THE FORAGERS
"Miss Douglas, them week-enders done cl'ared the coop. Thain't nary
chicken lef' standin' on a laig. Looks like these here Hungarians don't
think no mo' of 'vourin' a chicken than a turkey does of gobblin' up a
grasshopper."
"All of them gone, Oscar?"
"Yas'm! Thain't hide or har of them lef'. If I hadn't er wrung they
necks myself, I would er thought somethin's been a-ketchin' 'em; but
land's sakes, the way these week-enders do eat chicken is a caution!"
"All right, I'll get our young people to start out today and find some
more for us. A big crowd will be up on Friday."
"Yes, I'll be bound they will, and all of them empty. I should think the
railroad cyars would chawge mo' ter haul the folks back from this here
camp than what they do to git 'em here. They sho' goes back a-weighing
mo' than what they do whin they comes a-creepin' up the mountain actin'
like they ain't never seed a squar' meal in they lives."
Oscar's grumbling on the subject of the amount of food consumed by the
boarders was a never failing source of amusement to the Carter girls.
They were never so pleased as when the boarders were hungry and enjoyed
the food. No doubt Oscar was pleased, too, but he was ever outwardly
critical of the capacity of the week-enders.
Lucy and Lil, Skeeter and Frank were delighted to be commissioned to go
hunting for food. Many were the adventures they had while out on these
foraging parties and many the tales they had to tell of the inhabitants
of the mountain cabins. There were several rules they must obey and
besides those they had perfect liberty to do as they felt like. The
first rule was that they must wear thick boots and leggins on these
tramps. The snake bite Helen had got early in the summer had been a
lesson learned in time and now all the campers were made to comply with
the rule of leggins whenever they went on hikes. The second rule was
that they must be home before dark and must report to Douglas or Helen
as soon as they got home. The third was that they must tell all their
adventures to one of the older girls. If they obeyed these three rules
they were sure to get into no trouble.
"Fix us up a big lunch, please, Helen. We are going 'way far off.
There's a man on the far side of Old Baldy that Josh says has great big
frying-sizers," declared Lil.
"Well, be sure you are back before dark," admonished Helen, in her
grownupest tone, according to Lucy.
"All right, Miss Grandma, but I don't see why I have to get in before
dark if you don't. You know you and Doctor Wright came in long after
supper one night--said you got lost, but you can tell that to the
marines," said Lucy pertly.
"Just for that, I've a great mind to put red pepper in your sandwiches,"
said Helen, blushing in spite of herself.
"Well, I suppose if we get lost, we won't have to get in before dark,
either," teased Lucy.
"Yes, but don't you get lost. Douglas and I are always a bit uneasy
until you are back, as it is," pleaded Helen. "You know mother would
have a fit if you were out late."
"Oh, don't listen to her, Miss Helen. We'll take care of the girls and
bring 'em back safe. Frank and I couldn't get lost on these mountains if
we tried," and Skeeter drew himself up to his full height, which was
great for a boy of fifteen and seemed even greater because of his
extreme leanness.
"Can't we take our guns, Miss Helen?" pleaded Frank.
There was another rule that the boys must not take the guns if the girls
were along. Guns are safe enough if there are no bystanders.
"Oh, Frank, ask Douglas! I am afraid to be the one to let you do it."
"Can I tell her you say yes if she does?"
"Yes, I reckon so! But if she does say yes, please be awfully careful."
"Sure we will! I tell you, Miss Helen, if anything happens to these
girls, Skeeter and I'd never show our faces in camp again."
"I know you will look after them," said Helen. These boys were great
favorites with Helen, and they admired her so extravagantly that
sometimes Lil and Lucy, their sworn chums, were a bit jealous. "I've
made your kind of sandwiches, Frank, sardines. And I've stuffed some
eggs with minced ham the way you like them, Skeeter."
"Bully!" exclaimed both knights.
"And I s'pose what Lil and I like or don't like didn't enter your head,"
pouted Lucy.
"Why, Lucy, you know you like sardine sandwiches better than anything,
you said so yourself," admonished Lil.
"Helen didn't know it."
"If you don't like what I put up, you can do it yourself next time,"
snapped Helen.
"''Tis dog's delight
To bark and bite,'"
sang Douglas, coming into the kitchen to spy out the nakedness of the
land preparatory to sending her order for provisions to the wholesale
grocer in Richmond. "What are you girls scrapping about?"
"Helen said----"
"Lucy's always----"
"Yes, I haven't a doubt of it," laughed the elder sister, who was ever
the peacemaker. "I haven't a doubt that Helen did say it, but she was
just joking, and I know Lucy is always trying to help and is a dear
girl. Now you children trot along and bring back all the chickens you
can carry. Have you got your bags?" Gunnysacks were always taken to
bring home the provender. "And money to pay for the chickens? If you
see any eggs, buy them, and more roasting ears, but don't try to carry
everything you see. Have the mountaineers bring them to camp. Good-bye!
Be sure to come back before dark."
"Ask her about the guns," whispered Frank to Lil.
"Douglas, can the boys take their guns? Helen says she says yes if you
say yes. They won't carry 'em loaded."
"We--ll, I believe we can trust you; but do be careful, boys."
With a whoop the boys flew to their tent for the guns. The sizable
lunch was dumped in the bottom of a gunnysack and slung over Skeeter's
shoulder, and the cavalcade started, after many admonitions from Douglas
and Helen to be careful of their guns and to come back before dark.
"Ain't they the scared cats, though?" laughed Lucy.
"Yes; what on earth could happen to us?" said Lil.
"Nothing, I reckon, with Skeeter and me here to protect you--eh,
Skeeter?"
"I just guess we could hold a whole litter of bears at bay with these
guns. I almost wish we would run into some kind of trouble just so Frank
and I could show your big sisters we are responsible parties."
"Maybe we will," and Lil danced in glee at the possible chance of
getting into trouble so their devoted swains could extricate them.
"Maybe we will meet a drunken mountaineer--or maybe it will be a whole
lot of drunken mountaineers, a camp of moonshiners--maybe they will
capture Lucy and me and carry us to their mountain fastness and there
hold us for ransom."
"Huh! And what do you think Skeeter and I'll be doing while they are
carrying you off?" sniffed Frank. "Standing still, I reckon, and weeping
down our gun barrels!"
"Well, s'pose they are all of them armed to the teeth, a company of
stalwart brigands," suggested Lil, who, by the way, was something of a
movie fan, "and they come swooping down on us, the leader bearing a
lasso in his brawny hand."
"Yes," put in Lucy, "and he will swirl it around and will catch both of
you in the same coil and then will tie you to a tree there to await his
pleasure. I think there had better be two leaders, though, Lil. So you
can have one and I can have one. I bid for the biggest."
"Bid for him! If you girls don't beat all! I do believe you would like
to be attacked by outlaws," and Skeeter looked his disgust at the
eternal feminine.
"Of course we'd like it if it came out all right; that is, if the
leaders fell in love with us and reformed and turned out to be gentlemen
who took to moonshining and highwaying because they had been cheated out
of their inheritances by fat-faced uncles in Prince Albert coats," and
Lil looked very saucy as she switched on ahead of the others down the
narrow trail.
"And where would we come in?" asked Frank whimsically. "We would have to
stay tied to the tree while you and Lucy acted about a thousand feet of
reels. I tell you what I mean to do. I mean to train a squirrel to come
gnaw me free. What you say to that, Skeeter?"
"Squirrel much! I'm going to be so quick with my gun that the bold
brigands will wish they had stayed with Uncle Albert. As for lassoing--I
am some pumpkins myself with the rope. Look at this!" and twirling the
gunnysack around with the lunch serving as ballast, Skeeter caught his
chum neatly around the neck.
"Oh, oh! You'll mash the sandwiches!" wailed the others.
"Let's sit down and eat 'em up now," suggested Skeeter. "I am tired of
being made the beast of burden. I believe in distribution of labor."
"Why, Skeeter, we haven't walked a mile yet, and it can't be more than
ten o'clock."
"Well, then, my tumtum must be fast. I shall have to regulate it. It
tells me it is almost twelve." No one had a watch so there was no way to
prove the time except by the shadows, and Skeeter declared that the
shadows on the mountain perforce must slant even at twelve.
"Let's eat part of the lunch," suggested Lucy. "That will keep poor
Skeeter from starving and lighten the load some, too. There is no
telling what time it is, but if we are hungry I can't see that it makes
much difference what time it is. I'm starved myself almost."
"Me, too," chorused the others.
They ate only half, prudently putting the rest back in the gunnysack for
future reference.
"Gee, I feel some better," sighed Skeeter, whose appetite was ever a
marvel to his friends since it never seemed to have the slightest effect
on his extreme leanness. Oscar always said: "That there young Marster
Skeeter eats so much it makes him po' to carry it."
"Do you boys know exactly where we are going?" asked Lil. They had
walked a long distance since the distribution of burdens and now had
come to a place where the trail went directly down the mountainside.
"Of course we do! Josh said that when we got to a place where the path
suddenly went down we were almost over the cabin where Jude Hanford
lives. Didn't he, Frank?"
"He sure did!"
"But there was a place back further where a path forked off. I saw it,
didn't you, Lucy?"
"Yes, but I thought it was maybe just a washed place."
"This is right, I'm sure," said Skeeter confidently, so the young
people clambered down the mountainside following Skeeter's lead. The
path went almost exactly perpendicularly down the mountain for fifty
yards and then, as is the way with mountain paths, it changed its mind
and started up the mountain again.
"This is a terribly silly path," declared the self-constituted guide,
"but I reckon it will start down again soon. Josh said that Jude Hanford
lives almost at the foot of the mountain."
"Let's keep a-going; there's no use in turning back," said Frank. "This
path is obliged to lead somewhere."
"Maybe it leads to the brigand's cave," shivered Lil.
"Which way is home?" asked Lucy.
"That way!"
"Over there!"
"Due north from here!"
But as the three of her companions all pointed in different directions,
Lucy laughed at them and chose an entirely different point of the
compass as her idea of where Camp Carter was situated. They had been
walking for hours and as far as they could tell had not got off of their
own mountain. No one seemed to be the least worried about being lost, so
Lucy calmed her fears, which were not very great. How could they get
lost? All they had to do was retrace their steps if they did not find
Jude Hanford's cabin, where the frying-sized chickens and the roasting
ears were supposed to thrive.
"Let's eat again," suggested the ever empty Skeeter.
They had come to a wonderful mountain stream, one they had never seen
before in their rambles. It came dashing down the incline singing a gay
song until it found a temporary resting place in a deep hole which
seemed to be hollowed out of the living rock.
"What a place to swim!" they exclaimed in a breath.
"I bet it's cold, though, cold as flugians." Lil trailed her fingers
through the icy water and a little fish rose to the surface and gave a
nibble. "Look! Look! Isn't he sweet?"
"Let's fish," suggested Lucy.
"Fish with what? Guns?" asked Skeeter scornfully.
"No, fishing lines with minnows for bait," and Lucy found a pin in her
middy blouse and with a narrow pink ribbon drawn mysteriously from
somewhere tied to the pin, which she bent into a fine hook, she got
ready for the gentle art. A sardine from a sandwich made excellent bait,
at least the speckled beauties in that pool thought so as they rose to
it greedily.
"E--e-ee!" squealed Lucy, flopping an eight-inch trout out on the bank.
"I caught a fish! I caught a fish!"
"Oh, gimme a pin, please," begged the boys, so Lucy and Lil had to find
fish hooks for their cavaliers and more strings and in a short while all
of them were eagerly fishing.
"I never saw such tame fish in all my life," said Frank. "They are just
begging to be caught. It seems not very sporty to hook them in,
somehow."
"I didn't know there were any trout in these streams. Doctor Wright
says there used to be but the natives have about exterminated them. Gee,
there's a beaut!" and Skeeter flopped a mate to Lucy's catch out on the
grass.
"Let's stop fishing and fry these," he suggested, "I'm awfully hungry."
"Hungry! Oh, Skeeter! I'm right uneasy about you," teased Lil.
"Well, I never did think sandwiches were very filling. Somehow they
don't stick to your ribs. Come on, Frank, we can get a fire in no time."
"How can we fry anything without lard and a pan?"
"Oh, we won't fry, we'll broil."
"We, indeed!" sniffed Lucy. "You know mighty well, you boys, that when
cooking time comes, Lil and I'll have to do it. I know how to cook fish
without a pan--learned in Camp-Fire Girls. Just run a green switch
through the gills and lay it across on two pronged sticks stuck up on
each side of the fire. You go on and make the fire while Lil and I try
to catch some more fish. I wonder what Doctor Wright will say when we
tell him we caught game fish with a bent pin tied on lingerie ribbon. He
brought up all kinds of rods and reels and flies and whipped the streams
for miles around and never caught anything but Helen's veil."
The trout seemed to have become sophisticated when two of their number
had been caught and refused to be hooked any more with bent pins and
lingerie ribbon, although it was pink and very attractive. The fire went
out and Lucy and Lil had to try a hand at it before it could be
persuaded to burn.
"It looks to me like fire-making must be woman's work because they
certainly can do it better than us men," said Skeeter solemnly, and the
others laughed at him until Lil slipped into the water. Only one foot
got wet, however, so there was no harm done.
The fire finally burned and the two little fish, after being scaled and
cleaned, were strung across on a green wand. Of course the fire had not
been allowed to get to the proper state of red embers so the fish were
well smoked before they began to cook.
"Umm! They smell fine!" cried the famished Skeeter.
"They smell mighty like burnt fish to me," said Frank.
They tasted very like burnt fish, too, when they were finally taken from
their wand and the young folks drew up for the feast. They lacked salt
and were burnt at the tail and raw at the head, but Skeeter picked the
bones and pronounced them prime.
"I believe it's getting mighty late and we have not found Jude Hanford's
cabin yet. You stop stuffing now, Skeeter, and let's get along," said
Frank, gathering up the gunnysacks and guns.
"Do you think we had better cross this stream?"
"Sure, if we go back, it will just take us home. We won't dare show our
faces at camp unless we have at least the promise of some chickens and
roasting ears. I hope to carry back some in the gunnysacks."
"Of course we must go on," chorused the girls. "We are not one bit tired
and if we go on we are sure to come to Jude's cabin."
Go on they did, how far there was no telling. The path went down, down,
down, but led only to another spring. The boys shot some squirrels and
the girls found a vine laden with fox grapes.
"Let's get all we can carry so we can make some jelly. Helen was wishing
only the other day she had some. They make the best jelly going," said
Lucy, and so they pulled all they could reach and decided the ones that
hung too high would be sour.
"Do you know I believe it's most supper time--I'm getting powerful
empty," declared the insatiable Skeeter.
"Supper time! Nonsense! I betcher 'tain't three o'clock," and Frank
peered knowingly at the sun. "That mountain over yonder is so high,
that's the reason the sun is getting behind it. I betcher anything on
top of the mountain it is as light as midday."
"I do wish we could find Jude's cabin. This has been the longest walk
we ever have taken," sighed Lil. "Not that I am the least bit tired."
Lil was not quite so robust as Lucy, but wild horses would not drag from
her the admission that she could not keep up with her chum.
"Let's sit down a minute and rest," suggested Frank, "and kinder get our
bearings. I'm not sure but perhaps it would be less loony if we start
right off for home."
The sun had set for them and it was growing quite gloomy down in the
valley where the path had finally led them. Of course they well knew
that it was shining brightly on those who were so fortunate as to be on
the heights, but the thing is they were in the depths.
"All right, let's go home," agreed Skeeter. "We will strike them at
supper, I feel sure."
They retraced their steps, stopping occasionally to argue about the
trail. There seemed to be a great many more bypaths going up the
mountain than they had noticed going down.
"This is right. I know, because here is the fox grape vine we stripped
on the way down," cried Lucy, when there was more doubt than usual
about whether or not they were on the right road.
"Well, more have grown mighty fast," declared Skeeter. "Look, this is
still full."
"But we couldn't reach the high ones and decided like Brer Fox that they
were sour."
"Brer Fox, indeed! That wasn't Brer Fox but the one in Aesop," laughed
Lil.
"Well, he acted just like Brer Fox would have acted, anyhow, and I bet
Aesop got him from Uncle Remus. But see, Lil! This isn't the same vine.
We never could have skipped all these grapes. Only look what beauts!"
"We might just as well pick 'em," said Skeeter, suiting the action to
the word. "They might come in handy later on for eats if we can't find
our way home."
"Not find our way home!" scoffed Frank. "Why, home is just over the
mountain. All we have to do is keep straight up and go down on the other
side. These paths have mixed us up but the mountain is the same old
cove. He can't mix us up."