AN ANGEL UNAWARES
Between settling the camp and agreeing with one another on details,
the "Bobbies" were a busy little band for days after the canvas had
been stretched and the ropes pegged down. It seemed so simple to wish
for a camp and get it, but now that simplicity assumed complex
proportions, and while it was all fascinating to the very point of
thrills, yet the details were very exacting.
The tent was just large enough to take in the eight cots and to
shelter such equipment as should be protected from the elements; but
it now appeared there was so much to be "sheltered" and so many
"luxuries" to be provided for, at the suggestion of the girls who had
not learned real Scout camping as Corene had done, that the adjuncts
in the way of "lean-tos" and annexes being made or proposed to be made
by any or all members of the squad, threatened presently to be bigger
and more important than the tent itself.
Every girl came daily armed with her Scout books, if for no other
purpose than to offset Corene's objections to "cluttering things up."
It was first arranged to have a heavy matting put over the sod for
flooring, and a rug had been promptly donated, but again the grown-ups
had a say, and real flooring was ordered and put on a high foundation,
so that there would be less danger of colds from dampness.
If Cleo could be kept from stringing up strips of cretonne "to give
color" she might have done something useful; while Julia's joy in
building the stone oven outside, threatened to keep her busy for the
entire vacation. Louise ran to "table fixin's." She was responsible
for a rustic "sideboard" made from the empty barrels and discarded
freight boards, curtained effectively with the water-proof burlap, and
gaily flaunting a real wood fern in a red nail keg right in the center
of the top shelf. Standing off and viewing these artistic achievements
took a lot of time, and incidentally left a lot of more important work
unfinished.
"Where are we going to put the food?" demanded dainty Julia. "Not out
there for the flies, Weasy!"
"No, certainly not," said Louise. "I don't have anything to do with
the food. That goes with the kitchen work."
"And whose work is that?" Corene laid down her hammer to ask.
"Whose?" asked the others.
"Everyone's," came back Corene. "We must take turns at that, but we
must make arrangements for the 'eats' right away. Who has been down to
the spring?"
Everyone had.
"Could we hang our butter and meat in pails in the water?" asked
Corey. She had seen this done in a real Scout camp.
"We might, but what about the animals?" inquired Cleo.
"Oh, we can get real strong pails and stake them down so that small
animals can't touch the food," said the leader.
"And have horrid, old scaly snakes sniffing it!" protested Grace.
"We wouldn't eat the sniffs," retorted Corene. "At any rate we must
have a cool place for food and can't think of ice. I wonder what the
Norms do?"
"Oh, the Normal camp girls," explained Cleo. "I think they have grub
traps set in the spring, but it runs directly past their door."
"It's right over by that rock, isn't it?" asked Corene.
"Yes, there's a nice little puddley basin in that big stone," replied
Julia.
"Then it's easy to fix. We can run it right along here," Corene was
drawing a very crooked line in the trampled earth, with her homemade
broom handle.
"How can we bring the spring over here?" scoffed Louise. "It goes
straight down the other way."
"We'll dig a little ditch, of course," insisted Corene. "Or if we're
too busy to do it, and we probably will be for days to come, we'll get
the boys to make one for us. The earth isn't rooty here, see, it's
nice and soft," she poked up a ditch in illustration. "And it will be
splendid to have running water at the door for other purposes."
"Corey, you ought to be a plumber!" roared Grace, precipitating one of
those unwarranted outbursts of mirth that always ended work for the
time being. The girls were just like that, and they couldn't seem to
help it.
The appearance of a surprised bunny on a stump checked the hilarity,
and the inexperienced ones wanted to throw cracker crumbs to the
stubby-tailed, long-eared little animal.
"And make a house pet of it!" exclaimed Corene. "Can you imagine that
bunny stealing your fudge, Louise? He wouldn't know it was stealing if
you made him 'to home' like that."
"Seems to me," Louise frowned, "knowledge always makes one snippy. I
don't mean that you are snippy, Corey dear, but to turn away a nice,
little, gray bunny, because we know he will come again if we treat him
decently. Doesn't it seem a lot nicer to be sociable and take the
consequences?"
"It does not!" exclaimed Cleo. "Because animals are made to be subject
to man, not to be his equal. Here, Master Sammy Littletail, take
yourself off. Shoo!" and Cleo tossed a harmless little pine cone after
the scurrying bunny.
"Oh, all right. If that's the way you feel about it I suppose we will
have to shoo everything. But just the same, I left a nice square hole
in the back of my outdoor buffet, for a bird sanctuary!" Louise
confessed naively.
"Someone's coming!" announced Grace. "Let me straighten my doormat."
A young woman in camp uniform--the service suit of skirt and
blouse--came up from the roadway. She was smiling broadly and sent that
greeting on ahead to the Scouts.
"Welcome!" she called out. "We have all been wondering why no Girl
Scouts came up to our hills, and now our wonder is answered. Here you
are!"
"Yes," admitted Corene, trying to straighten out a very badly wrinkled
blouse. "We are just a junior troop, we organized ourselves, you
know," she finished frankly.
"How could you do that?" questioned the young lady, seating herself on
the biggest and flattest camp-stump. It was regarded as a regular
seat, of course.
"Oh, we are all Scouts at home, you know, and we understand all
the--qualifications," Corene hesitated at this word, fearful of an
accusing glance from someone who might call it a bit big for a junior
to use.
"But have you no leader? No director nor counsellor?" queried the
stranger.
"I have just come from a big camp," said the little Corene, a bit
uncertainly.
A rather critical look was swept over the Bobbie at that statement.
"Yet you are too young to be a leader," pressed the tall girl.
"I'm fifteen, but we hadn't quite finished all our plans yet,"
admitted the spokesman.
"We have grown up sisters," tossed in Grace.
"Do they understand Scouting?" These questions were not asked in any
but the most friendly tone. "I am Marge Mackin of Norm Camp, over
there, and I have been a Scout leader in the city. I called to say I
would be glad to help you in any way----"
"Oh, could you come over to our camp?" asked Julia, impulsively. "We
have plenty of room."
Miss Mackin rippled a girlish laugh. "That's lovely!" she exclaimed.
"I'm sure I never thought of thrusting myself on you this way, but if
I can really be of service----"
"Indeed you can," declared Corene. "We have just gone ahead planning
camp and expecting something would turn up to help us out of the
director difficulty. Of course, our mothers would have sent an older
sister, perhaps changing the force each week, but it is so much better
to have a real camp leader. If you can come we have saved a
counsellor's cot," she finished.
"Have you, really? What wise little girls," Miss Mackin was glancing
around with unhidden admiration.
"Won't you come in and inspect?" invited Corene.
"How splendid!" enthused the caller, passing in under the tent. "And
how very practically ship-shape! You do show you are familiar with
real camping. And where did you get such splendid equipment?"
The camp's history was outlined and its prospects forecast, while Miss
Mackin listened approvingly.
"And you really want a resident manager?" she asked finally.
"We do, indeed," declared the spokesman Corene, who, more than the
others, realized the value of the unexpected offer.
"Then suppose I accept, conditionally, of course, and we write our
application to headquarters? All being Scouts we might better come
under direct authority, don't you think so?"
"Certainly," chorused the Bobbies.
"But we won't have to change our name or anything, will we?" rather
anxiously asked Grace.
"Oh, no, even if there is another Bobolink troop your affix of
'junior' will, I think, make that all right. Also you may be called
the Bobbies, that's a handy little name for an emergency summer troop.
I think I'm just as crazy about all this as you are. I dearly love
Scout camping, and try to get our young ladies to adhere to it. But
you see, they are not little girls, and cannot always see the fun in
good team work."
Miss Mackin was unmistakably attractive and very girlish herself. She
had the smile called "wide," and it lit up her whole face with rare
flashes of dormant humor. The girls knew instantly she would be the
very leader for them, and they felt like hugging the prospect.
"Now, it's all settled!" proclaimed Julia. She had been fighting
visions of black nights under that canvas tent with no Yale locks nor
other safety contrivances or erstwhile doors, and here was some one
actually able and willing to "take charge."
"We are doing some research work up here," Miss Mackin explained, "and
parts of my days must be given to that. You are so capable I would be
in the way, really, if around all the time; but nights----"
"Oh, we would need you every night," insisted Corene sincerely.
"And in my own tent I am almost crowded out, so the plan seems
inspirational," said Miss Mackin. She was surveying Louise's sideboard
while Louise tried to get behind Grace. The compliment given, however,
did not warrant hiding away from it.
"We intend to move in to-morrow afternoon," said Corene, "if we can
get everything moved up here by that time. Could you come to-morrow
night?"
"Easily. The girls will be delighted to have my cot for a visitor. I
really don't have a whole cot, but I managed to get room to sleep in
it," she smilingly admitted. "Yet, I hope I have not influenced you to
take pity on me," she hurried to protest.
"You are a real blessing," said Cleo. She was going to say "angel,"
but a look from Grace forbade that extreme.
"We are going exploring this afternoon," announced Julia, as the
visitor prepared to leave.
"Oh, yes! Don't mind the danger-signs you find stuck around," said
Miss Mackin. "We have seen many of them, but not yet scented any real
danger. Good-bye for a while!" she finished. "I'll be here in time to
take charge of the banner-raising." She hesitated in front of the new
flagpole, her eyes alight with admiration for the girls' spirit of
loyalty to their Scout principles. Then Miss Mackin hurried off toward
Camp Norm.