The Camp Fire Girls at School
by
Hildegard G. Frey
Part 1 out of 4
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL
or, The Woleho Weavers
By Hildegard G. Frey
Author of
"The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods",
"The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House",
"The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring."
1916
CHAPTER I.
CHRONICLES IN COLOR.
"Speaking of diaries," said Gladys Evans, "what do you think of this for
one?" She spread out a bead band, about an inch and a half wide and a
yard or more long, in which she had worked out in colors the main events
of her summer's camping trip with the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls. The
girls dropped their hand work and crowded around Gladys to get a better
look at the band, which told so cleverly the story of their wonderful
summer.
"Oh, look," cried "Sahwah" Brewster, excitedly pointing out the figures,
"there's Shadow River and the canoe floating upside down, and Ed Roberts
serenading Gladys--only it turned out to be Sherry serenading Nyoda--and
the Hike, and the Fourth of July pageant, and everything!" The
Winnebagos were loud in their expressions of admiration, and the "Don't
you remembers" fell thick and fast as they recalled the events depicted
in the bead band.
It was a crisp evening in October and the Winnebagos were having their
Work Meeting at the Bradford house, as the guests of Dorothy Bradford,
or "Hinpoha," as she was known in the Winnebago circle. Here were all
the girls we left standing on the boat dock at Loon Lake, looking just
the same as when we saw them last, a trifle less sunburned perhaps, but
just as full of life and spirit. Scissors, needles and crochet hooks
flew fast as the seven girls and their Guardian sat around the cheerful
wood fire in the library. Sahwah was tatting, Gladys and Migwan were
embroidering, and Miss Kent, familiarly known as "Nyoda," the Guardian
of the Winnebago group, was "mending her hole-proof hose," as she
laughingly expressed it. The three more quiet girls in the circle,
Nakwisi the Star Maiden, Chapa the Chipmunk, and Medmangi the Medicine
Man Girl, were working out their various symbols in crochet patterns.
Hinpoha was down on the floor popping corn over the glowing logs and
turning over a row of apples which had been set before the fireplace to
warm. The firelight streaming over her red curls made them shine like
burning embers, until it seemed as if some of the fire had escaped from
the grate and was playing around her face. Every few minutes she reached
out her hand and dealt a gentle slap on the nose of "Mr. Bob," a young
cocker spaniel attached to the house of Bradford, who persistently tried
to take the apples in his mouth. Nyoda finally came to the rescue and
diverted his attention by giving him her darning egg to chew. The room
was filled with the light-hearted chatter of the girls. Sahwah was
relating with many giggles, how she had gotten into a scrape at school.
"And old Professor Fuzzytop made me bring all my books and sit up at
that little table beside his desk for a week. Of course I didn't mind
that a bit, because then I could see what _everybody_ in the room was
doing instead of just the few around me. The only thing I prayed for was
that Miss Muggins wouldn't come in and see me, because she has taken a
sort of fancy to me and makes it easy for me in Latin, but if I ever
fall from grace she won't pass me. But of all the luck, right in the
middle of the Fourth Hour when everybody was in the room studying, in
she walked. I saw her as she opened the door and quick as a wink I
opened up the big dictionary on the table and buried my nose in it, so
she'd think I had gone up there of my own accord. She stopped and looked
at me, then patted me encouragingly on the shoulder and remarked what a
studious girl I was. I thought everybody in the room would die trying
not to laugh, but nobody gave me away. She came in during the Fourth
Hour for several days after that, and every time I flew to the
sheltering arms of the dictionary, and she always made some approving
remark out loud. Now she thinks I'm a shark and I have a better stand-in
than ever with her. She told her Senior session room that there was a
girl in the Junior room who was so keen after knowledge that no matter
when she came into the room she always found her consulting the
dictionary!"
Sahwah's imitation of the elderly and precise Miss Muggins was so close
that the girls shrieked with laughter. Even Nyoda, who was a "faculty,"
and should have been the ally of the deluded instructor, was too much
amused to say a word. "By the way, Sahwah," she said when the laughter
had died down, "how are you coming on in Latin? The last time I saw you
your Cicero had a strangle hold on you." Sahwah made a fearful grimace,
and recited sarcastically:
"Not showers to larks more pleasing,
Not sunshine to the bee,
Not sleep to toil more easing,
Than Latin prose to me!
"The flocks shall leave the mountains,
The dew shall flee the rose,
The nymphs forsake the fountains,
Ere I forsake my prose!"
Nyoda laughed and shook her head at Sahwah, and "Migwan," otherwise
Elsie Gardiner, looked up at the despiser of prose composition in mild
wonderment. "I don't see how you can make such a fuss about learning
Latin," she said, "it's the least of my troubles."
"But I'm not such a genius as you," answered Sahwah, "and my head won't
stand the strain." Her mental limitations did not seem to cause her any
anxiety, however, for she hummed a merry tune as she drew her tatting
shuttle in and out.
Migwan leaned back in her chair and looked around the tastefully
furnished room with quiet enjoyment. This library in the Bradford house
was a never-ending delight to her. It was finished in dark oak and the
walls were hung with a rich brown paper. The floor was polished and
covered with oriental rugs, whose patterns she loved to trace. At one
end of the room was a big fireplace and on each side of it a cozy seat,
piled with tapestry covered cushions. Over the fireplace hung two
slender swords, the property of some departed Bradford. The handsome
chairs were upholstered in brown leather to match the other furnishings,
and everything in the room, from the Italian marble Psyche on its
pedestal in the corner to the softly glowing lamps, gave the impression
of wealth and culture. Migwan contrasted it with the shabby sitting room
in her own home and sighed. She was keenly responsive to beautiful
surroundings and would have been happy to stay forever in this library.
But beautiful as the furnishings were, they were the least part of the
attraction. The real drawing card were the books that filled the cases
on three sides of the room. There were books of every kind; fiction,
poetry, history, travel, science; and whole sets of books in handsome
bindings that Migwan fairly revelled in whenever she came to visit.
Hinpoha herself was not fond of reading anything but fiction, and
although she had the freedom of all the cases she never looked at
anything but "story books." Before her parents went to Europe they had
tried making her keep an average of one book of fiction to one of
another kind in the hope of instilling into her a love for essays and
history, but in the absence of her father and mother, history and essays
were having a long vacation and fiction was working overtime.
"Let's play something," said Sahwah when the apples and popcorn had
disappeared; "I'm tired of sitting still."
"Can't somebody please think of a new game?" said Hinpoha. "We've played
everything we know until I'm sick of it."
"I thought of one the other day," said Gladys quietly. "I named it the
'Camp Fire Game.' You play it like Stage Coach, or Fruit Basket, only
instead of taking parts of a coach or names of fruits you take articles
that belong to the Camp Fire, like bead band, ring, moccasin, bracelet,
fire, honor beads, symbol, fringe, Wohelo, hand sign, bow and drill,
Mystic Fire, etc. Then somebody tells a story about Camp Fire Girls, and
every time one of those articles is mentioned every one must get up and
turn around. But if the words 'Ceremonial Meeting' or 'Council Fire' are
mentioned, then all must change seats and the story teller tries to get
a seat in the scramble, and the one who gets left out has to go on with
the story."
"Good!" cried Nyoda, "let's play it. You tell the story first."
Gladys stood up in the center of the room and began: "Once upon a time
there were a group of Camp Fire Girls called the Winnebagos, and they
went to school in the Professors' big tepee on the avenue, where they
pursued knowledge for all they were worth. So much wisdom did they
imbibe that it was necessary to wear a head band to keep their heads
from splitting open. Wherever they went they were immediately recognized
by their rings and bracelets, and were pointed out as 'those dreadful
young savages.' The professors and teachers hoped every day that they
would not come to school, but they never stayed away because they
received honor beads from their Guardian Mother for not being absent.
Sometimes it seemed as if the tricks they did in class room could only
have been accomplished by their having consulted one another, and yet it
was impossible to catch them whispering in class because they always
conversed by hand signs. However, this also led to disaster one day when
one of our well-beloved sisters of the bow and drill tried to make the
hand sign for 'girl,' and raised her hand above her head. The Big Chief,
who was conducting the lesson, thought she wanted something, and said
benevolently: 'What is your desire?' Absent-mindedly she replied, 'It is
my desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and obey the Law of the Camp Fire,
which is to seek beauty, give service, pursue knowledge, be trustworthy,
hold on to health, glorify work, and be happy,' 'Begone,' said the Big
Chief, 'what do you think this is, a Ceremonial Meeting?'"
At the words "Ceremonial Meeting" all the girls jumped up to change
places, and in the scramble a vase was knocked off the table and broken.
Every one sat rooted to the spot with fright, all except Mr. Bob, who
fled at the sound of the crash as if he had been the guilty one. Hinpoha
calmly collected the pieces and carried them out. "My mother will be
extremely grateful to you for this when she comes home," she said. "If
there was one vase in the house she hated it was this one. My Aunt
Phoebe brought it from the World's Fair in Chicago and thinks it's the
chief ornament of our home. Won't mother be glad when she finds it
broken and she can prove that none of us did it?" The tension relaxed
and the girls breathed easily again.
"When are your mother and father coming home?" asked Nyoda.
"They sailed last week on the _Francona_," answered Hinpoha.
"Weren't you worried to death to have them in Europe so long with the
war going on?" asked Migwan.
"No, not much," said Hinpoha, "because they have been in Switzerland all
the while, which is safe enough, and as they are coming home on a
neutral vessel they have had no trouble getting passage. They should be
here in a week." And Hinpoha's eyes shone with a great, glad light, for
although she had been having the jolliest time imaginable, doing as she
pleased in the house, which was in the care of easy-going "Aunt Grace,"
who never cared a bit what Hinpoha did so long as it did not bother her,
she missed her mother sorely, and could hardly wait until she returned.
Nyoda saw the transfigured look that came into her eyes when she spoke
of her mother's home coming, and her own eyes went dim, for her mother
had died when she was just Hinpoha's age.
After the breaking of the vase the game stopped and the girls sat down
again in a quiet circle. "Do you know," said Nyoda, "that bead band
Gladys made has given me an idea? Why can't we keep a personal record in
bead work? It would be a great deal more interesting and picturesque
than keeping a diary, and there would be no danger of your little sister
getting hold of it and reading your secrets out loud to her friends."
"It's a great idea," said Migwan, who had always kept a diary and had
suffered much from an inquisitive brother and sister.
"Besides," said Sahwah, "think how exciting it would be at Ceremonial
Meetings, to sit with your life story hanging around your neck, and know
that your neighbor was just breaking _her_ neck trying to figure out
what the little pictures meant. Wouldn't old Fuzzytop love to be able to
read mine, though!" And Sahwah giggled extravagantly as she saw in her
mind's eye the bead record of some of her activities in the Junior
session room.
"Now, about all our activities," continued Nyoda, "are covered by the
seven points of the Camp Fire Law, so that everything we do either
fulfills or breaks the Law. What do you say if we register our
commendable doings in colors, but record the event in black every time
we break the Law?"
The girls thought this would be a fascinating game, and Sahwah remarked
that she must send to the Outfitting Company for a bunch of black beads
directly, as she had only a very few left.
"It's a good thing we didn't keep this record last summer," said Gladys
with a thoughtful look in her eyes, "or mine would have been black from
one end to the other."
"It wouldn't, either," said Sahwah vehemently. "You did more for us in
the end than we ever did for you. And my sins were as scarlet as yours,
every bit."
Since that terrible day in camp Gladys seemed to have been made over,
and never once reverted to her old selfishness and superciliousness, so
that she now had the love and esteem of every one of the Winnebagos. All
mention of her old short-comings was quickly silenced by Sahwah, who now
adored her, heart and soul. Gladys's entrance into the public school
after two years at Miss Russell's had caused quite a stir among the
girls of the neighborhood, who in times past had been wont to consider
her proud and haughty, but her simple, unaffected manner quickly won for
her a secure place in the affections of all. Teachers and scholars alike
loved her.
Sahwah was still counting up her own misdemeanors at camp when the
Evans's automobile came for Gladys, and reluctantly all the girls
prepared to go home. It always seemed harder to break away from
Hinpoha's house than from any of the others'. In spite of the rich
furnishings it had a cozy, homey atmosphere of being used from one end
to the other, and no guest, however humble, ever felt awkward or out of
place there. Thus it usually happens that when people are entirely at
ease in their own surroundings, they soon make others feel the same way
too.
CHAPTER II.
A SUDDEN MISFORTUNE.
As the day drew near for the return of her mother and father Hinpoha
went all over the house from garret to cellar seeing that everything was
put to rights. She and the other Winnebagos took a trip into the country
for bittersweet to decorate the fireplace in the library and in her
father's study upstairs. With pardonable pride she arranged a little
exhibition of the Craft work she had done in camp and the sketches she
had made of the lake and hills. On the table in her mother's room she
placed a work basket she had made of reed and lined with silk.
"Gracious sakes, child," said her aunt, from her rocking chair by the
front window of the living-room, "what a fuss you are going to! One
would think it was your Aunt Phoebe who was coming instead of your
mother and father. They'll be just as glad to see you if the house isn't
as neat as a pin from top to bottom." And Aunt Grace resumed her rocking
and her novel, as unconcerned about the imminent return of the travelers
as if it were nothing more than the daily visit of the milkman. Nothing
short of an earthquake would ever shake Aunt Grace out of her settled
complacency.
Hinpoha went happily on, seeing that every tack and screw was in place,
and arranging the books in the cases to correspond to her father's
catalog, for they had become sadly mixed during his absence. She even
took out a volume of his favorite essays and pored over them diligently
so that she might discuss them with him and show that she had used some
of her time to good advantage. She straightened out her bureau drawers
and mended all her clothes and stockings. When everything was in order
she viewed the result with a happy feeling at the pleasure it would give
her mother when she saw it. Hinpoha's most prominent trait in times past
had not been neatness.
Nyoda, who had been called in to make a final inspection before Hinpoha
was satisfied, wondered if all the girls were "seeking beauty" as
earnestly as Hinpoha was. She envied Hinpoha the homecoming of her
mother from the bottom of her heart. This feeling was particularly
strong one afternoon as she sat in the school room after the close of
school, looking over some English papers. It was the anniversary of the
death of her mother and she sat recalling little incidents of her
childhood before this best of chums had been taken away. As she sat
there half dreaming she heard voices in the hall before her door.
"Have you heard the latest?" asked one voice.
"No," said the second voice, "what is it?"
"Why, the _Francona_ has gone down," answered the first voice. "Struck a
mine in the ocean."
At the word "Francona" Nyoda started up. That was the boat Hinpoha's
parents were coming on! She hurried out into the hall after the two
teachers. "What did you say about the _Francona_?" she asked. They
handed her the "extra" they had been reading and she saw with her own
eyes the account of the disaster. The list of "saved" was pitifully
small, and Hinpoha's parents were not among them. Soon she came to the
notation, "Among the lost are Mr. and Mrs. Adam Bradford, prominent
Cleveland lawyer and his wife. Mr. Bradford was the son of the late
Judge Bradford and a well-known man about town." Of what little avail is
"prominence" when calamity stretches out her cruel hands! "Well known"
and obscure gave up their lives together and found a grave side by side.
"You look like a ghost, Miss Kent," said one of the teachers. "Any
friends of yours on board?"
"Dorothy Bradford's mother and father," answered Nyoda, "one of the
pupils here at school."
Leaving her work unfinished, she hastened to Hinpoha's house. The news
had just been learned there. Aunt Grace had fainted and was being
revived with salts. Hinpoha flung herself on Nyoda and clung to her like
a drowning person. Between neighbors and friends coming to sympathize
and reporters from the newspapers seeking interviews the house was a
pandemonium. Nyoda saw that Hinpoha would never quiet down in those
surroundings and took her away to her own apartment. Of all the friends
who offered consolation Nyoda was the one to whom Hinpoha turned for
comfort. Here the brilliant young college woman and the simple girl were
on a level, for they shared a common experience, and each could
comprehend the other's sorrow.
Poor Hinpoha! She had need of all the consolation that Nyoda could give
her in the days that followed. Full of bitterness as her cup was, there
was to be added yet one more drop--the drop that caused it to run over.
Aunt Phoebe came to live with her and be the mistress of the Bradford
house. At some time in the past Judge Bradford and his sister Phoebe had
been named joint guardians of Hinpoha, but the Judge was now dead and
Aunt Phoebe was the sole guardian. Aunt Phoebe was a spinster of the
type usually described in books, tall and spare, with steely blue eyes.
She was sixty years old, but she might have been a hundred and sixty,
for all the sympathy she had with youth. She had been disappointed in
love when she was twenty and had never thought kindly of any man since.
From her earliest childhood Hinpoha had dreaded the very name of Aunt
Phoebe. When she came to visit a restraint fell over the whole house.
The usual lively chatter at the dinner table was hushed, and Aunt Phoebe
held forth in solemn tones, generally berating some unfortunate person
who nearly always happened to be a good friend of Mrs. Bradford's.
Hinpoha would be called up for a minute examination of her clothes and
manners and would invariably do something which was not right in her
great aunt's eyes.
She had a vivid recollection of going tobogganing down the long front
walk one winter day, her jolly mother on the sled with her, steering it
adroitly around the corner and up the sidewalk for a distance after
leaving the slope. Such fun they were having that they did not look to
see if the road was clear, and went bumping into a female figure that
was coming majestically along the street, knocking her off her feet and
into a snowdrift. It was Aunt Phoebe, coming to make a formal afternoon
call. She sat bolt upright in the snow and adjusted her lorgnette to see
if by any chance her grandniece could be one of those rowdy children.
When she discovered that it was not only Hinpoha, but her mother as
well, frolicking so indecorously, she was speechless. Mrs. Bradford
started to make an abject apology, but the sight of Aunt Phoebe sitting
in the snowdrift with her lorgnette was too much for her and she went
off into a peal of laughter, in which Hinpoha joined gleefully. It was
weeks before Aunt Phoebe could be coaxed to make another visit. And this
was the woman who was coming to take the place of Hinpoha's beloved
mother!
Aunt Grace left the day she came. There was not enough room in one house
for her and Aunt Phoebe. With Aunt Phoebe came "Silky," a wiggling,
snapping Skye terrier. He gave one glance at genial Mr. Bob, who was
rolling on his back before the fireplace, and with a growl fastened his
teeth into his neck. Hinpoha rescued her pet and bore him away to her
room, where she shed tears of despair while he licked her hand
sympathetically. Aunt Phoebe's first act was to put Hinpoha into deep
mourning. Hinpoha objected strenuously, but there was no help, and she
went to school swathed from head to foot in black. Nyoda was wrathful at
the sight, for if there was one point she felt strongly about it was
putting children into mourning. Among the gaily dressed girls Hinpoha
stood out like some dark spirit from the underworld, casting a gloom
wherever she went.
"Where is that beautiful vase I brought your mother from the World's
Fair?" asked Aunt Phoebe one day, suddenly missing it.
"It was accidently broken at our last Camp Fire meeting," answered
Hinpoha, with a tightening around her heart when she thought of that
last happy gathering.
"Camp Fire!" said Aunt Phoebe with a snort. "You don't mean to tell me
that you are mixed up in any such foolishness as that?"
"I certainly am," said Hinpoha energetically, "and it isn't foolishness,
either. I've learned more since I have been a Camp Fire Girl than I did
in all the years before."
"Well, you may consider yourself graduated, then," said Aunt Phoebe,
drily, "for I'll have no such nonsense about me. I can teach you all you
need to know outside of what you learn in school."
"Camp Fire always had mother's fullest approval," said Hinpoha darkly.
"I dare say," returned her aunt. "But I want you to understand once for
all that I won't have any girls holding 'meetings' here, to upset the
house and break valuable ornaments."
"But you don't care if I go to them at other girls' houses, do you?"
asked Hinpoha, the fear gripping her that she was to be denied the
consolation of these weekly gatherings with the Winnebagos.
"I don't want you to have anything to do with that Camp Fire business,"
said Aunt Phoebe in a tone of finality, and Hinpoha left the room, her
heart swelling with bitterness. She was too wise to argue the point with
Aunt Phoebe, and resolved to depend on Nyoda to show her the way. She
dried her tears and went down to the living room and began to play
softly on the piano. It had been her mother's piano, the wedding gift of
her father, and it seemed that her mother's spirit hovered over it. It
was the first time she had touched the keys since that awful Wednesday
when the world had been turned into chaos; she had had no heart to play,
but to-day the sound of the music comforted her and her bitter resentment
against her aunt lost some of its sting. She played on, lost in
memories, when suddenly the sharp voice of her aunt brought her back to
earth. "What does this mean?" cried Aunt Phoebe, "playing on the piano
when your father and mother have just died! I never heard of such a
thing! Come away immediately and don't open that piano again until our
period of mourning is over." She closed the piano and locked it, putting
the key into her bag.
Under Aunt Phoebe's management the house soon lost its look of inviting
friendliness. The blinds were always kept drawn, so that even on the
brightest days the rooms had a gloomy appearance. No more cheerful wood
fires crackled and glowed in the grate. They made ashes on the rugs and
were extravagant, as the house was heated by steam. The bookcases were
locked and Hinpoha was forbidden to read fiction, as this was not proper
when one was in mourning. "You will become acquainted with much pleasant
literature reading to me while I crochet," she said when Hinpoha rose in
revolt at this edict. The "pleasant literature" which Aunt Phoebe was
just then perusing was a History of the Presbyterian Church in eleven
volumes, which bored Hinpoha so it nearly gagged her.
Besides, Aunt Phoebe constantly found fault with Hinpoha's manner of
reading. It was either too loud or not loud enough; either too fast or
too slow, but it was never right. That reading aloud was the last straw
to Hinpoha. After sitting still a whole afternoon getting her school
lessons, she longed to move about after supper, but then Aunt Phoebe
expected her to sit still the entire evening and entertain her with the
activities of the Early Presbytery. After nearly a week of this deadly
dullness Hinpoha was ready to fly. And yet Aunt Phoebe was not conscious
that there was anything wrong in the way she was treating Hinpoha. She
cared for her in her frozen way. She was merely trying to bring her up
in the way she herself had been brought up by a maiden aunt, not taking
into account that this was another day and age. In her time it was
considered the proper thing to shut down on all lightheartedness after a
death in the family, and she was adhering steadfastly to the old
principles. She was yet to learn that she could not force obsolete
customs upon a girl who had lived for sixteen years in the sunlight of
modern ideas.
All Hinpoha's troubles were confided to Nyoda, who sympathized with her
entirely, but bade her be of good cheer and hope for the time when Aunt
Phoebe would see for herself that the new way was best; and above all to
win the respect and liking of her aunt the first thing, as more could be
accomplished in this way than by being antagonistic. "I don't suppose
you could go for a long walk with me Sunday afternoon?" said Nyoda.
Hinpoha shook her head sadly. "We don't do anything like that on
Sunday," she answered, with resentment flaming in her eye. "We go to
church morning and evening and in the afternoon I am supposed to read
the Bible or a book by a man named Thomas a Kempis." Nyoda turned her
eyes inward with such a comical expression that Hinpoha forgot her
troubles for a moment and laughed.
"The Bible and Thomas a Kempis," said Nyoda musingly; "where did I hear
those two mentioned before? Oh, I have it! Did you ever read this
anywhere, 'Commit to memory one hundred verses of the Bible or an equal
amount of sacred literature, such as Thomas a Kempis'?"
Hinpoha hung her head, still smiling. "Why, Nyoda," she said, "there's a
chance to earn an honor bead that I probably wouldn't have thought of
otherwise!"
"Right-o," said Nyoda. "'It's an ill wind,' you know. And while you are
doing so much Bible reading you will undoubtedly come across something
about 'in the wilderness a cedar,' and will learn that most waste places
can be turned into blooming gardens if we only know how."
"Thank you," said Hinpoha, "I always feel less forlorn after a talk with
you." Her face brightened, but immediately fell again. "But what good
will it do me to work for honors?" she said sadly. "Aunt Phoebe won't
let me come to the meetings."
"Won't she really?" asked Nyoda in surprise. Hinpoha nodded, near to
tears. "I must see about that," said Nyoda resolutely. "I think if I
explain the mission and activities of Camp Fire she will not object to
your belonging. She probably has a wrong idea of what it means."
Accordingly Nyoda came a-calling on Aunt Phoebe that very night. In
addition to being very pretty Nyoda had a great deal of dignity, and
when she put on her formal manner she looked very impressive indeed. She
did not act as if she had come to see Hinpoha at all, but asked for
"Miss Bradford," and said she had come to pay her respects to her new
neighbor. She listened politely to Aunt Phoebe's account of her last
siege of rheumatism, admired her crochet work, and hoped she liked this
street as well as her former neighborhood. She said she had often seen
Miss Bradford's name in the papers in connection with various charitable
organizations and was very glad to have the honor of meeting the sister
of the prominent Judge. Aunt Phoebe was pleased and flattered at the
deference paid her. But when Nyoda announced herself as the leader of
the club to which Hinpoha belonged and asked permission for her to
attend the meetings, she refused. She was perfectly polite about it, and
did not mention her antipathy to Camp Fire, and taking refuge behind her
favorite excuse, that of being in mourning, stated that she did not wish
Hinpoha to go out in society.
"But this isn't 'society'," broke in Hinpoha desperately.
"A meeting of a club partakes of a social nature," returned her aunt,
"and is not to be thought of." And there the matter rested.
So Nyoda had to depart without accomplishing her mission. Hinpoha,
utterly crushed, followed her to the door, and Nyoda gave her hand a
reassuring squeeze. "Don't despair, dear," she whispered hopefully; "she
will come around to it eventually, but it will take time. Be patient.
And in the meantime read this," and she slipped into her hand a tiny
copy of "The Desert of Waiting." "Just be true to the Law, and see if
you cannot find the roses among the thorns and from them distil the
precious ointment that will open the door of the City of Your Desire
later on."
Hinpoha thrust the little book into her blouse, and when she was safe in
her own room read it from cover to cover. When she finished there was a
song in her heart again and a light in her eyes. Resolutely she turned
her face to the East and began her long sojourn in the Desert of
Waiting.
Nyoda pondered the problem for a long while that night, and the next day
she went to call on Gladys's mother. Mrs. Evans had taken a great liking
to the popular young teacher of whom Gladys was so fond, and cordially
invited her to spend as much time as she could at the house with the
family. It was to her, then, that Nyoda appealed for advice in regard to
Hinpoha. Mrs. Evans made a slight grimace when the facts were laid
before her.
"If that isn't just like Phoebe Bradford," she exclaimed indignantly.
"Trying to shut up that poor girl like a nun to conform to some
moth-eaten ideas of hers! If the Judge were alive that house wouldn't
look as if there was a perpetual funeral going on! I certainly will call
and see if I can do anything to change her mind, although I doubt very
much if that could be accomplished by human means."
The next day Aunt Phoebe was agreeably surprised to receive a call from
Mrs. Evans, "All the best people in the neighborhood are making haste to
call on the sister of Judge Bradford," she reflected complacently. Mrs.
Evans made herself very agreeable, speaking of many friends they had in
common, and finally led the conversation around to Hinpoha.
"The child looks very pale," she said. "I presume the death of her
parents was a terrible shock to her?"
Aunt Phoebe dabbed her eyes with her black-bordered handkerchief. "The
hand of misfortune has fallen heavily upon this house," she said
mournfully.
"It has indeed!" thought Mrs. Evans. Aloud she said, "You must not let
the girl grieve herself sick. Cheerful company is what she needs at this
time. Make her go out with the Camp Fire Girls as much as possible."
Aunt Phoebe drew herself up rather stiffly. "I do not approve of the
Camp Fire Girls," she said.
"Not approve of the Camp Fire Girls!" echoed Mrs. Evans in well-feigned
astonishment; "why, what's wrong with them?"
Just what the great objection was Aunt Phoebe was not prepared to say,
but she remarked that such nonsense had never been thought of in her
day. "And, of course," she added, hiding behind her usual argument,
"while we are in mourning my grandniece will not go out to any
gatherings."
"Why, I wouldn't think of keeping Gladys home for that reason," said
Mrs. Evans, seeing the subterfuge. "She went to a Camp Fire meeting the
day after her grandfather's funeral. It's not like going to a social
function, you know."
Aunt Phoebe shook her head, but her policy of seclusion for Hinpoha was
getting shaky. Mrs. Homer Evans was a power in the community, and what
she did set the fashion in a good many directions. Aunt Phoebe was very
anxious to keep her as a permanent acquaintance, and if Mrs. Evans gave
her sanction to this Camp Fire business, she wondered if she had not
better swallow her prejudice--outwardly at least, for she declared
inwardly that she had never heard of such foolishness in all her born
days. When Mrs. Evans went home Aunt Phoebe had actually promised that
after three months Hinpoha might attend the meetings as before. Those
three months of mourning, however, were sacred to her, and on no account
would she have consented to allow a single ray of cheer to enter the
house during that period.
CHAPTER III.
SOME TRIALS OF GENIUS.
"The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles."
Migwan drew the construction lines as indicated in the book and labored
valiantly to understand why the Angle A was equal to its alternate, DBA,
her brow puckered into a studious frown. Geometry was not her long suit,
her talents running to literature and languages. Outside the October sun
was shining on the crimson and yellow maples, making the long street a
scene of dazzling splendor. The carpet of dry leaves on the walk and
sidewalk tantalized Migwan with their crisp dryness; she longed to be
out swishing and crackling through them. She sighed and stirred
impatiently in her chair, wishing heartily that Euclid had died in his
cradle.
"I can't study with all this noise going on!" she groaned, flinging her
pencil and compass down in despair. Indeed, it would have taken a much
more keenly interested person than Migwan to have concentrated on a
geometry lesson just then. From somewhere upstairs there came an
ear-splitting din. It sounded like an earthquake in a tin shop, mingled
with the noise of the sky falling on a glass roof, and accompanied by
the tramping of an army; a noise such as could only have been produced
by an extremely large elephant or an extremely small boy amusing himself
indoors. Migwan rose resolutely and mounted the stairs to the room
overhead, where her twelve-year-old brother and two of his bosom friends
were holding forth. "Tom," she said appealingly, "wouldn't you and the
boys just as soon play outdoors or in somebody else's house? I simply
can't study with all that noise going on."
"But the others have no punching bag," said Tom in an injured tone, "and
Jim brought George over especially to-day to practice."
"Can't you take the punching bag over to Jim's?" suggested Migwan
desperately.
"Sure," said Jim good-naturedly; "that's a good idea." So the boys
unscrewed the object of attraction and departed with it, their pockets
bulging with ginger cookies which Migwan gave them as a reward for their
trouble. Silence fell on the house and Migwan returned to the mastering
of the sum of the angles. Geometry was the bane of her existence and she
was only cheered into digging away at it by the thought of the money
lying in her name in the bank, which she had received for giving the
clew leading to little Raymond Bartlett's discovery the summer before,
and which would pay her way to college for one year at least.
The theorem was learned at last so that she could make a recitation on
it, even if she did not understand it perfectly, and Migwan left it to
take up a piece of work which gave her as much pleasure as the other did
pain. This was the writing of a story which she intended to send away to
a magazine. She wrote it in the back of an old notebook, and when she
was not working at it she kept it carefully in the bottom of her
shirtwaist box, where the prying eyes of her younger sister would not
find it. She had all the golden dreams and aspirations of a young
authoress writing her first story, and her days were filled with a
secret delight when she thought of the riches that would soon be hers
when the story was accepted, as it of course would be. If she had known
then of the long years of cruel disillusionment that would drag their
weary length along until her efforts were finally crowned with success
it is doubtful whether she would have stayed in out of the October
sunshine so cheerfully and worked with such enthusiasm.
Migwan's family could have used to advantage all the gold which she was
dreaming of earning. After her father died her mother's income, from
various sources, amounted to only about seventy-five dollars a month,
which is not a great amount when there are three children to keep in
school, and it was a struggle all the way around to make both ends meet.
Mrs. Gardiner was a poor manager and kept no accounts, and so took no
notice of the small leaks that drained her purse from month to month.
She was fond of reading, as Migwan was, and sat up until midnight every
night burning gas. Then the next morning she would be too tired to get
up in time to get the children off to school, and they would depart with
a hasty bite, according to their own fancy, or without any breakfast at
all, if they were late. She bought ready-made clothes when she could
have made them herself at half the cost, and generally chose light
colors which soiled quickly. She never went to the store herself,
depending on Tom or scatter-brained Betty, her younger daughter, to do
her marketing, and in consequence paid the highest prices for
inferior-grade goods.
Thus the seventy-five dollars covered less ground every month as prices
mounted, and little bills began to be left outstanding. Part of the
income was from a house which rented for twenty dollars but this last
month the tenants had abruptly moved, and that much was cut off. Migwan,
unbusiness-like as she was, began to be worried about the condition of
their affairs, and worked on her story feverishly, that it might be
turned into money as soon as possible. She was deep in the intricacies
of literary construction when her mother entered the room, broom in hand
and dust cap on head, and sank into a chair.
"Do you suppose you could finish this sweeping?" she asked Migwan. "My
back aches so I just can't stand up any longer."
"Why can't Betty do it?" asked Migwan a little impatiently, for she
thought she ought not be disturbed when she was engaged in such an
important piece of work.
"Betty's off in the neighborhood somewhere," said her mother wearily.
"Did you ever see her around when there was any work to be done?" Migwan
was filled with exasperation. That was the way things always went at
their house. Tom was allowed to upset the place from one end to the
other without ever having to pick up his things; Betty was never asked
to do any housework, and her mother left the Saturday dinner dishes
standing and began to sweep in the afternoon and then was unable to
finish. Migwan was just about to suggest a search for the errant Betty,
when she remembered the "Give Service" part of the Camp Fire Law. She
rose cheerfully and took the broom from her mother's hand.
"Lie down a while, mother," she said, plumping up the pillows on the
couch. Mrs. Gardiner sank down gratefully and Migwan put away her story
and went at the sweeping. She soon turned it into a game in which she
was a good fairy fighting the hosts of the goblin Dust, and must have
them completely vanquished by four o'clock, or her magic wand, which had
for the time being taken the shape of a broom, would vanish and leave
her weaponless. Needless to say, she was in complete possession of the
field when the clock struck the charmed hour. Being then out of the mood
to continue her writing, she passed on into the kitchen and attacked the
Fortress of Dishes, which she razed to the ground completely, leaving
her banner, in the form of the dish towel, flying over the spot.
"What are you planning for supper?" she asked her mother, looking into
the sitting room to see how she was feeling.
"Oh, dear, I don't know," said Mrs. Gardiner. "I hadn't given it a
thought. I don't believe there's anything left from dinner. Run down to
the store, will you, and get a couple of porterhouse steaks, there's a
dear. And stop at the baker's as you come by and get us each a cream
puff for dessert. Betty is so fond of them." Migwan returned to the
kitchen and got her mother's pocketbook. There was just twenty-five
cents in it. Migwan realized with a shock that it would not pay for what
her mother wanted, and her sensitive nature shrank from asking to have
things charged.
"I won't buy the cream puffs," she decided. "I wonder if there is
anything in the house I could make into a dessert?" Search revealed
nothing but a bag of prunes, which had been on the shelf for months, and
were as dry as a bone. They did not appeal to Migwan in the least, but
there was nothing else in evidence. "I might make prune whip," she
thought rather doubtfully. "They're pretty hard, but I can soak them.
I'll need the oven to make prune whip, so I will bake the potatoes too."
She hunted around for the potatoes and finally found them in a small
paper bag. "Buying potatoes two quarts at a time must be rather
expensive," she reflected. She put the prunes to soak and the potatoes
in the oven and went down to the store. "How much is porterhouse steak?"
she asked before she had the butcher cut any off.
"Twenty-eight cents a pound," answered the man behind the counter.
Migwan gave a little gasp. The money she had would not even buy a pound.
"How much is round steak?" she inquired.
"Twenty-two," came the reply.
"Give me twenty-five cents' worth," she said. It did not look
particularly tender and Migwan thought distressedly how her mother would
complain when she found round steak instead of porterhouse. "But there
is no help for it," she said to herself grimly, "beggars cannot be
choosers." She stopped on the way home to get the recipe for prune whip
from Sahwah. Sahwah was not at home, but her mother gave Migwan the
recipe and added many directions as to the proper mixing of the
ingredients. "Is--is there any way of making tough round steak tender?"
she asked timidly, just a little ashamed to admit that they had to eat
round steak.
"There certainly is," answered Mrs. Brewster. "You just pound all the
flour into it that it will take up. I hardly ever buy porterhouse steaks
any more since I learned that trick. I am having some to-night. It is
one of our favorite dishes here. Round steak prepared in this way is
known in the restaurants as 'Dutch steak,' and commands a high price."
Considerably cheered by this last intelligence, Migwan sped home and got
her prune dessert into the oven and then set to work transforming the
tough steak into a tender morsel.
"What kind of meat is this?" asked her mother when they had taken their
places at the table.
"Guess," said Migwan.
"It tastes like tenderloin," said her mother.
"Guess again," said Migwan gleefully; "it's round steak."
"The butcher must be buying better meat than usual, then," said Mrs.
Gardiner. "I never got such round steak as this out here before."
"And you never will, either," said Migwan, swelling with pride, "if you
leave it to the butcher," and she told how she had treated the steak to
produce the present result.
"I never heard of that before," said her mother, amazed at this simple
culinary trick.
Next the prune whip was brought on and pronounced good by every one and
"bully" by Tom, who ate his in great spoonfuls. "I see I'll have to let
you get the meals after this," said Mrs. Gardiner to Migwan. "You have a
knack of putting things together, which I have not."
Migwan was too tired to write any more that night after the dishes were
done, but she was entirely light-hearted as she wove into her bead band
the symbols of that day's achievements--a broom and a frying pan. She
had learned something that afternoon besides how to prepare beefsteak.
She had waked up to the careless fashion in which the house was being
run, and her head was full of plans for cutting down expenses. Monday
afternoon, on her way home from school, Migwan saw a farmer's wagon
standing in front of the Brewsters' home, and Mrs. Brewster stood at the
curb, buying her winter supply of potatoes.
"Have you put your potatoes in yet?" she asked as Migwan came along.
Migwan stopped. "I don't believe we ever bought them in large
quantities," she answered. "How much are they a bushel?"
"Sixty-five cents," said the farmer. Migwan made a quick mental
calculation. At the rate they had been buying potatoes in two-quart lots
they had been paying a dollar and seventy-five cents a bushel. Migwan
came to a sudden decision.
"Are they all good?" she asked Mrs. Brewster.
"They have always been in the past years," answered Sahwah's mother,
"and I have bought my potatoes from this man for the last six winters."
"How many would it take for a family of four?" asked Migwan.
"About five bushels," answered Mrs. Brewster.
"All right," said Migwan to the man; "bring five bushels over to this
address." The potatoes were duly deposited in the Gardiner cellar,
without asking the advice of Mrs. Gardiner, which was the only safe way
of getting things done, for had she been consulted she would surely have
wanted to wait a while, and then would have kept putting it off until it
was too late. It was the same way with flour and sugar. Migwan found
that her mother had been buying these in small quantities at an
exorbitant price, and calmly took matters into her own hands, ordering a
whole barrel of flour, because there was more in a barrel even than in
four sacks. A certain large store was offering a liberal discount that
week on fifty pounds of sugar, and Migwan took advantage of this sale
also.
Then she had a terrified counting up. Those three items, potatoes, flour
and sugar, had used up every cent of that week's income, leaving nothing
at all for running expenses. All other supplies would have to be bought
on credit. Migwan made a careful estimate of the necessary expenses for
the coming week, and pare down as she might, the sum was nearly fifteen
dollars. The loss of the rent money was making itself keenly felt.
"Mother," she said quietly, looking up from her account book, "we can't
live on fifty-five dollars a month. We must rent the house again
immediately."
Mrs. Gardiner made a gesture of despair. "The sign has been up nearly a
month, and if people don't make inquiries I can't help it."
"Have you been in the house since the last people moved out?" asked
Migwan.
"No," said Mrs. Gardiner; "what good would that do? I haven't the time
to go all the way over to the East Side to look at that old house.
People know it's for rent, and if they want it they'll take it without
my sitting over there waiting for them."
Nevertheless, Migwan made the long trip the very next day after school
to look at the property. "It's no wonder no one has been making
inquiries for it," she said when she returned. "The 'For Rent' sign was
gone and I found it later when I was going back up the street. Some boys
had used it to make the end piece of a wagon. Then, the plumbing is bad
and the cellar is flooded, and the water will not run off in the kitchen
sink. These must have been the repairs the old tenants wanted made when
you told them you had no money to fix the house, and so they moved. I
don't blame them at all.
"Then, there is another thing I thought of when I was looking through
the rooms. You know that big unfinished space over the kitchen? Well, I
thought, why can't we make a furnished room of that? There is space
enough to build a large room and a bathroom, for part of it is just
above the bathroom downstairs. A large furnished room with a private
bath would bring in ten dollars a month. It is just at the head of the
back stairs and the side door where the back stairs connect with the
cellar way could be used as a private entrance, so the tenants of the
house would not be disturbed in the least. It would cost over a hundred
dollars to do it, most likely, but we could borrow the money from my
college fund and the extra rent would soon pay it back." Migwan's eyes
were shining with ambition.
Mrs. Gardiner shook her head wearily. "We never could do it," she
answered. "Something would surely happen to upset our plans."
But Migwan was not to be waved aside. She had seen a vision of increased
income and meant to make it come true. She argued the merits of her idea
until Mrs. Gardiner was too tired of the subject to argue back, and
agreed that if Miss Kent approved the step she would give her consent.
Nyoda was therefore called into consultation. She looked at the house
and saw no reason why the improvements could not be made to advantage.
The house was in a good neighborhood, and furnished rooms were always in
demand. She advised the step and gave Mrs. Gardiner the names of several
contractors whom she knew to be reliable. Mrs. Gardiner was a little
breathless at the speed with which things were moving, but there was no
stopping Migwan once she was started. A contractor was engaged and work
begun on the house one week from the day Migwan had thought of the plan.
Meanwhile financial matters at home were in bad shape, and Mrs. Gardiner
willingly gave over the distribution of the family budget to Migwan. She
herself was utterly unable to cope with the problem. And Migwan
surprised even herself by the efficient way in which she managed things.
By planning menus with the greatest care and omitting meat from the bill
of fare to a great extent she made it possible to live on their slender
income until the rent would begin to come in again.
"Whatever have you done with yourself?" asked Gladys at the weekly
meeting of the Camp Fire. "Of late you rush home from school as if you
were pursued." Migwan only laughed and said she had had uncommonly hard
problems to solve these last few weeks. The other girls of course did
not know the exact state of the Gardiner finances, and never dreamed
that Migwan was having a struggle even to stay in high school. She was
such a fine, aristocratic-looking girl, and was so sparkling and witty
all the time that it was hard to connect her with poverty and worry.
"Let's all go to the matinee next Saturday afternoon," suggested Gladys.
"The 'Blue Bird' is going to be played." The girls agreed eagerly and
asked Gladys to get seats for them, all but Migwan, who said nothing.
"Don't you want to go, Migwan?" they asked.
"Not this time," Migwan answered in a casual tone. "There is something
else I have to do Saturday afternoon." The girls accepted this
explanation readily. It never occurred to them that Migwan could not
afford to go.
"What is this mysterious something you are always doing?" asked Gladys
teasingly. "Girls, I believe Migwan is writing a book. She has retired
from polite society altogether." Migwan smiled blandly at her, but made
no answer.
At home that night, however, she felt very low-spirited indeed. She was
only human, after all, and wanted dreadfully to go to the matinee with
the girls. Gladys would take them all to Schiller's afterward for a
parfait and bring them home in style in her machine. It did not seem
fair that she should be cut off from every pleasure that involved the
spending of a little money. This was her last year in high school, the
year which should be the happiest, but she must resolutely turn her face
away from all those little festivities that add such touches of color to
the memory fabric of school days. She knew that at the merest hint of
her circumstances to Gladys or Nyoda they would have gladly paid her way
everywhere the group went, but Migwan's pride forbade this. If she could
not afford to go to places she would stay at home and nobody would be
any the wiser. Nevertheless, a few tears would come at the thought of
the good time she was missing, and she had no heart to work on her
story.
"Cry-baby!" she said to herself fiercely, winking the tears back.
"Crying because you can't do as you would like all the time! You're lots
better off than poor Hinpoha this very minute, even if she is rich. You
ought to be ashamed of yourself!" The thought of Hinpoha, who would
likewise miss the jolly party, comforted her somewhat, and she dried her
tears and fell to writing with a will.
Now Nyoda, although she did not know just how hard pressed the Gardiners
were at that time, rather surmised something of the kind, and wondered,
after she left the girls, if that were not the reason for Migwan's not
planning to go to the matinee. She remembered Migwan's saying some time
before that she wanted very much to see "The Bluebird" when it came. She
knew it would never do to offer to pay Migwan's way; Migwan was too
proud for that. She lay awake a long time over it and finally formulated
a plan. The next morning when Migwan came to school she saw a
conspicuous notice on the Bulletin Board:
LOST: Handbag containing book of lecture notes and ticket for Saturday
afternoon's performance of "The Bluebird." Finder may keep theater
ticket if he or she will return notebook to Miss Moore, Room 10.
Migwan read the notice and passed on, as did the other pupils. That
morning in English class Nyoda sent Migwan to an unused lecture room to
get an English book she had left there. When Migwan opened the door she
stumbled over something on the floor. It was a lady's handbag. She
opened it and found Miss Moore's notebook and the theater ticket inside.
Miss Moore was overjoyed at the return of the notebook and insisted on
her keeping the ticket, which Migwan at first declined to accept. "My
dear child," said Miss Moore, "if you knew what trouble I had collecting
those notes you would think, too, that it was worth the price of a
theater ticket to get them back!" And when Migwan's back was turned she
winked solemnly at Nyoda. By a curious coincidence that seat was
directly behind those occupied by the other Winnebagos!
CHAPTER IV.
ANOTHER KITCHEN.
The night of the last Camp Fire Meeting Gladys and Nyoda might have been
seen in close consultation. "The first pleasant Saturday," said Nyoda.
"Remember, it's my treat," said Gladys.
The first week in November was as balmy as May, with every promise of
fine weather on Saturday. Accordingly, Nyoda gathered all the Winnebagos
around her desk on Thursday and made an announcement. Sahwah forgot that
she was in a class room and started to raise a joyful whoop, but Nyoda
stifled it in time by putting her hand over her mouth. "I can't help
it!" cried Sahwah; "we're going on a trip up the river! I'm going to
paddle the _Keewaydin_ once more!"
The plan suggested by Gladys and just announced by Nyoda was this: The
following Saturday they would charter a launch big enough to hold them
all, and follow the course of the Cuyahoga River upstream to the dam at
the falls, where they would land and cook their dinner over an open
fire. They would tow the _Keewaydin_, Sahwah's birchbark canoe, behind
the launch, and some time during the day would manage to let every one
go for a paddle. The Winnebagos thrilled with pleasurable anticipation,
all but Hinpoha, who crept sadly away, for she could not bear to hear
about the fun that was being planned when she could not have a part in
it.
One desire of her heart was being fulfilled, and she was getting thin.
What a whole summer of rigid dieting had not been able to accomplish was
brought to pass by a few weeks of mental suffering, and her clothes were
beginning to hang on her. Her appetite began to fail her, and her aunt,
noticing this, bought her a big bottle of tonic, which, taken before
meals, killed any small desire for food she may have had. Then Aunt
Phoebe decided that the two-mile walk to school was too much for her,
and had her taken and called for in the machine, much to Hinpoha's
disgust, for that walk was her chief joy these days. After a week of the
tonic her soul rebelled against the nauseous dose, and when the first
bottle was empty and Aunt Phoebe sent her to get it refilled, she
"refilled" it herself with a mixture of licorice candy and water, which
produced a black syrup similar in appearance to the original medicine,
but minus the bad taste and the stigma of "patent medicine," a thing
which the Winnebagos had promised their Guardian they would not take. As
this was deceiving her aunt she felt obliged to put a blot on her head
'scutcheon, in the form of a black record, but she was so inwardly
amused at it that her appetite improved of its own accord, and Aunt
Phoebe remarked in a gratified way that she had never known the equal of
Mullin's Modifier as a tonic.
Migwan finished her story, copied it carefully on foolscap and sent it
away to a magazine, confident that in a very short time she would behold
it in print, and the payment she would receive for it would keep her in
spending money throughout the school year. So with a light and merry
heart she set out for Gladys's house on Saturday morning, where the
girls were all to meet for the outing. It was one of those dream-like
days in late autumn, when the earth, still decked in her brilliant
garments, seems to lie spellbound in the sunshine, as if there were no
such thing as the coming of winter.
The girls, clad in blue skirts and white middies and heavy sweaters,
were whirled down to the dock in the Evans's automobile, with the
_Keewaydin_ tied upright at the back. The launch was waiting for them,
at one of the big boat docks, sandwiched in between two immense lake
steamers. Nothing could have been a greater contrast to their trip up
the Shadow River the summer before than this excursion. On that other
trip they had been the only living beings on the horizon, and nature was
supreme everywhere, but here they were fairly engulfed by the works of
man. The tiny craft nosed her way among giant steamers, six-hundred-foot
freighters, coal barges, lighters, fire boats, tugs, scows, and all the
other kinds of vessels that crowd the river-harbor of a great lake port.
Viewed from below, the steel structure of the viaduct over the river
stretched out like the monstrous skeleton of some prehistoric beast.
Whistles shrieked deafeningly in their ears and trains pounded jarringly
over railroad bridges. A jack-knife bridge began to descend over their
very heads. Over where the new bridge was being constructed men stood on
slender girders high in the air, catching red-hot rivets that were being
tossed them, while an automatic riveting hammer filled the air with its
nerve-destroying clamor. Everywhere was bustle and confusion, and noise,
noise, noise.
And in the midst of this tumult the tiny launch, filled with laughing
girls, threaded its way up the black river, flying the Winnebago banner,
while behind it trailed a birchbark canoe, with Sahwah squatting calmly
in the stern, leaning her back against her paddle. Many times they had
to bury their noses in their handkerchiefs to shut out the smells that
assailed them on every side. On they chugged, past the lumber yards with
their acres of stacked boards, some of which had come from the very
neighborhood of Camp Winnebago; past the chemical works, pouring out its
darkly polluted streams into the river. "Ugh," said Gladys with a
shiver, "to think that that stuff flows on into the lake and we drink
lake water!"
"It seems like a different world altogether," said Migwan, looking out
across the miles of factory-covered "flats." She was perfectly
fascinated by the rolling mills, with their rows of black stacks
standing out against the sky like organ pipes, and by the long trains of
oil-tank cars curving through the valley like huge worms, the divisions
giving the effect of body sections.
While the Winnebagos were gliding along among scenes strange and new,
Hinpoha was vainly trying to comfort herself for having to stay at home
by catching in a bottle the bees which were crawling in and out of the
cosmos blossoms in the garden. Interesting as the bees were, however,
they could not keep her thoughts from turning to the Winnebagos afloat
on the river, and it was a very doleful face that bent over the flowers.
Her dismal reflections were interrupted by the sharp voice of Aunt
Phoebe calling her to come in. "What is it?" she asked listlessly, as
she came up on the porch.
"Mrs. Evans is here," said her aunt in the doorway, "and she has asked
to see you." Hinpoha was very glad to see Mrs. Evans, who rose smilingly
and took her hands in hers.
"How thin you are getting, child!" she exclaimed, smoothing back the red
curls. "I don't believe you get out enough. By the way," she said to
Aunt Phoebe, "may I borrow this girl for to-day? I have considerable
driving about to do and it is rather tiresome going alone. Gladys has
gone on an all-day boat ride."
Aunt Phoebe could not very well refuse, for driving about in a machine
with an older woman was a very proper form of recreation indeed, in her
estimation.
Hinpoha flew upstairs and deposited her bottle of bees on the table in
her room for future observation and started off with Mrs. Evans. "We
will not be back for lunch, and possibly not for supper," said Gladys's
mother as she bade Aunt Phoebe a gracious good-bye, "but it will not be
long after that."
"And now for a grand spin," she said, as she started the car and sent it
crackling through the dry leaves on the pavement.
"Now I see why the Indians named this river 'Cuyahoga,' or 'Crooked,'"
said Migwan, as they rounded bend after bend in the stream. "It coils
back on itself like a snake, and I have already counted seven coils
within the city limits. I didn't believe it when the captain of a
freighter told me that there was a place in the river which his boat
couldn't pass because two sharp turns came so near together, but now I
see how that could easily be possible."
As the launch putt-putt-putt-ed steadily up the river the water
gradually became less black, and the factories along the shore gave way
to open stretches of country. By noon they reached the dam and went
ashore to look for a place to build a fire. They were in a deep gorge,
its steep sides thickly covered with flaming maples and oaks, and
brilliant sumachs, stretching on either side as far as they could reach.
"It's too gorgeous to seem real," said Nyoda, shading her eyes and
looking down the valley; "where _does_ Mother Nature keep her pot of
'Diamond Dyes' in the summer time?"
High up along the top of one of the cliffs a narrow road wound along,
and as Nyoda stood looking into the distance she saw an automobile
coming along this road. When it was directly above her it stopped and
two people got out, a woman and a girl. The sunlight fell on a mass of
red curls on the girl's head. "Hinpoha!" exclaimed Nyoda in amazement.
From above came floating down a far-echoing yodel--the familiar
Winnebago call. The girls all looked up in surprise to see Hinpoha
scrambling down the face of the cliff, and aiding Mrs. Evans to descend.
"Why, _mother_!" called Gladys, running up to meet her.
The surprise at the meeting was mutual. Mrs. Evans, spinning along the
country roads, had no idea she was hard on the trail of her daughter and
the other Winnebagos until she came suddenly upon them after they had
gotten out of the launch. "Can't you stay and spend the day with us, now
that you're here?" they pleaded.
Hinpoha's longing soul looked out of her eyes, but she answered, "I'm
afraid not. Aunt Phoebe wouldn't approve."
"Did she say you couldn't?" asked Sahwah.
"No," said Hinpoha, "for I never even asked her if I might go along with
you in the launch. I knew it would be no use."
"Oh, please stay," tempted some of the girls; "your aunt'll never know
the difference."
"Oh, I couldn't do that," said Hinpoha in a tone of horror. A little
approving smile crept around the corners of Nyoda's eyes as she heard
Hinpoha so resolutely bidding Satan get behind her. Mrs. Evans was
genuinely sorry they had encountered the girls, because it made it so
much harder for Hinpoha.
"I wonder," she said musingly, "if I drove on to a house in the road and
telephoned your aunt that she would let you stay?"
"You might try," said Hinpoha doubtfully. Mrs. Evans thought it was
worth trying. She found a house with a telephone and got Aunt Phoebe on
the wire. With the utmost tact she explained how they had met the girls
accidently, and that she had taken a notion that she would like to spend
the day with them, but of course she could not do so unless Hinpoha
would be allowed to stay with her, as she had charge of her for the day.
What was Aunt Phoebe to do? She was not equal to telling the admired
Mrs. Evans to forego her pleasure because of Hinpoha, and gave a
grudging consent to her keeping her niece with her on the condition that
she would bring her home in the machine and not let her come back in the
launch with the Winnebagos. Jubilant, they returned to the girls in the
gorge and told the good news.
"Cheer for Mrs. Evans," cried Sahwah, and the Winnebagos gave it with a
hearty good will.
Hinpoha, with Sahwah close beside her, began I searching for firewood
industriously. "It seems just like last summer," she said, chopping
sticks with Sahwah's hatchet. The two had wandered off a short distance
from the others, following a tiny footpath. Suddenly they came upon a
huge rock formation, that looked like an immense fireplace, about forty
feet wide and twenty or more feet high. Under that great stone arch a
dozen spits, each big enough to hold a whole ox, might easily have
swung. Sahwah and Hinpoha looked at it in amazement and then called for
the other girls to come and see.
"Why, that's the 'Old Maid's Kitchen,'" said Mrs. Evans, when she
arrived on the scene. "I've been here before. Just why it should be
called the _Old Maid's_ Kitchen is more than I can tell, for it looks
like the fireplace belonging to the grand-mother of all giantesses."
"Let's build our fire inside of it," said Nyoda.
"The original 'Old Maid' had a convenience that didn't usually go with
open fireplaces," said Gladys, "and that is running water," and she held
her cup under a tiny stream that trickled out between two rocks, cold as
ice and clear as crystal.
"Wouldn't this be a grand place for a Ceremonial Meeting?" said Migwan,
as they all stood round the blazing fire roasting "wieners" and bacon.
The Kitchen had a floor of smooth slabs of rock, and the arch of the
fireplace formed a roof over their heads, while its wide opening
afforded them a wonderful view of the gorge.
"Whenever you want to come here again, just say so," said Mrs. Evans,
"and I'll bring you down in the machine." Mrs. Evans was enjoying
herself as much as any of the girls. It was the first time she had ever
cooked wieners and bacon over an open fire on green sticks, and she was
perfectly delighted with the experience. "If my husband could only see
me now," she said, laughing like a girl as she dropped her last wiener
in the dirt and calmly washed it off in the trickling stream. "How good
this hot cocoa tastes!" she exclaimed, drinking down a whole cupful
without stopping. "What kind is it?"
"Camp Fire Girl Cocoa," answered the girls.
"What kind is that?" asked Mrs. Evans.
"It is a brand that is put up by a New York firm for the Camp Fire Girls
to sell," answered Nyoda.
"Why have we never had any of this at our house?" asked Mrs. Evans,
turning to Gladys.
"You have always insisted that you would use no other kind than Van
Horn's," replied Gladys, "so I thought there would be no use in
mentioning it."
"I like this better than Van Horn's," said her mother. "Is there any to
be had now?"
"There certainly is," answered Nyoda. "We are trying to dispose of a
hundred-can lot to pay our annual dues."
"Let me have a dozen cans," said Mrs. Evans. "I will serve Camp Fire
Girl Cocoa to my Civic Club next Wednesday afternoon. I----"
Here a terrific shriek from Migwan brought them all to their feet. She
had been poking about in the corner of the Kitchen, when something had
suddenly jumped out at her, unfolded itself like a fan and was whirling
around her head. "It's a bat!" cried Sahwah, and they all laughed
heartily at Migwan's fright. The bat wheeled around, blind in the
daylight, and went bumping against the girls, causing them to run in
alarm lest it should get entangled in their hair. It finally found its
way back to the dark corner of the Kitchen and hung itself up neatly the
way Migwan had found it and the dinner proceeded.
"What kind of a bat was it?" asked Gladys.
"Must have been a _bacon bat_," said Sahwah, dodging the acorn that
Hinpoha threw at her for making a pun.
"Tell us a new game to play, Nyoda," said Gladys, "or Sahwah will go
right on making puns."
"Here is one I thought of on the way down," answered Nyoda. "Think of
all the things that you know are manufactured in Cleveland, or form an
important part of the shipping industry. Then we'll go around the
circle, naming them in alphabetical order. Each girl may have ten
seconds in which to think when her turn comes, and if she misses she is
out of the game. She may only come in again by supplying a word when
another has missed, before the next girl in the circle can think of
one."
"And let the two that hold out the longest have the first ride in the
canoe," suggested Sahwah.
The game started. Nyoda had the first chance. "Automobiles," she began.
"Bricks," said Gladys.
"Clothing," said Migwan.
"Drugs," said Sahwah.
"Engines," said Hinpoha.
"Flour," said Mrs. Evans.
"Gasoline," said Nakwisi.
"Hardware," said Chapa.
"Iron," said Medmangi.
Nyoda hesitated, fishing for a "J." "One, two, three, four, five, six,"
began Sahwah.
"Jewelry!" cried Nyoda on the tenth count.
"Knitted goods," continued Gladys.
"Lamps," said Migwan.
"Macaroni," said Sahwah.
"That reminds me," said Mrs. Evans, "I meant to order some macaroni
to-day and forgot it."
"N," said Hinpoha, "N,--why, Nothing!" The girls laughed at the witty
application, but she was ruled out nevertheless.
"Nails," said Mrs. Evans.
"Oil," said Nakwisi.
"Paint," said Chapa.
Medmangi sat down. Nyoda began to count. "Quadrupeds!" cried Medmangi
hastily.
"Explain yourself," said Nyoda.
"Tables and chairs," said Medmangi. The girls shouted in derision, but
Nyoda ruled the answer in, and the game proceeded.
"Refrigerators," said Nyoda.
"Salt," said Gladys.
"Tents," said Migwan, with a reminiscent sigh.
"Umbrellas," said Sahwah.
Mrs. Evans fell down on "V." "Varnish," said Chapa.
"W" was too much for Medmangi. "Wire," said Nyoda.
"X," said Sahwah, "there is no such thing. Oh, yes, there is, too;
Xylophones, they're made here."
Gladys and Migwan met their Waterloo on "Y." "Yeast," said Nyoda.
"Z," sent Chapa and Nakwisi to the dummy corner and it came back to
Sahwah. "Zerolene," she said.
"What's that?" they all cried.
"I don't know," she answered, "but I saw it on one of the big oil tanks
as we passed."
Sahwah and Nyoda won the right to take the first paddle in the
_Keewaydin_. They carried the canoe on their heads, portage fashion,
around the dam, and launched it up above, where the confined waters had
spread out into a wide pond. "Oh, what a joy to dip a paddle again!"
sighed Sahwah blissfully, sending the _Keewaydin_ flying through the
water with long, vigorous strokes. "I'd love to paddle all the way
home." She had completely forgotten that there was such a thing as
school and lessons in the world. She was the Daughter of the River, and
this was a joyous homecoming.
"Time to go back and let the rest have a turn," said Nyoda. Reluctantly
Sahwah steered the canoe around and returned to the waiting group. Mrs.
Evans watched with interest as Gladys and Hinpoha pushed out from shore.
Could this be her once frail daughter, who had despised all strenuous
sports and hated water above all things, who was swinging her paddle so
lustily and steering the _Keewaydin_ so skilfully? What was this strange
Something that the Camp Fire had instilled into her? She caught her
breath with the beauty of it, as the girls glided along between the
radiant banks, the two paddles flashing in and out in perfect rhythm.
They were singing a favorite boating song, and their voices floated back
on the breeze:
"Through the mystic haze of the autumn days
Like a phantom ghost I glide,
Where the big moose sees the crimson trees
Mirrored on the silver tide,
And the blood red sun when day is done
Sinks below the hill,
The night hawk swoops, the lily droops,
And all the world is still!"
Sahwah lingered on the river after the others had gone in a body to try
to climb to the top of the rocky fireplace. She was all alone in the
_Keewaydin_, and sent it darting around like a water spider on the
surface of the stream. So absorbed was she in the joy of paddling that
she did not see a sign on a tree beside the river which warned people in
boats to go no further than that point, neither did she realize the
significance of the quicker progress which the _Keewaydin_ was making.
When she did realize that she was getting dangerously near the edge of
the dam, and attempted to turn back, she discovered to her horror that
it was impossible to turn back. The _Keewaydin_ was being swept
helplessly and irresistibly onward. Recent rains had swollen the stream
and the water was pouring over the dam. Sahwah screamed aloud when she
saw the peril in which she was. Nyoda and Mrs. Evans and the girls,
standing up on the rocks, turned and saw her. Help was out of the
question. Frozen to the spot they saw her rushing along to that descent
of waters. Gladys moaned and covered her face with her hands. Below the
falls the great rocks jutted out, jagged and bare. Any boat going over
would be dashed to pieces.
The _Keewaydin_ shot forward, gaining speed with every second. The roar
of the falls filled Sahwah's ears. Not ten feet from the brink a rock
jutted up a little above the surface, just enough to divide the current
into two streams. When the _Keewaydin_ reached this point it turned
sharply and was hurled into the current nearest the shore. On the bank
right at the brink of the falls stood a great willow tree, its long
branches drooping far out over the water. It was one chance in a million
and Sahwah saw it. As she passed under the tree she reached up and
caught hold of a branch, seized it firmly and jumped clear of the canoe,
which went over the falls almost under her feet. Then, swinging along by
her arms, she reached the shore and stood in safety. It had all happened
so quickly the girls could hardly comprehend it. Gladys, who had hidden
her eyes to shut out the dreadful sight, heard an incredulous shout from
the girls and looked down to see the _Keewaydin_ landing on the rocks
below, empty, and Sahwah standing on the bank.
"How did you ever manage to do it?" gasped Hinpoha, when they had
surrounded her with exclamations of joy and amazement. "You're a heroine
again."
"You're nothing of the sort," said Nyoda. "It was sheer foolhardiness or
carelessness that got you into that scrape. A girl who doesn't know
enough to keep out of the current isn't to be trusted with a canoe, no
matter what a fine paddler she is. I certainly thought better of you
than that, Sahwah. I never used to have the slightest anxiety when you
were on the water, I had such a perfect trust in your common sense, but
now I can never feel quite sure of you again."
Sahwah hung her head in shame, for she felt the truth of Nyoda's words.
"I think you can trust me after this," she said humbly. "I have learned
my lesson." She was not likely to forget the horror of the moment when
she had heard the water roaring over the dam and thought her time had
come. Sahwah liked to be thought clever as well as daring, and it was
certainly far from clever to run blindly into danger as she had done.
She sank dejectedly down on the bank, feeling disgraced forever in the
eyes of the Winnebagos.
"Girls," said Mrs. Evans, wishing to take their minds off the fright
they had received, "do you know that we are not many miles from one of
the model dairy farms of the world? I could take you over in the car and
bring you back here in time to go home in the launch."
"Let's do it, Nyoda," begged all the Winnebagos, and into the machine
they piled. When they were still far in the distance they could see the
high towers of the barns rising in the air. "We're nearly there," said
Mrs. Evans; "here is the beginning to the cement fence that runs all the
way around the four-thousand-acre farm." Mrs. Evans knew some of the
people in charge of the farm and they had no difficulty gaining
admittance. That visit to the Carter Farm was a long-remembered one. The
girls walked through the long stables exclaiming at everything they saw.
"Why, there's an electric fan in each stall!" gasped Migwan, "and the
windows are screened!"
"Oo, look at the darling calf," gurgled Hinpoha, on her knees before one
of the stalls, caressing a ten-thousand-dollar baby.
"It doesn't look a bit like its mother," observed Nyoda, comparing it
with the cow standing beside it.
"That isn't its mother, that's its nurse," said the man who was showing
them around.
"Its what?" said Nyoda. Then the man explained that the milk from the
blooded cows was too valuable to be fed to calves, as it commanded a
high price on the market, and so a herd of common cows were kept to feed
the aristocratic babies. The lovely little creatures were as tame as
kittens and allowed the girls to fondle them to their hearts' content.
Sometimes a pair of polished horns would come poking between a calf and
the visitors, and a soft-eyed cow would view the proceedings with a
comically anxious face, and then it was easy to tell which calf was with
its mother.
In one of the largest stalls they saw the champion Guernsey of the
world. Her coat was like satin and her horns were polished until they
shone. She did not seem to be in the least set up on account of her
great reputation and thrust out her nose in the friendliest manner
possible to be patted and fussed over. She eyed Gladys, who stood next
to her, with amiable curiosity, and then suddenly licked her face. Mrs.
Evans watched Gladys in surprise. Instead of quivering all over with
disgust as she would have a year ago she simply laughed and patted the
cow's nose. "What is going to happen?" said Mrs. Evans to herself,
"Gladys isn't afraid of cows any more!" But the most interesting part
came when the cows were milked. They were driven into another barn for
this performance and their heads fastened into sort of metal hoops
suspended from the ceiling. These turned in either direction and caused
them no discomfort, but kept them standing in one place. The milking was
done with vacuum-suction machines run by electricity and took only a
short time.
When the girls had watched the process as long as they wished they were
taken to see the prize hogs and chickens, and then went through the hot
houses. There were rows and rows of glass houses filled with grapes, the
great bunches hanging down from the roof and threatening to fall with
their own weight. And one did fall, just as they were going through, and
came smashing down in the path at their feet. Nakwisi ran to pick it up
and the guide said she might have it, adding that such a bunch,
unbruised, sold for twenty-five cents in the city market. "Oh, how
delicious!" cried Nakwisi,' tasting the grapes and dividing them among
the girls. Mrs. Evans bought a basketful and let them eat all they
wanted. In some of the hothouses tangerines were growing, and in some
persimmons, while others were given over to the raising of roses,
carnations and rare orchids. It was a trip through fairyland for the
girls, and they could hardly tear themselves away when the time came.
"There is something else I must show you while we are in the
neighborhood," said Mrs. Evans, as they passed through Akron. "Does
anybody know what two historical things are near here?" Nobody knew.
Mrs. Evans began humming, "John Brown's Body Lies A-mouldering in the
Grave."
"What has that to do with it?" asked Gladys.
"Everything, with one of them," said Mrs. Evans.
"Did you know that John Brown, owner of the said body, was born in
Akron, and there is a monument here to his memory?"
"Oh how lovely," cried Migwan, "let us see it." So Mrs. Evans drove them
over to the monument and they all stood around it and sang "John Brown's
Body" in his honor.
"Now, what's the other thing?" they asked.
"I believe I know," said Nyoda. "Doesn't the old Portage Trail run
through here somewhere?"
"That's it," said Mrs. Evans.
Then Nyoda told them about the Portage Path of Indian days, before the
canal was built, that extended from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. "The
part that runs through Akron is still called Portage Path," said Mrs.
Evans, and the girls were eager to see it.
"Why, it's nothing but a paved street!" exclaimed Migwan in
disappointment, when they had reached the historical spot.
"That's all it is now," answered Mrs. Evans, "but it is built over the
old Portage Trail, and some of these old trees undoubtedly shaded the
original path." In the minds of the girls the handsome residences faded
from sight, and in place of the wide street they saw the narrow path
trailing off through the forest, with dusky forms stealing along it on
their long journey southward.
"It's time to strike our own trail now," said Nyoda, breaking the
silence, and they started back to the river. Every one was anxious to
make it as pleasant as possible for Hinpoha, and the jests came thick
and fast as they drove along. "Who is the best Latin scholar here?"
asked Nyoda.
"I am," said Sahwah, mischievously.
"Then you can undoubtedly tell me what Caesar said on the Fourth of
July, 45 B.C." said Nyoda.
"I don't seem to recollect," said Sahwah.
"Then read for yourself," said Nyoda, scribbling a few words on a leaf
from her notebook and handing it to her.
"What's this?" said Sahwah, spelling out the words. On the paper was
written,
_Quis crudis enim rufus, albus et expiravit._
Sahwah tried to translate. "_Quis,_ who; _crudis_, raw; _enim_--what's
_enim_?"
"For," answered Migwan.
"And _expiravit_" said Sahwah, "what's that from?"
"_Expiro_" answered Migwan, "_expirare, expiravi, expiratus_. It means
'blow,' '_Expiravit_' is 'have blown.'"
"_Rufus_ is 'red,'" continued Sahwah, "and is _albus_ 'white'?" Migwan
nodded, and Sahwah went back to the beginning and began to read: "_Who
raw for red white and have blown._"
Nyoda shouted. "That last word is _blew_, not _have blown_" she said.
"I have it!" cried Migwan, jumping up. "It's '_Who raw for the red,
white and blew.' 'Hoorah for the red, white and blue!_'"
"Such wit!" said Sahwah, laughing with the rest.
"Now, I'll make a motto for Sahwah," said Migwan, seizing the pencil.
Migwan was a Senior and took French, and having a sudden inspiration,
she wrote, "_Pas de lieu Rhone que nous!_" The girls could not translate
it and Nyoda puzzled over it for a long time.
"I don't seem to be able to make anything out of it," she said at
length.
"Don't try to translate it," said Migwan, "just read it out loud," Nyoda
complied and Sahwah caught it immediately.
"It's '_Paddle your own canoe!_" she cried.
Thus, laughing and joking, they followed the road back to the dam and
embarked in the launch with all speed, for the sun was already sinking
beneath the treetops and they had a two-hour ride ahead of them. Mrs.
Evans took Hinpoha back in the machine and delivered her to her aunt
safe and sound at eight o'clock, with many expressions of pleasure at
the fun she had had with the Camp Fire Girls, which were intended as
seeds to be planted in Aunt Phoebe's mind.
"I think your mother's a perfect dear," said Sahwah to Gladys on the
trip home. "I used to be frightened to death of her, because she always
looked so straight-laced and proper, but she isn't like that at all.
She's a regular Camp Fire Girl!"
CHAPTER V.
A COASTING PARTY.
The memory of that happy day sustained Hinpoha through many of the
trials that came to her in the days that followed. It seemed that
everything she did brought down the wrath of her aunt in some way or
another. For instance, she left a bottle of bees standing on the table
in her room, and Aunt Phoebe's dog Silky, who had been in the habit of
going into the room and chewing Hinpoha's painted paddle, knocked the
bottle over and let the bees out, getting badly stung in the process.
Then there was a scene with Aunt Phoebe because she had brought the bees
in. This and a dozen more incidents of a similar nature made Hinpoha
despair of ever gaining the good will of her aunt. Thus the autumn wore
away to winter and as yet the Desert of Waiting had borne nothing but
thorns.
Gladys's progress through school was like the advance of a conquering
hero. Although she had just entered this fall she was already one of the
most popular girls in school. She had that fair, delicate prettiness
which invariably appeals to boys, and an open, unaffected manner which
endeared her to the girls. Beside her very lovable personality she had a
background which was almost certain to insure popularity to a girl. She
was rich and lived in a great house on a fashionable avenue; she had a
little electric car all her own, and she wore the smartest clothes of
any girl in school. Her fame as a dancer soon spread and she was in
constant demand at school entertainments. Nyoda watched her a trifle
anxiously at first. She was just a little afraid that Gladys's head
would be turned with all the homage paid her, or that, blinded by her
present success, she would lose the deeper meanings of life and be
nothing but a butterfly after all. But she need not have feared.
Gladys's experience in camp had kindled a fire in her that would never
be extinguished as long as life guarded the flame. Having changed her
Camp Fire name from Butterfly to Real Woman, she was anxious to prove
her right to the name. So she worked diligently to win new honors which
made her efficient in the home as well as those which helped her to
shine in society.
Mrs. Evans was returning from an afternoon card party. She was tired and
her head ached and she felt out of sorts. A remark which she had
overheard during the afternoon stayed in her mind and made her cross.
Two ladies on the other side of a large screen near which she was
sitting were discussing a campaign in which they were interested to
raise funds for a certain philanthropy. "I am going to ask Mrs. Evans if
she would not like to subscribe one hundred dollars," said the one lady.
"So much?" asked the other in an uncertain voice, "I don't believe I
would if I were you."
"Why not?" asked the first lady.
"Haven't you heard," replied the second lady, with the air of imparting
a delicious secret, "that Mr. Evans is on the verge of financial ruin?"
"No," replied the second in a tone of lively interest, "I haven't. Who
told you so?"
"A great many people are saying so," continued the first. "Do you know
that they took their daughter out of the private school she had been
attending and sent her to public school this year? They must be hard up
if they can't pay school bills any more."
"It certainly looks like it," said the first lady.
"Possibly I had better not ask Mrs. Evans for any subscription at all.
It might embarrass her, poor thing." The voices trailed off and Mrs.
Evans was left feeling decidedly annoyed. She was the kind of woman who
rarely discussed other people's affairs, and likewise disliked having
her own discussed by other people. The thought that some folks might
misconstrue Gladys's entering the public school to mean that her father
was about to fail in business, first amused, and then irritated her.
Nothing like that could be farther from correct, but the thought came to
her that such rumors floating around might have some effect on Mr.
Evans's standing in the business world. She began to wonder if after all
it had not been a mistake to take Gladys out of Miss Russell's school in
the middle of her course.
Thinking cynical thoughts about the gossiping abilities of most people,
she drove up the long driveway and entered the house. The long hall with
its wide staircase and large, splendidly furnished rooms opening on
either side, struck her as being cold and gloomy. The polished chairs
and tables shone dully in the fast waning light of the December
afternoon, cheerless and unfriendly looking. The house suddenly seemed
to her to be less a home than a collection of furniture. For the moment
she almost hated the wealth which made it necessary to maintain this
vast and magnificent display. The women she had played cards with that
afternoon seemed shallow and artificial. Life was decidedly
uninteresting just then. She went upstairs and took off her wraps and
came down again, aimlessly. Gladys was nowhere in sight, which made the
house seem lonelier than ever, for with Gladys around there would have
been somebody to talk to. At the foot of the stairs she paused. She
could hear some one singing in a distant part of the house. "Katy's
happy, anyway," she said with a sigh, "if she feels like singing in that
hot kitchen," A desire for company led her out to the kitchen. It was
not Katy, however, who greeted her when she opened the door. It was
Gladys--Gladys with a big apron on and her sleeves rolled up, just
taking from the oven a pan of golden brown muffins. The room was filled
with the delicious odor of freshly baked dough.
Gladys looked up with a smile when she saw her mother in the doorway.
"How do you like the new cook?" she asked. "Katy went home sick this
afternoon and I thought I would get supper myself." The kitchen looked
so cheerful and inviting that Mrs. Evans came in and sat down. Gladys
began mixing up potatoes for croquettes.
"Can't I do something?" asked her mother.
"Why, yes," said Gladys, bringing out another apron and tying it around
her waist, "you heat the fat to fry these in." Mrs. Evans and Gladys had
never had such a good time together. Gladys had planned the entire menu
and her mother meekly followed her directions as to what to do next. She
and Gladys frolicked around the kitchen with increasing hilarity as the
supper progressed. Never before had there existed such a comradeship
between them.
"Do you think this is seasoned right?" asked Mrs. Evans, holding out a
spoonful of white sauce for Gladys to taste.
"A little more salt," said Gladys judicially. Mrs. Evans had forgotten
her irritation of the afternoon. The conversation which had aroused her
ire before now struck her as humorous.
"If Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Jones could only see me now," she thought with
an inward chuckle, "doing my own cooking!" The half-formed plan of
sending Gladys back to Miss Russell's the first of the year faded from
her mind. Send Gladys away? Why, she was just beginning to enjoy her
company! Another plan presented itself to her mind. In the Christmas
vacation Gladys should give a party which would forever dispel any
doubts about the soundness of their financial standing. Her brain was
already at work on the details. Gladys should have a dress from Madame
Charmant's in New York. They would have Waldstein, from the Symphony
Orchestra, with a half dozen of his best players, furnish the music.
There would be expensive prizes and favors for the games. Mrs. Davis and
Mrs. Jones would have a chance to alter their opinions when their
daughters brought home accounts of the affair. She planned the whole
thing while she was eating her supper.
After supper Gladys washed the dishes and her mother wiped them, and
they put them away together. Then Gladys began to get ready to go to
Camp Fire meeting and Mrs. Evans reluctantly prepared to go out for the
evening. The nearer ready she was the more disinclined she felt to go.
"Those Jamieson musicales are always such a bore," she said to herself
wearily. "They never have good singers--my Gladys could do better than
any of them--and they are interminable. Father looks tired to death, and
I know he would rather stay at home. Gladys," she called, looking into
her daughter's room, "where is your Camp Fire meeting to-night?"
"At the Brewsters'," answered Gladys.
"Do you ever have visitors?" continued her mother.
"Why, yes," answered Gladys, "we often do."
"Do you mind if you have one to-night?" asked Mrs. Evans.
"Certainly not," replied Gladys.
"Well, then, I'm coming along," said her mother.
"Will you?" cried Gladys. "Oh goody!" The Winnebagos were surprised and
delighted when Mrs. Evans appeared with Gladys. Since that Saturday's
outing she had held a very warm place in their affections.
"Come in, mother," called Sahwah; "you might as well join the group too,
we have one guest. This is Mrs. Evans, Gladys's mother," she said, when
her mother appeared after hastily brushing back her hair and putting on
a white apron. The two women held out their hands in formal greeting,
and then changed their minds and fell on each other's necks.
"Why, Molly Richards!" exclaimed Mrs. Evans.
"Why, Helen Adamson!" gasped Mrs. Brewster. The Winnebagos looked on,
mystified.
"You can't introduce me to your mother," said Mrs. Evans to Sahwah,
laughing at her look of surprise. "We were good friends when we were
younger than you. Do you remember the time," she said, turning back to
Mrs. Brewster, "when you drew a picture of Miss Scully in your history
and she found it and made you stand up in front of the room and hold it
up so the whole class could see it?"
"Do you remember the time," returned Mrs. Brewster, "when we ran away
from school to see the Lilliputian bazaar and your mother was there and
walked you out by the ear?" Thus the flow of reminiscences went on.
"How little I thought," said Mrs. Evans, "when I first saw Sarah Ann
going around with Gladys, that she was your daughter!"
"How little I thought," said Mrs. Brewster, "when Gladys began coming
here, that she was _your_ daughter!"
"How many more of these girls' mothers are our old schoolmates, I
wonder?" said Mrs. Evans.
"Let's meet them and find out," said Mrs. Brewster. "Here, you girls,"
she said, "every one of you go home and get your mother." Delightedly
the girls obeyed, and the mothers came, a little backward, some of them,
a little shy, pathetically eager, and decidedly breathless. Migwan's
mother, Mrs. Gardiner, had known Mrs. Brewster in her girlhood, and
Nakwisi's mother had known Mrs. Evans, and Chapa's and Medmangi's
mothers had known each other. What a happy reunion that was, and what a
chorus of "Don't you remembers" rose on every side! Tears mingled with
the laughter when they spoke of the death of Mrs. Bradford, whom most of
them had known in their school days.
"Do you remember," said one of the mothers, "how we used to go coasting
down the reservoir hill? You girls have never seen the old reservoir. It
was levelled off years ago."
"I'd enjoy going coasting yet," said Mrs. Brewster.
"Let's!" said Mrs. Evans. "The snow is just right."
Girls and mothers hurried into their coats and out into the frosty air.
The street sloped down sharply, and the middle of the road was filled
with flying bobsleds, as the young people of the neighborhood took
advantage of the snowy crust. Sahwah brought out her brother's bob,
which he was not using this evening, and piled the whole company on
behind her. She could steer as well as a boy. Down the long street they
shot, from one patch of light into another as they passed the lamp
posts. The mothers shrieked with excitement and held on for dear life.
"Oh," panted Mrs. Brewster when they came to a standstill at the bottom
of the slope, "is there anything in the world half so exciting and
delightful as coasting?" Down they went, again and again, laughing all
the way, and causing many another bobload to look around and wonder who
the jolly ladies were. Most of the mothers lost their breath in the
swift rush and had to be helped up the hill to the starting point. Once
Sahwah turned too short at the bottom of the street and upset the whole
sledful into a deep pile of snow, from which they emerged looking like
snowmen. "Oh-h-h," sputtered Mrs. Brewster, "the snow is all going down
inside of my collar! Sarah Ann, you wretch, you deserve to have your
face washed for that!" She picked up a great lump of snow and hurled it
deftly at Sahwah's head. It struck its mark and flew all to pieces, much
of it going down the back of her neck.
"This coasting is all right," said Mrs. Gardiner, "but, oh, that walk up
hill!"
Mrs. Evans spied her machine standing in front of the Brewster house,
and it gave her an idea. "Why not tie the bob to the machine," she said,
"and go for a regular ride?" This suggestion was hailed with great joy,
and carried out with alacrity.
"Would you like to drive, mother?" asked Gladys.
"No, indeed!" said her mother. "I'm out sleigh-riding to-night. You get
in and drive it yourself!" Gladys complied, with Migwan up beside her
for company, and away they flew up one street and down another and
through the park. And just as they were going around a curve, Sahwah,
who sat at the front end of the sled, untied the rope, and away went the
machine around the corner, and left them stranded in the snow. Gladys
felt the release of the trailer, but pretended that she knew nothing
about it, and drove ahead at full speed, and traveling in a circle, came
up behind the marooned voyagers and surprised them with a hearty laugh.
This time she towed them back to Sahwah's house, where they drank hot
cocoa to warm themselves up, and all declared they had never had such
fun in their lives.
"And to think how near I came to missing this!" said Mrs. Evans, as she
and Gladys were driving home, and she shivered when she remembered how
she had almost gone to the musicale.
CHAPTER VI.
GLADYS UPHOLDS THE FAMILY CREDIT.
Mrs. Evans confided her plans for a Christmas week party to Gladys the
day following the snow frolic, and Gladys was delighted with the idea.
She dearly loved to entertain her friends. The frock was ordered from
New York and Mrs. Evans and Gladys spent long hours working out the
details of the affair. Rumors of the party and the dress Gladys was to
have leaked out to the Winnebagos and from them to the whole class.
Every one was on tiptoe to find out who would be invited. Mrs. Davis and
Mrs. Jones, hearing the talk about the coming function, began to wonder
if they were on the right track after all in regard to the Evans
fortune. Two weeks before Christmas the invitations came out.
Twenty-five girls and twenty-five boys, mostly from the high school
class, were asked. What a flutter of satisfaction there was among those
who had been invited, and what a disappointment among those who had not
been, and what consultations about dresses among the favored ones!
This question was an acute one with Migwan. She had not had a new party
dress for several years, and in the present state of their finances she
could not get one now. She looked at the old one, faded and spotted, and
shook her head despairingly. "I foresee where Miss Migwan develops a
sudden illness on the night of the party," she said with tight lips,
"unless I hear from my story in time." As if in answer to her thoughts
the story came back the very next day. There was no letter from the
editor concerning the merits or faults of the piece, only a printed
rejection slip, but that stated that only typewritten manuscripts would
be considered. Migwan's air castle tumbled about her ears. She had no
typewriter and knew no one who had. Her experience did not include a
knowledge of public stenographers, and even if she had thought of that
way out the expense would have prevented her from having her story
copied. Her dream of fame and wealth was short-lived, and the world was
stale, flat and unprofitable. The house was not yet rented, as the
repairs had been delayed again and again. It would be another month at
least before that would be a paying proposition. Hearing the other girls
talk about Gladys's party all the time filled her with desperation. She
began to shun the Winnebagos. The keen zest went out of her studying and
even her beloved Latin lost its savor.
Nyoda finally noticed it. Migwan failed to recite in English class for
two days in succession, which was an unheard-of thing. Nyoda thought
that Migwan had her head so full of the coming party that she was
neglecting her lessons, and said so, half banteringly, as Migwan
lingered after class to pick up some papers she had dropped on the
floor. That was the last straw, and Migwan burst into tears. Nyoda was
all sympathy in a moment. Now Nyoda happened to have the "seeing eye,"
with which some people are blessed, and had surmised, from certain
little signs she had observed, that Migwan had written something or
other, and sent it away to a magazine. She knew only too well what the
outcome would be, and her heart ached when she thought of Migwan's
coming disappointment. Therefore, when Migwan, quickly recovering her
composure, said calmly, "It's nothing, Nyoda; I simply tried to do
something and failed," Nyoda asked quietly, "Did your story come back?"
Migwan looked at her in amazement. "How did you know I had written any
story?" she asked.
"Oh, a little bird told me," replied Nyoda lightly. "Cheer up. All the
famous authors had their first work rejected. You have achieved the
first mark of fame." Migwan smiled wanly. Her tragedies always seemed to
lose their sting in the light of Nyoda's optimism. She told her about
the necessity for a typewriter. "I could have told you that to begin
with, if you had asked my humble advice," replied Nyoda. "But if a
miserable writing machine is all that stands between you and fame and
fortune, your fortune is already made. The woman whose rooms I am living
in has one in her possession. It belongs to her son, I believe, but as
he is at present in China there is no danger of his wanting it for some
time. She has offered to let me use it on several occasions, and I don't
doubt but what we can make some arrangement to accommodate you."
The world seemed a pretty good place of habitation after all to Migwan
that day when she went home from school, in spite of the fact that she
had no dress to wear to the party. The situation began to appear faintly
humorous to her. Here was all the interest centered on what Gladys was
going to wear, when all the time the real, vital question was what _she_
was going to wear! What a commotion there would be if the other
Winnebagos knew the truth! Her thoughts began to beat themselves, into
rhythm as she walked home through the crunching snow:
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