The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods | Page 8

very long on it." Gladys decided she would not take a
dip. Hinpoha slumbered calmly on. Sahwah pulled the pillow from
under her head with a quick jerk and plucked the blankets off. Hinpoha
opened her eyes sleepily.
"Wake up, lazy bones," said Sahwah. "It's time to dip!"
"Have a heart," mumbled Hinpoha, opening her eyes a little farther,
"the bugle hasn't blown yet!"
"Indeed it has, a whole minute ago! Hurry up or you'll miss the dip!"
Sahwah prodded Hinpoha energetically. Hinpoha struggled into her
bathing suit and sped down the path to the lake, hot in pursuit of
Sahwah. Migwan had already gone down. A minute later the girls from
the other tent ran out, calling a cheery good-morning to Gladys. A

series of splashes and shrieks followed, which proclaimed the coldness
of the water. Gladys lay cozily in bed, watching the chipmunks as they
scampered across the floor of the tent. Presently another bugle sounded
from somewhere and the girls returned, dripping and rosy, to hustle
into middies and bloomers.
"Aren't you going to get up, Gladys?" asked Migwan. "That second
bugle means 'get up,' you know."
"Does it?" said Gladys, and rose reluctantly. It seemed as if she had just
gone to sleep. She was still combing her hair before the tiny mirror that
hung on the tent pole swinging in the wind when the breakfast bugle
blew. Migwan waited for her dutifully and escorted her to the "Mess
Tent," where the other girls were already gathered around the table.
"We'll call it the 'Mess Tent' until we can find a prettier name for it,"
explained Migwan. "Sahwah thinks we should call it the 'Grand Gorge.'
Have you anything to suggest?"
"No," replied Gladys, "I haven't."
Nyoda greeted Gladys cordially and asked how she slept, and the other
girls sang her a Kindergarten Good Morning song, making funny little
bows and bobs. Then they sang the Camp Fire Grace, "If We Have
Earned the Right to Eat This Bread," and set to work making the fruit
and pancakes and cocoa disappear like magic. Gladys ate nearly as
much as the others, although she would have been very much surprised
if you had told her so. The meal over, each girl carried her dishes and
stacked them in a neat pile on the table in the tiny kitchen which
formed a part of the small wooden shack which stood on the camp
grounds, and dropped her cup into a pan of water. This made very light
work for the Dishes Committee, which consisted of two different girls
each week. The Dishes Committee took care of all three meals a day
for the entire week, as this duty did not require much time, but there
was a different Breakfast, Dinner and Supper Committee, each pair
serving a whole week at their job. Up until Gladys's arrival there had
been only seven in camp and Nyoda had been working alone, but now
the division was equal. Gladys was assigned to the supper committee

for the rest of the week with Migwan as a partner, for Nyoda thought it
would help her get acquainted faster to let her work with one of the
girls.
As soon as the dishes were washed the girls gathered in the front part of
the shack, where there was an old piano, and sang hymns and camp
songs. "Let's pick out some hymns to learn by heart," suggested Nyoda;
"think how lovely they'll sound, sung out on the lake in canoes."
Nyoda's suggestion found favor with the girls, and they set immediately
to work learning the "Crusaders' Hymn."
"Do you know," said Nyoda from her seat on the piano stool, after they
had sung it through a couple of times, "I believe that the last verse of
that song should be sung first. The climax seems be in the first verse,
and the rest, beginning with the last, merely lead up to it. Try it that
way once."
The girls sang it through in the new order and declared they liked the
effect much better, so the change was adopted. Migwan and Nyoda
sang a strong alto, and Sahwah a clear, though somewhat uncertain,
high tenor, so the little band succeeded in making a considerable
amount of harmony. A tiny song bird, perched on the limb of a tall pine
tree just before the shack, blended his notes with theirs and poured out
his enjoyment of the universe in a thrilling flood of song. The girls sang
their hymn over and over again, just to hear him join in, until Nyoda,
looking at her watch, exclaimed, "Ten minutes until tent inspection!"
The girls scattered to their tents, and began a hasty cleaning up. Gladys
had never made a bed before, and had trouble getting hers straight and