Part 18 (1/2)
Migwan came along in the midst of the preparation and announced that her red middy tie had disappeared. The words were hardly out of her mouth when Hinpoha came in declaring that her bathing cap must have evaporated, for it was gone from the tent ropes where she had left it. The girls looked at one another with consternation in their faces. If some one wasn't playing a joke there must be a thief in camp! That one of the Winnebagos should be taking the other girls' things was inconceivable. They were bound to each other by bonds stronger than sisterhood; they knew each other's very thoughts, almost, and to suspect one of their number of stealing hurt worse than a blow; and yet here were their things disappearing almost under their hands! No, the thing was impossible. What would one Winnebago gain by taking the other girls' clothes? She could not wear them without instant detection and they would be worth nothing if sold. A scarf, a white skirt with a seam burst open, a tie with a spot of ink in it, a half-worn bathing cap--what could induce any one to take them? The thing became uncanny.
Nyoda wondered uncomfortably how long Sherry had been in camp the previous night before he had made himself known, and Gladys shuddered at the possibility of Ed Roberts having a hand in it.
Each time things had disappeared some one from Mountain Lake Camp had been over. The girls had been in the habit of leaving all their belongings open and spread around, with never a thought for their safety, but now they began putting them away carefully.
They all felt uncomfortable doing it and each one hoped she was un.o.bserved. There was an air of restraint about the camp that had never existed before, and it reacted in a general crossness.
The singing in the evening seemed all out of tune and the fire smoked because the wood was damp and everything had a false note in it. Nyoda was glad when it was time to blow the bugle.
Even then there was no immediate peace. No sooner were they settled in bed than from the lake below came the sound of a manly voice raised in song, accompanied by the strumming of a guitar.
”There's your lover, Gladys,” giggled Sahwah, ”I recognize his voice. He plays the guitar, his brother told me so.” Gladys hid her face in the pillow and the girls kept on teasing her.
”Aren't you going to reward your gallant troubadour by tossing him a flower or a glove, or something?” called Nyoda from the other tent.
”I'd like to toss him a rock,” said Gladys savagely to herself.
Finding his efforts unrecognized, the serenader finally desisted, and they heard the dipping of his paddle as he departed.
The girls were at work bright and early the next morning, for they were to be ready to leave for Blueberry Island by nine.
With a great waving of paddles the boys arrived promptly on the dot and jumped out to help stow the empty baskets for berries and the full baskets of lunch into the boats, together with the cups and kettles.
Gladys had been wondering all morning how she should treat Ed Roberts and stood around so quiet and pensive that Nyoda rallied her on her lack of spirits. ”Are you so anxious to see your troubadour that you forget to talk?” she asked.
Gladys, suddenly grown weary of all this teasing, said vehemently, ”I don't like Ed Roberts and I wish you would stop talking about him to me.”
”Don't you really like him?” said Nyoda, grown serious in an instant.
Gladys shook her head. ”He thinks I shouldn't talk to any one but himself, and he's forever trying to get me off into corners away from the others. All he talks is nonsense; calls me 'kid'
and 'girlie,' and actually tried to hold my hand when we were going down to the canoes that night. It makes me tired! I wish I didn't have to go to-day.”
Nyoda puckered her brows, but thought best not to treat the matter too seriously, and merely said, ”Stay near me all day and I don't think he will act that way.”
There were sixteen of them altogether and only seven canoes, counting the _Keewaydin_, so one canoe had to carry four. When Nyoda got in with Sherry, Gladys got in right after her, and Ed Roberts, who was trying to get a canoe for himself, either had to get in also or let some one else have the place. He chose the former and was placed as bow paddler with his back to the others and Nyoda between him and Gladys.
The day was perfect and every one in high spirits. The berries were thick on the Island and the baskets were filled with little trouble. Gladys kept close to Nyoda. After a courteous greeting she had paid no further attention to Ed, and during the picking he stayed in the background, sulky and chagrined. When the berries were picked Gladys went to help Nyoda make the blueberry pudding, which was to crown the feast. Sherry sought out Ed Roberts. ”You big b.o.o.b,” he said, ”why don't you take that Gladys girl away from Miss Kent and keep her entertained? She's sticking so close beside her I have no chance to talk at all.
Where are your manners, anyway, leaving her without a partner?”
Ed looked at him sourly, and then he brightened at the prospect of having Sherry for an ally.
”If you can manage to lose her somewhere near me I'd be delighted,” he said. But Gladys steadfastly refused to be ”lost”
and Nyoda was constantly requiring her a.s.sistance, so the two were never very far away from each other.
Sahwah and Ned were having a glorious time. He was teaching her to shoot her rifle and she was proving a very apt pupil indeed, hitting the paper three times out of five the first round. Not so Hinpoha, who was also being taught. She took aim with her left eye and pulled the trigger with her right hand and the result was that she could not even hit the tree on which the paper was fastened. She screwed her face up into a frightful grimace and turned her head away when she fired, as if she expected the explosion to blow her head off. But Ned gallantly a.s.sured her that she would be a good shot in time and never made one remark about ”the way girls do such things.” Hinpoha persisted until she had hit the paper once and then left to put her slumgullion over the fire, a.s.sisted by Lane Allen, who had followed her around since the first night he visited the camp.
Soon dinner was ready and the hungry crowd spread out on the rocks to be served with good things cooked over the open fire.
”Leave room for blueberry pudding!” Gladys cautioned every one, viewing with alarm the quant.i.ties of slumgullion and sandwiches that were being consumed. ”No danger!” laughed Ned. ”I could eat everything in sight and still have room for all the blueberry pudding you have. Bring it on!” Gladys served every one with a heaping big dish, and with ”'Ohs” and ”Ahs” of enjoyment they sent it the way of the rest of the feast.
”Now we must heat water to wash the dishes,” said Nyoda, when every one had reached the limit of eating.
”You let us fellows attend to that,” said Sherry decisively, ”it's enough that you got the dinner.” He calmly took her big cook's ap.r.o.n away from her and put it on himself. The boys fell to with a will and the dishes were soon off the scene. In the afternoon they divided the company into two parts and had a shooting match with Sahwah's rifle. Some of the girls surprised themselves by hitting the paper the first time, and more than one hit the bull's eye before her round was over. Ed Roberts called out the wrath of Sherry because he would point the gun at people, and lost his turn in consequence, which did not improve his temper. Later he received a sharp rebuke from Sahwah because he wanted her to shoot at a song sparrow, and retired to the beach by himself to mope. He was no more like his frank, courteous, sunny-hearted twin brother than day is like night, and Nyoda understood fully Gladys's aversion to him.
They went paddling home in the rosy sunset singing ”A Perfect Day,” which it had been to every one but Ed Roberts, all vowing that they must get together again before the camps broke up.
Long after the others were wrapped in slumber Sahwah lay staring into the moonlight. She was never more wide awake. The night was hot and the blankets seemed to stifle her. ”I can't sleep!”