"Sunrise Cabin"
"Ach, gnädige Fräuleins, it ist not possible."
"No, I know it isn't," Betty returned with her most demure expression,
although there were little sparks of light at the back of her gray-blue
eyes. She rose stiffly from the ground with Esther's assistance and stood
leaning on her arm, while both girls without trying to hide their
astonishment surveyed a middle aged, shabbily dressed German with his
violin case under one arm and his violin under the other.
"I haf been visiting the Orphan Asylum in this neighborhood where I haf
friends," he explained. "I am in Woodford only a few days now and after
supper when the storm is over I start back to town. Then I thought I
heard some one singing, calling, perhaps it is you?" He looked only at
Betty, since in the semi-darkness with the fire as a background it was
difficult to distinguish but one object at a time and that only by
concentrated attention. But as she shook her head he turned toward
Esther.
"When I hear the singing I play my violin, thinking if some one was lost
in these hills I may find them."
But Esther was not thinking of her discoverer, only of what he had said.
"Do you mean we are really not far from the Country Orphan Asylum?" she
asked incredulously. "And actually I have gotten lost in a neighborhood
where I have spent most of my life! It is the snow that has made things
seem so strange and different!" Turning to Betty she forgot for a moment
the presence of the stranger. "I'll find my way to the asylum right off
and bring some one here to mend our sleigh and give poor little Fire Star
something to eat. I don't believe we are more than two miles from Sunrise
Camp."
However, Betty was by this time attempting to make their situation
clearer to the newcomer. She pointed toward their sleigh at the bottom of
the gully and their pony under the tree and told him of camp fires and
grocery supplies to be carried to Sunrise cabin, until out of the chaos
these facts at least became clear to his mind--the girls had lost their
way in the storm and because of Betty's injured ankle and the broken
vehicle, had been unable to make their way home.
At about the same hour of this same evening, two other young women were
walking slowly up and down in front of a log house in a clearing near the
base of a hill, with their arms intertwined about each other's shoulder.
Outside the closed front door of the house a lighted lantern swung. From
the inside other lights shone through the windows, while every now and
then a face appeared and a finger beckoned toward the sentinels outside.
Nevertheless, they continued their unbroken marching, only stopping now
and then to stare out across the snow-covered landscape.
"They simply have not tried to attempt it, Polly; it is foolish for you
to be so worried," one of the voices said.
But her companion, whose long black hair was hanging loose to her waist
and who wore a long red cape and a red woolen cap giving her a curiously
fantastic appearance, only shook her head decisively.
"You can't know the Princess as well as I do, Rose, or you would never
believe she would give up having her own way. She went into town when the
rest of us thought it unwise and she will come back, frozen, starved,
goodness only knows what, still come back she will. Poor Esther is but
wax in her hands. I wonder if anything happens to break the Princess'
will whatever will become of her?"
The other girl sighed and her friend gazed at her sympathetically but a
little curiously.
"Betty will bear disappointment just as the rest of the world does," she
answered, "filling her life with what she can have. But I do wish she and
Esther would come back to camp now, or at least send us some word. The
storm has been over for several hours and none of us will be able to
sleep to-night on account of the uncertainty."
With one of her characteristic movements Polly O'Neill now moved swiftly
away from the speaker. "I am going to ring our emergency bell if you are
willing, Rose," she announced. "Oh, I know we Camp Fire girls hate to
appeal to outsiders for aid, but it's got to be done for once, for I
simply can't stand this suspense about Betty and Esther any longer." Then
without waiting for an answer, she ran toward the back yard of the cabin
and an instant later the loud clanging of a bell startled the peace and
quiet of the country night, but only for a moment, because before the
second pull at the bell rope Polly felt her arm being held fast.
"Don't ring again, Polly, or at least not yet," her companion insisted,
"for I am almost sure I can see a dark object coming this way along our
road and there's a chance of its being Betty and Esther."
Ten minutes later the front door of the Sunrise cabin was suddenly burst
open and out into the snow piled half a dozen other girls in as many
varieties of heavy blanket wrappers. The music of Fire Star's sleigh
bells had reached their ears several moments before the arrival of the
wayfarers.
However, very soon afterwards, following a suggestion of Sylvia
Wharton's, Betty Ashton was borne into the cabin, four of the girls
carrying her on a light canvas cot. This they set down before their big
fire glowing in the center of the living room of the Sunrise
cabin--Sunrise cabin which had not existed even in the dreams of the
Sunrise Camp Fire girls until one afternoon in September not four months
ago. Esther, with Mollie O'Neill's arm about her, walked into the cabin
on foot, since she was only stiff with fatigue and cold. However, on
throwing herself back in a big arm chair and allowing her shoes to be
changed by Mollie for slippers, she seemed more affected, by their
adventure than Betty.
For Betty, in Princess fashion, with Polly, Sylvia and Nan, and the girl
whom Polly had called Rose, all kneeling devotedly at her feet, was
talking cheerfully.
"He was just the most impossible, ridiculous looking person you ever
could imagine, with red hair and glasses and dreadfully shabby clothes,
the kind of a man in a German band to whom you would throw pennies out
the window, but he declared that he had once lived here in Woodford for a
short time years ago and had come back on some business or other. Oh,
Esther, don't look at me so disapprovingly; I am saying nothing against
him really. I am sure it was I who invited him to come out to our cabin
and play for us girls. He looked so poor I thought I might be able to pay
him then and I couldn't quite offer him anything for helping Esther mend
the sleigh and then seeing us part of the way home. Home! Oh, isn't our
beloved Sunrise cabin the most delightful and original home a group of
Camp Fire girls ever possessed!"
And Betty's eyes clouded with tears, partly from pain and weariness but
more from joy at her return, as she looked from the faces gathered about
hers in the neighborhood of the great fireplace and then saw all their
glances follow hers with equal ardor throughout the length of their great
living room.
For if ever Betty Ashton had proved her right to her friend Polly's
definition of her as a "Fairy Princess," it was when through her desire
and largely through her money, Sunrise cabin rose on the very ground
covered by the white tents of the Sunrise Camp Fire girls only the summer
before.
The cabin was built of pine logs from the woods at the foot of Sunrise
Hill and the entire front of forty-five feet formed a single great room.
The end nearer the kitchen the girls used as their dining room, while the
rest of the room was music room, study, reception and every other kind of
a room. And, except for the piano which Betty had brought from her own
blue room at home and a few chairs, every other article of furniture and
almost every ornament had been made by the Sunrise Camp Fire girls
themselves.
On either side the high mantel there were low book shelves and a music
rack stood by the piano filled with the songs of the Camp Fire. Polly,
Nan and Sylvia had manufactured a dining room table which was considered
an extraordinary achievement although the design was really very simple.
Four wide pine boards about ten feet in length formed the top and the
legs were of heavy beams crossed under it at the center and at either
end. The furniture of the living room was stained a Flemish brown to
match the walls and floor done in the same color. On the floor were rag
rugs of almost oriental beauty made by the girls and dyed into seven
craft colors. On the walls hung pieces of homemade tapestry, leather
skins embossed with Camp Fire emblems, and flowers so pressed and mounted
as to give the effect of nature. Then on the mantelpiece were two
hammered brass candlesticks and a great brass bowl filled with holly and
cedar from the surrounding wood. On odd tables and shelves were Indian
baskets woven by the girls and used for every convenient purpose from
holding stockings waiting to be darned to treasuring the Sunrise Camp
Record Book which now had twenty-five written and illustrated pages
setting forth the history of Sunrise Camp since its infancy.
But Eleanor Meade had given the living room its really unique
distinction. Having once read a description of a famous Indian snow tepi,
she had painted on the ceiling toward the northern end of the room seven
stars which were to represent the north from whence the winter blizzards
blew and on the southern side a red disc for the sun. The artist had
pleaded long to be permitted to make the rest of the ceiling a bright
blue with outlines of rolling prairie on the walls beneath, but this was
greater realism in Indian ideals of art than the other girls were able to
endure.
Yet notwithstanding so much artistic decoration, Science also had her
place in the Sunrise cabin living room. For Sylvia Wharton had
established a cupboard in an inconspicuous corner where she kept a
collection of first aid supplies: gauze for bandaging, medicated cotton,
peroxide, lime water and sweet oil, arnica, and half a dozen or more
simple remedies useful in emergencies. True to her surprising
announcement at the close of their summer camp Sylvia, without wasting
time, and in her own quiet and apparently dull fashion, had already set
about preparing herself for her future work as a trained nurse by
persuading her father to let her have first aid lessons from a young
doctor in Woodford. So now it was stupid little Sylvia (although the Camp
Fire girls were no longer so convinced of her stupidity) who took real
charge of caring for Betty's foot, going back and forth to her cupboard
and doing whatever she thought necessary without asking or heeding any
one else's advice.
Nevertheless, her work must have been successful, because in less than an
hour after their return Betty, Esther and all the other girls were in
dreamland in the two bedrooms which, besides the kitchen, completed
Sunrise cabin. So soundly were they sleeping that it was only Polly
O'Neill who was suddenly aroused by an unexpected knocking at their front
door. It was nearly midnight and Polly shivered, not so much with fear as
with apprehension. What could have happened to bring a human being to
their cabin at such an hour? Instantly she thought of her mother still in
Ireland, of Mr. and Mrs. Ashton traveling in Europe for Mr. Ashton's
health. Slipping on her dressing gown Polly touched the figure in the bed
near hers.
"Rose," she whispered, so quietly as not to disturb any one else. "There
is some one knocking. I am going to the door, so be awake if anything
happens." Then without delaying she slipped into the next room.
Crossing the floor in her slippers Polly made no noise and picking up the
lantern which was always kept burning at night in the cabin, without any
warning of her approach she suddenly pulled open the door. The figure
waiting outside started.
"I--you," he began breathlessly and then stopped because Polly O'Neill's
cheeks had turned as crimson as her dressing gown and her Irish blue eyes
were sending forth electric sparks of anger.
"Billy Webster," she gasped, "I didn't dream that anything in the world
could have made you do so ungentlemanly a thing as to disturb us in this
fashion at such an hour of the night. Of course I have never liked you
very much or thought you had really good manners, but I didn't
believe----"
"Stop, will you, and let me explain," the young man returned, now fully
as angry as Polly and in a voice to justify her final accusation. Then he
turned courteously toward the young woman who had entered the room soon
after Polly. "I'm terribly sorry, Miss Dyer," he continued, "I must have
made some stupid mistake, but some little time ago I thought I heard the
sound of your alarm bell. It rang only once, so I waited for a little
while expecting to hear it again and then I was rather a long time in
getting to you through the woods on account of the heavy snow. It is
awfully rough on you to have been awakened at such an hour because of my
stupidity."
But Rose Dyer, who was a good deal older than Polly, put out both hands
and drew the young man, rather against his will, inside the living room.
"Please come in and get warm and dry, you know our Camp Fire is never
allowed to go out, and please do not apologize for your kindness in
coming to our aid." She lighted the candles, giving Polly a chance to
make her own confession. Though looking only a girl herself she was in
reality the new guardian of the Sunrise Camp Fire girls.
Polly, however, did not seem to be enthusiastic over her opportunity to
announce that she had been responsible for the alarm bell which had
brought their visitor forth on such an arduous tramp. Billy Webster was
of course their nearest neighbor, as his father owned most of the land in
their vicinity, still the farm house itself was a considerable distance
away. And to make matters worse the young man was too deeply offended by
Polly's reception of him to give even a glance in her direction.
Polly coughed several times and then opened her mouth to speak, but Billy
was staring into the fire poking at the logs with his wet boot. Rose had
disappeared toward the kitchen to get their visitor something to eat as a
small expression of their gratitude.
Unexpectedly the young man felt some one pulling at the back of his coat
and turning found himself again facing Polly, whose cheeks were quite as
red as they had been at the time of his arrival, but whose eyes were
shining until their color seemed to change as frequently as a wind swept
sky.
"Mr. William Daniel Webster," she began in a small crushed voice, "there
are certain persons in this world who seem preordained to put me always
in the wrong. You are one of them! I rang that bell because I thought my
beloved Betty and Esther were lost in the storm, but they weren't, and
then I forgot all about having rung it. So now I am overcome with
embarrassment and shame and regret and any other humiliating emotion you
would like to have me feel. But really, Billy," and here Polly extended
her thin hand, which always had a curious warmth and intensity in keeping
with her temperament, "can't you see how hard it is to like a person who
is always making one eat humble pie?"
Billy took the proffered hand and shook it with a forgiving strength that
made the girl wince though nothing in her manner betrayed it.
"Oh, cut that out, Miss Polly O'Neill," he commanded in the confused
manner that Polly's teasing usually induced in him. "It's a whole lot
rottener to be apologized to than it is to have to apologize, and it is
utterly unnecessary this evening because, though, of course, I didn't
know you had rung the alarm bell, I did know if there was trouble at
Sunrise cabin you were sure to be in it."
And, as Polly accepted this assertion with entire amiability, ten minutes
afterward she and their chaperon were both offering their visitor hot
chocolate and biscuits to fortify him for the journey home. In order to
make him feel entirely comfortable Polly also devoured an equal amount of
the refreshments, not because she was given to self-sacrifice but because
uneasiness about her friends had made her forget to eat her supper.