The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake | Page 9

that?"
"Because Maw had said that if she ever caught Zara around, their place
again she was going to take a stick to her and beat her until she was
black and blue--and I guess she meant it, too. She liked to give people
beatings--me, I mean. She never touched Jake, though, and she never
believed he did anything wrong."
Dolly whistled.
"If she knew him the way I do, she would," she said. "And I've only
seen him twice--but that's two times too many!"
"Well, after he'd locked her in, Jake went off, and I tried to let her out. I
couldn't find the key, and I was trying to break the lock on the door
with a stone. I'd nearly got it done, when Jake came along and found
me doing it. So he stood off and threw bits of burning wood from the
fire near me, to frighten me. That was an old trick of his.
"But that time the woodshed caught fire, and he was scared. He got the
key, and we let Zara out, and then he said he was going to tell Maw
Hoover that we'd set the place on fire on purpose. I knew she'd believe
him, and we were frightened, and ran off."
"Well, I should say so! Who wouldn't? Why, he's worse than I thought
he was, even, and I knew he was pretty bad."
"We were going to Zara's place first, but that was the day they arrested
Zara's father. They said he'd been making bad money, but I don't

believe it. But anyhow, we heard them talking in their place--Zara's and
her father's--and they said that I'd set the barn on fire, and they were
going to have me arrested, and that Zara would have to go and live with
old Farmer Weeks, who's the meanest man in that state. And so we kept
on running away, because we knew that it couldn't be any worse for us
if we went than if we stayed. So that's how we finally came away."
"Oh, how exciting! I wish I ever had adventures like that!"
"Don't be silly, Dolly," said Eleanor, severely. "Bessie and Zara were
very lucky--they might have had a very hard time. And you had all the
adventure you need the other day when you made Bessie go off looking
for ice-cream sodas with you. You be content to go along the way you
ought to and you'll have plenty of fun without the danger of adventures.
They sound very nice, after they're all over, but when they're happening
they're not very pleasant."
"That's so," admitted Dolly, becoming grave.
It was late in the afternoon before they reached the station at which
they had to change from the main line. There they waited for a time
before the little two-car train on the branch line was ready to start Short
and light as it was, that train had to be drawn by two puffing, snorting
engines, for the rest of the trip was a climb, and a stiff one, since Long
Lake was fairly high, up, though the train, after it passed the station
nearest to the lake, would climb a good deal higher.
Even after they left the train finally, they were still some distance from
their destination.
"You needn't look at that buckboard as if you were going to ride in it,
girls," said Eleanor, laughing, as they surveyed the single vehicle that
was waiting near the track. "That's just for the baggage. Now you can
see, maybe, why you were told you couldn't bring many things with
you. And if that isn't enough, wait until you see the trail!"
Soon all the baggage was stowed away on the back of the buckboard
and securely tied up, and then the driver whipped up the stocky horses,

and drove off, while the girls gave him the Wohelo cheer.
"But how are we going to get to Long Lake?" asked Dolly,
apprehensively.
"We're going to walk!" laughed Eleanor. "Come on now or we won't
get there in time for supper--and I'll bet we'll all have a fine appetite for
supper to-night!"
Then she took the van, and led the way across a field and into the
woods that grew thickly near the track.
"This isn't the way the buckboard went!" said Dolly.
"No--We'll strike the road pretty soon, though," said Eleanor. "We save
a little time by taking this trail. In the old days there wasn't any way to
get to the lake, or to carry anything there, except by walking. And when
they built the corduroy road they couldn't make it as short as the trail,
although, wherever they could they followed the old trail. So this is a
sort of short cut."
"What's a corduroy road?" asked Dolly.