Part 1 (1/2)
The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin.
by Hildegard G. Frey.
CHAPTER I
ON THE WAY
”All aboard!” The hoa.r.s.e voice of Captain MacLaren boomed out like a fog horn, waking a clatter of echoes among the tall cliffs on the opposite sh.o.r.e of the river, and sending the seventy-five girls on the dock all skurrying for the _Carribou's_ gangplank at once.
”Hurry up, Hinpoha! We're getting left behind.” Agony strained forward on the suitcase she was helping Hinpoha to carry down the hill and endeavored to catch up with the crowd, a proceeding which she soon acknowledged to be impossible, for Hinpoha, rendered breathless by the hasty scramble from the train, lagged farther behind with every step.
”I--can't--go--any--faster!” she panted, and abruptly let go of her end of the suitcase to fan herself with her hand. ”What's the use of rus.h.i.+ng so, anyway?” she demanded plaintively. ”They won't go off without us; they can see us coming down the hill. It wasn't _my_ fault that my camera got wedged under the seat and made us be the last ones off the train,” she continued, ”and I'm not going to run down this hill and go sprawling, like I did in the elevator yesterday. Are the other girls on already?” she asked, searching the crowd below with her eyes for a sight of the other Winnebagos.
”Sahwah and Oh-Pshaw are on the boat already,” replied Agony, ”and Gladys and Migwan are just getting on. I don't see Katherine anywhere, however.
Oh, yes,” she exclaimed, ”there she is down there in the crowd. What are they all laughing at, I wonder? Oh, look, Katherine's suitcase has come open, and all her things are spilled out on the dock. I thought it would be strange if she made the trip without some kind of a mishap. Oh, dear, did you ever see anyone so funny as Katherine?”
”Well,” observed Hinpoha in a tone of relief, ”we don't have to hurry now. It'll take them at least ten minutes to get that suitcase shut again. I know, because I helped Katherine pack. I had to sit on it with all my might to close it.”
”_All Aboard_!” came the second warning roar from Captain MacLaren, accompanied by a deafening blast of the _Carribou's_ whistle. Agony picked up Hinpoha's suitcase in one hand and her own in the other, and with an urgent ”Come on!” made a dash down the remainder of the hill and landed breathless at the gangplank of the waiting steamer just as the engine began to quiver into motion. Hinpoha was just behind her, and Katherine trod closely upon Hinpoha's heels, carrying her still unclosed suitcase out before her like a tray, to keep its contents from spilling out.
Migwan was waiting for them at the head of the gangplank. ”We've saved a place for you up in the bow,” she said. ”Hurry up, we're having _such_ a time holding it for you. The boat is simply _packed_.”
The four girls picked their way through a litter of suitcases, paddles, cameras, tennis rackets and musical instruments that covered every inch of deck s.p.a.ce between the chairs, and joined the other Winnebagos in their place in the bow. Hinpoha sank down gratefully upon a deck chair that Oh-Pshaw had obligingly been holding for her and Agony disposed herself upon a pile of suitcases, from which vantage point she could get a good look at the crowd.
The _Carribou_ had turned her nose about and was gliding smoothly upstream, following the random curvings of the lazy Onawanda as it wound through the low-lying, wooded hills of the Shenandawah country, singing a carefree wanderer's song as it flowed. It was a glorious, balmy day in late June, dazzlingly blue and white, sparklingly golden. It was the _Carribou's_ big day of the year, that last day of June. On all other days she made her run demurely from Lower Falls Station to Upper Falls, carrying freight and a handful of pa.s.sengers on each trip; but every year on that last day of June freight and ordinary pa.s.sengers stood aside, for the _Carribou_ was chartered to carry the girls of Camp Keewaydin to their summer hunting grounds.
The Winnebagos looked around with interest at the girls who were to be their companions for the summer, all as yet total strangers to them.
Girls of every shape and size, of every shade of complexion, of every age between sixteen and twenty. A number were apparently ”old girls,”
who had been at Camp Keewaydin in former years; they flocked together in the bow right behind the Winnebagos, chattering animatedly, singing s.n.a.t.c.hes of camp songs, and uttering conjectures in regard to such things as whether they would be in the Alley or the Avenue; and who was going to be councilor in All Saints this year.
A number of these old girls were grouped in an adoring att.i.tude around a pretty young woman who talked constantly in an animated tone, and at intervals strummed on a ukulele. Continual cries of ”Pom-pom!” rose on the air from the circle surrounding her. It was ”_Dear_ Pom-pom,”
”Pom-pom, you angel,” ”O _darling_ Pom-pom! Can't you fix it so that I can be in your tent this year?” and much more in the same strain.
”Pom-pom is holding her court again this year, I see,” said a biting voice just behind Agony.
Agony maneuvered herself around on her perch and glanced down at the speaker. She was a decidedly plain girl with a thick nose and a wide mouth set in a grim line above an extraordinarily heavy chin. Her face was turned partly away as she spoke to the girl next to her, but Agony caught a glimpse of the sarcastic expression which informed her features, and a little chill of dislike went through her. Agony was extremely susceptible to first impressions of people.
The girl addressed made an inaudible reply and the first girl continued in low but emphatic tones, ”Well, you won't catch me fetching and carrying for her and playing the part of the adoring slave, I can tell you. I think it's perfectly silly, the way the girls all get a crush on her.”
There was a pause, and then the other girl asked, somewhat hastily, ”Who do you suppose will get the Buffalo Robe this year?”
”Oh, Mary Sylvester will, of course,” came the reply. ”She nearly got it last year. Now that Peggy Atterbury isn't coming back Mary'll be the most popular girl in camp without a doubt. Look at her over there, trying to be sweet to Pom-pom.”
”Isn't she stunning in that coral silk sweater?” murmured the other girl.
”She has too much color to wear that shade of pink,” returned the sarcastic one.
Agony's eyes traveled over to the group surrounding Pom-pom and rested upon the girl who, next to Pom-pom herself, was the center of the group.