The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods | Page 7

or some
other crowded, lively summer resort with her parents, where she had
received considerable attention from young men, just like the older
girls with whom she associated. Here, banished to the silent woods, she
saw the summer stretch out endlessly before her, intolerably dull and
uninteresting. She loved fluffy clothes and despised the bloomers and
middies which the girls wore. She loved dainty table service and hated
to cook. Up here she would be expected to help with the meals, and all
there was to cook on was an open fire and a gasoline stove! What could
her father have been thinking of to want her to join such a club! These
girls were not in her own class; they went to public school, they were
rough and horrid and threw each other into the water!
Gladys could not go to sleep. She tossed restlessly, thinking rebellious
thoughts, and shuddering at the night noises in the woods. The lapping
of the water on the rocks below had a lonesome sound. She had not yet
learned to hear its soft crooning lullaby. The wind rustled in the pine
trees with a ghostly, mysterious sound. From somewhere in the woods
came a mournful cry that sent the chills up and down her spine. It was
only a whippoorwill, but Gladys did not know a whippoorwill from a
bluebird. Then the frogs in a distant pool began their concert. "Blub!"
"Blub!" "Knee-deep!" "Better go round!" "Knee-deep!" "Better go
round!" "Skeel!" "Skeek!" "Skeel!" "Skeek!" "Blub!" "Glub!"
"Chralk!" Gladys's eyes started out of her head at the unearthly noises.
Her nerves were just about on edge from their incessant piping when

suddenly a long, eerie laugh rang out over the water.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
She screamed aloud and sat up in bed. "What's the matter?" said
Migwan, waking up.
"What was it? Oh, what was it?" asked Gladys in a voice cold with
terror.
"What was what?" said Migwan.
Just then the sound rang out again. "That!" said Gladys.
"Why, that's nothing but a loon," answered Migwan. "Isn't it lovely!"
And she fell asleep again.
But slumber would not come to Gladys. The bed sagged in the middle
and she could not get herself adjusted to it. She was finally in the act of
dozing off when the bed collapsed with a jarring crash. Instantly the
whole camp was awake. Migwan jumped up and lit the lantern, and
Nyoda came running over from Alpha to see what was the matter.
There was much laughter over the mishap, but unfortunately Gladys
got the idea that Sahwah, who had giggled uncontrollably from the start,
was responsible for the bed going down. "You made it fall down," she
said to her, and burst into tears. Sahwah stared at her open mouthed.
"I never touched it," she declared.
Nyoda hastened to smooth things over. "Nobody made your bed
collapse, dear," she said, putting her arm around Gladys, "it's a trick
camp beds have." Gladys went on crying, however, so Nyoda sat down
on the edge of her bed and talked soothingly to her. She realized that
Gladys felt strange in camp and was probably homesick in spite of the
fact that the girls had received her with open arms. So to divert the
girl's attention from herself she pointed out the constellations blazing in
the sky and told some of their stories, and Gladys gradually relaxed and
fell asleep.

When she opened her eyes again it was broad daylight and the sun was
shining into the tent. She looked around at the others. Hinpoha was still
asleep; Migwan was coaxing a chipmunk up on the bed with peanuts;
Sahwah was noiselessly getting into her bathing suit. Seeing that
Gladys was awake, both girls waved their arms in friendly greeting.
Talking was not allowed before the first bugle. There was a soft scurry
of little feet on the floor, and another chipmunk darted in and paused
inquiringly beside Gladys's bed. Migwan tossed her some peanuts and
Gladys held one out gingerly to the little creature. He hopped up boldly
and took it from her fingers, stuffing it into his baggy cheek. Then his
bright little eyes spied the rest of the peanuts on Gladys's bed, and
quick as a wink he was up after them, his tail whisking right into her
face. Gladys screamed and wriggled, and he fled for his life, pausing a
short distance from the tent to scold about the peanuts he had left
behind in his flight.
Just then the bugle blew, and with a whoop Sahwah leapt from bed,
while Migwan rose and donned her bathing suit. "Coming in for a dip,
Gladys?" she asked.
"Is the water cold?" asked Gladys.
"Well, yes," said Migwan honestly. "It usually is in the morning before
the sun has shone