"Well, here we are," announced Crazy Jane calmly.
"Oh, see those fellows run!" cried Harriet, gaspingly. "There they go!"
she cried, in almost hysterical amusement, after she had picked herself
up from the bottom of the car, where the collision had hurled her.
"I've a good notion to send the car straight through the fence, and
chase that pair of skulkers out of the state!" Jane McCarthy proposed
vindictively.
"Don't you try to do it," protested Harriet, now sobered by the
realization of how reckless her companion might easily become. "Jane,
_some day_ you'll really hit some one--that would be awful!"
"But I didn't half frighten that pair of rascals," returned Jane.
"If the men weren't frightened, then they'll never know fear," insisted
Harriet Burrell. "How badly is the car damaged?"
"A blow on the nose, but the nose is not even out of joint," Jane
answered coolly.
"Then let us get back to Miss Elting. How she'll scold!"
Miss Elting did scold when they reached camp with the car. It is to be
feared, however, that Jane heard but little of the rebuke, for she was
busy examining the damage done to her beloved car. She found that she
could put the lamps in condition again. The guard rod in front of the
radiator was also injured. Jane decided that this could be easily fixed.
"Girls, girls! What do you mean by such actions. Jane, I am amazed at
you. Harriet, how could you?" Miss Elting rebuked them roundly.
"I--I guess it was impulse," answered Harriet, her face crimsoning under
the reproachful words of the guardian. "Please don't scold us. We drove
the men off. They will not trouble us again, I am quite sure."
"But they might have been run down, girls."
"Served them right if they had, bad luck to them!" retorted Jane
mischievously. "However, 'all's well that ends well.' I'm for bed. What
do you say?"
"Thay, why didn't you take me along?" demanded Tommy.
"It was quite bad enough without your assistance," replied the guardian.
"Yes, we had better retire at once. Do you wish to put up your burglar
alarm again, Harriet?"
"I do not think it will be necessary. The men won't prowl about the camp
again to-night."
"No, they won't," agreed Jane, laughing uproariously. "They're running
yet and they'll be running as long as their wind holds out. I wonder
where they left the bear? Wouldn't it be fun if we could find the bear
and let him loose?"
"Oh-h-h!" cried Margery. "How can you talk so, Jane?"
"Most certainly not," rebuked Miss Elting. "You have done quite enough
as it is, without turning a bear loose on the community. You had better
all go back to bed. What did you do to your car, Jane?"
"Bumped its nose, that's all. My only regret is that I didn't bump it
against one of the Italians. I shouldn't have minded giving the bear a
smash, too. Good night. Sweet dreams, darlin's!" Jane flounced into the
tent and throwing off her bathrobe tumbled into bed, where she was soon
sound asleep. The others did not quiet down quite so quickly. Harriet,
especially, lay thinking over the experiences of the evening, and each
time the thought of the pursuit of the Italians by Crazy Jane and her
motor car occurred to her, Harriet would laugh softly to herself. She
finally laughed herself to sleep, to be awakened in what seemed but a
few moments later, by the blowing of a fish horn at the lips of Crazy
Jane McCarthy. Day had dawned. The sun was just peeping over the eastern
hills, the campfire was blazing and Miss Elting was getting breakfast.
Harriet quickly drew on her bathing suit, then, running out of the tent,
plunged into the pond, uttering a little scream as the cold water
enveloped her. None of the others had the courage to take a cold plunge
that morning, as the air was rather cool. As for Harriet, she remained
in the pond until Miss Elting insisted that she come ashore.
Camp was struck immediately after breakfast as the girls wished to make
as much progress on their journey in the cool of the morning as
possible. They struck camp with the skill of veterans, and within half
an hour from the time they began the operation, everything was packed
and stowed in the car.
"Now, don't you girls try to play me any more tricks to-day. I've got
the food. If you don't find Jane, you get no supper. Understand?"
laughed Jane.
"I've got thome bithcuit in my pack," piped Tommy.
"She won't have them for long," laughed Margery. "Tommy will have eaten
the biscuits before she has gone a mile."
"Well, I don't eat tho much that I get fat," protested Tommy. "I gueth I
know when to thtop."
Miss Elting was giving Jane final directions as to when and where to
look for them, after which the four girls and their guardian, with their
packs slung over their backs, stout sticks in their hands to assist them
over rough places and also to frighten away troublesome dogs, started
out on their journey of ten miles or more. They crossed the road,
traveled up a hill and headed straight across country. The unmarked
trail was rough and following it fatigued them considerably during the
first two miles of their journey.
Shortly after eleven o'clock they came in sight of a remote farm house
tucked away in a valley. Miss Elting decided to call there to get some
milk. The woman of the house at first regarded them with suspicion, but
she soon thawed under Miss Elting's gentle voice and winning smile.
The milk had not been skimmed. All the old milk had been churned that
day. There was nothing left but buttermilk, the woman told them.
"Buttermilk!" cried the girls in chorus.
"I jutht love buttermilk!" declared Tommy. "Do you have buttermilk
cowth? Ithn't that fine? I'm going to make my father buy me a buttermilk
cow."
"Well, I was going to feed that buttermilk to the hogs, but seeing as
you want it I suppose you may have it," decided the woman with some
reluctance. "Do you like it cold?"
The party answered in the affirmative. The housewife lowered a pail of
buttermilk into the well to cool, the party sitting down under an apple
tree in the yard to rest themselves in the meantime. Margery lay down
and went to sleep. Tommy amused herself by tickling Buster's ear with a
long, dead stalk of timothy grass. Margery in her sleep thought it a
fly. She fought the fly for some time, then finally opening her eyes,
she caught Tommy red handed. Tommy fled into the farm house, where she
pretended to be much interested in the housewife's work. She soon won
her way into the good graces of the woman, and when, finally, the little
lisping girl emerged from the house she was carrying a tin tray of food.
"Jutht thee what I've got," she cried. "It taketh Tommy Thompthon to get
thingth to eat."
There were sandwiches, ginger cookies--great fat brown fellows--and a
large dish of apple sauce.
"Oh, girls!" cried Margery her eyes glistening at the prospect of a
feast. "I could die eating that food."
"Tommy, did you beg for this?" demanded the guardian.
"I gueth not. I jutht athked for it," returned Tommy calmly. "When you
want thomething you want, jutht athk for it, and if you don't get it you
haven't wasted anything but your breath."
"Madam, we are very grateful to you for this kindness, and will pay you
before leaving," called Miss Elting to the housewife, who came out at
this juncture to draw up the bucket of buttermilk from the cool depths
of the well.
"You're welcome, I'm sure. I just baked to-day. Hope the cookies are all
right. They didn't rise to suit me."
"They'd have burthted if they'd rithen any more," observed Tommy. She
was rebuked by a look from Harriet.
"I hope you like them," smiled the woman.
"Oh, they are simply delicious," answered Harriet, with glowing eyes.
"And that buttermilk! I never drank any that tasted better."
The party ate their fill of the good things, Margery doing even more
than her share in disposing of both buttermilk and food. When they had
finished, the tray was empty. The woman offered to bring them more food,
but Miss Elting said "no." She gave the woman fifty cents despite the
protests of the latter; then, after a brief rest, they started on again,
first having expressed their thanks to the housewife, who stood in the
door of her home watching the little party until it had passed out of
sight.
About the middle of the afternoon the girls halted for another rest
because of Margery's complaints that she was feeling ill.
"You ate too much," declared Harriet. "It doesn't do to eat so much when
one is taking exercise as we are."
"Yeth. Buthter alwayth eatth too much," averred Tommy wisely.
"Oh!" moaned Margery Brown, sitting down all in a heap. "I can't walk
another step to-day."
"Do you think we should leave her here?" asked Harriet, with solemn face
but twinkling eyes.
"We shall see how she feels after I have given her something to settle
her stomach," answered Miss Elting gravely.
"No, no, no!" wailed Margery. "Don't leave me. I'll go. Let me lie still
and rest myself a little first."
"You thee Buthter, it doethn't pay to be tho greedy," admonished Tommy.
"Will you please make her stop?" begged Buster. "I can't stand it."
"Tommy!" rebuked Harriet. "Haven't you any consideration for Margery?"
"Yeth. Of courthe I have. But thhe doethn't detherve any thympathy."
"I'm ashamed of you, Tommy, dear. Wait. You, too, will be ill one of
these days, then we shall make unpleasant remarks to you," warned
Harriet.
Grace Thompson flushed guiltily.
"That ith too bad, Buthter. I didn't mean to make you feel worthe.
Honetht I didn't. I hope you will be better pretty thoon." Tommy kissed
her. "There. Ithn't that better?"
"Yes," admitted Margery. She already had taken some peppermint drops
that Miss Elting had administered. After a further rest the girls
assisted her to her feet and walked her slowly up and down the road. She
was then permitted to sit down and rest again. Tommy, an expression of
concern on her impish face, crouched before the now pale-faced Buster,
munching a hard biscuit.
"Come, girls," said Miss Elting finally. "It is nearly five o'clock. We
were to meet Jane at five, and we must have a good two hours' walk ahead
of us still. Now that Margery is feeling so ill we shall not be able to
make nearly as good time as that. I wonder if we hadn't better find the
highway and finish the day's tramp on that?"
Margery protested that they must not change their plans on her account.
She declared that she could walk as well as any of them.
"Margery will repent her rash assertions before she has gone a mile,"
laughed Hazel.
"No. I think she will be all right, now," replied the guardian.
"Margery, if you find that you are feeling worse, at any time, you must
be sure to tell me at once. Now, girls, march!"
The little company plodded along. Harriet linked one arm within
Margery's. The latter, while feeling much improved, was still a little
weak and Harriet Burrell's sturdy arm was appreciated.
About six o'clock they came to a long hill that sloped gently down into
a valley. The greater part of the valley was covered with trees. It
appeared to be a dense forest of second growth, the trees not being very
large. The guardian consulted the map.
"Yes. We are on the right trail. We must keep straight on through the
woods. According to this map there should be a trail that leads directly
to the other side of the valley, and when we reach that point we shall
have finished our day's journey."
"I am afraid we are going to be caught in the dark, Miss Elting," said
Harriet.
"If we find the trail we do not need to worry about that. We can't very
well go astray. I would suggest that, when we get down farther into the
valley, we spread out and look for the wood trail. The one who first
discovers it will shout. By taking this open formation we shall be
saving time. It certainly seems to me that the distance to be covered
to-day is more than ten miles."
"It does seem so," agreed Hazel. "But we have lost considerable time on
the way."
They began spreading out when about half way down the hill, calling to
each other good-naturedly, shouting as they got farther and farther
away. Tommy discovered the road. She ran out into the field waving her
arms and crying shrilly to attract the attention of her companions. They
hurried toward her. The road, as they soon learned, was a mere path and
one not much frequented at that, as was evidenced by the vegetation that
grew in the middle of it.
"This looks to me like rather low swampy land," declared Harriet. "It is
my idea that we had better stick closely to the path, or we may get into
trouble." She did not say definitely what she feared, not wishing to
needlessly terrorize Margery and Tommy. Miss Elting understood their
danger, however. She nodded. Harriet started along the trail, leading
the way, with the guardian following at her heels. They went on in this
way for half an hour. The forest grew darker as they proceeded, the
vegetation being thick in there. The day was waning rapidly. It was not
very long before they were groping their way, rather than finding it by
sight.
A scream from Margery, who was at the rear, brought them up sharply.
Then Tommy's voice was raised in a sharp cry of alarm.
"What is it?" shouted Harriet.
"I'm sinking!" screamed Margery.
Harriet instantly knew the meaning of this. Her worst fears were
confirmed. They were in the middle of a vast morass that stretched on
each side of the trail.
"Thave me! Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.
Both girls were in the mud, but just how deeply Harriet Burrell did not
know. Now Hazel added her cries to those of Tommy and Margery. She, too,
had stepped off the path. Harriet could hear Hazel floundering in the
mire. Miss Elting hurried back to them, regardless of her own safety.
"Be careful!" called Harriet warningly, groping her way to her
companions who were crying and screaming for help.