter weather? Couldn't you make out
to get adopted at the Nest yourself?"
A laugh, then a set of laughs, followed this.
"You are coming over to camp tonight, remember," said Alma, seriously.
"We have not initiated you yet, you know."
"How about that first formal ducking, with Jimbsy in the background?"
Pell reminded them. "That seemed all right for an initiation."
Mrs. Manton was coming down the path with the inevitable letter. Was
there ever a story finished without "a letter"? Mr. Jerry followed up.
It was, as you have guessed, from Nora's mother, and she did grant
permission for her to stay.
"So," said Mrs. Teddy Manton, otherwise Theodora, while the real Jerry
looked over her shoulder at the letter, and Cap sniffed approvingly at
Nora's khaki skirt, "we expect to have Nora go to school in town this
winter, and perhaps next summer we will all be back again at Rocky
Ledge."
"This was a real vacation," sighed Nora, "the best I ever had."
"Three cheers!" yelled the Scouts; and Lucia from her porch was truly
sorry she had ever called those girls "crazy."
It was all so comfortable and safe now. Even her "bad fit" was gone with
the winds, and how lovely to be out in the sunlight and have nothing to
fear!
Again came a riotous shout from the girls on and off the bench.
"Chick! Chick! Chick-a-dees!" they yelled. And it must have been Wyn who
echoed:
"Cut! Cut! ka-dah! cut!"
Girl Scouts are many and their adventures equally numerous, from
mountain to valley, over hill and dale, and their further activities
will be told of in the next volume of this series, which will be
entitled: The Girl Scouts at Spindlewood Knoll.
THE END.
THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES
By LILIAN GARIS
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors
Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated by the foremost
organizations of America form the background for these stories and while
unobtrusive there is a message in every volume.
1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS, _or Winning the First B. C._
A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
The story is correct in scout detail.
2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE, _or Maid Mary's Awakening_
The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
girls' activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as "Maid
Mary" makes a fascinating story.
3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST, _or The Wig Wag Rescue_
Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG, _or Peg of Tamarack Hills_
The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE, _or Nora's Real Vacation_
Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed to
appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif, becomes
a problem for the girls to solve.
Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers, New York
THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
By ALICE B. EMERSON
12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her
adventures and travels will hold the interest of every reader.
RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
_or Jasper Parloe's Secret_
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
_or Solving the Campus Mystery_
RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
_or Lost in the Backwoods_
RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE
POINT _or Nita, the Girl Castaway_
RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
_or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys_
RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
_or The Old Hunter's Treasure Box_
RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
_or What Became of the Raby Orphans_
RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
_or The Missing Pearl Necklace_
RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
_or Helping the Dormitory Fund_
RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
_or Great Days in the Land of Cotton_
RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
_or The Missing Examination Papers_
RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
_or College Girls in the Land of Gold_
RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
_or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam_
RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
_or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier_
RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
_or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils_
RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
_or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point_
RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
_or The Indian Girl Star of the Movies_
RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
_or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers, New York
End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl Scouts at Rocky Ledge, by Lilian Garis