The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin | Page 6

a tent called Ponemah; while

Katherine and Oh-Pshaw were assigned, without any tentmate, to
"Bedlam." The Winnebagos smiled involuntarily when this last
assignment was read, knowing how well Katherine's erratic nature
befitted the name of the place. Gitchee-Gummee, Sahwah found to her
delight, was the tent nearest the woods; next to it, but on the other side
of a small gully, spanned by a rustic bridge, came Aloha, Pom-pom's
tent; on the other side of Aloha stood Ponemah, in the shadow of twin
pines of immense height; while Bedlam was farther along in the same
row, just beyond Avernus. Avernus, the Winnebagos noticed to their
amusement, was a tent pitched in a deep hollow, the approach to which
was a rocky passage down a steep hillside, strikingly suggestive of the
classical entrance way to the nether regions. Only the ridgepole of
Avernus was visible from the level upon which Bedlam stood, all the
rest of it being hidden by the high rocks which surround it. Bedlam, on
the other hand, was built on a height, and commanded a view of nearly
all the other tents, being itself a conspicuous object in the landscape.
To their secret joy, the Winnebagos saw that their tents were all in the
back row, in the Alley. Agony, especially, was exultant, since she saw
that Mary Sylvester was also in the Alley. Mary was in Aloha,
Pom-pom's tent, right next door, and Agony had a feeling that wherever
Mary Sylvester was, there would be the center of things, and being
right next door might have its advantages.
"We're going to have Miss Judith for a councilor," remarked Sahwah
joyfully, as she dumped her armful of blankets down on one of the
beds--the one on the side toward the woods.
"I wonder which bed she would like," said Hinpoha, standing
irresolutely in the center of the floor with her armful of bedding.
"Here she comes now," announced Agony. "Let's wait and ask her."
"Well, she wouldn't want this one anyway," remarked Sahwah, as she
straightened the mattress on her bed preparatory to spreading the sheets,
"it sags in the middle like everything. I didn't take the best one if I did
take first choice"--a fact which was apparent to all.

Bedlam's councilor, who had been announced as Miss Armstrong, from
Australia, had already staked her claim when Katherine and Oh-Pshaw
arrived, although she herself was nowhere in sight. One of the beds was
made up and covered with a blanket of such dazzling gorgeousness that
the two girls were almost blinded, and after one look turned their eyes
outdoors for relief. All colors of the rainbow ran riot in that blanket,
each one trying to outdo the others in brilliancy and intensity, until the
effect was a veritable Vesuvius eruption of infernal splendors.
"Think of having to live with that!" exclaimed Oh-Pshaw tragically.
"My eyesight will be ruined in one day. Imagine the effect after I get
out my pink and gray one."
"And my lavender one!" added Katherine.
"We won't ever dare roll up the sides of our tent," continued Oh-Pshaw.
"We'll look like a beacon fire, up here on this hill. Our tent is visible
from the whole camp."
"Cheer up," said Katherine philosophically, "maybe there are others
just as bad. Anyway, let's not act as if we minded; it might make Miss
Armstrong feel badly. She probably thinks it's handsome, or she
wouldn't have it. Coming from Australia that way, she may have quite
savage tastes."
"I wonder what she'll be like," ruminated Oh-Pshaw, standing on one
foot to tie the sneaker she had just substituted for her high traveling
shoe.
As if in answer to her wondering, a clear, far-carrying call came to the
ears of both girls at that moment. "Coo-ee! Coo-ee! Coo-ee!"
"What is that?" asked Oh-Pshaw, pausing in her shoe lacing with one
foot poised airily in space.
The call was repeated just outside their tent door, and then trailed off
into silence.

"Is that someone calling to us?" asked Katherine, hurriedly pulling her
middy on over her head and throwing back the tent flap. No one was in
sight outside.
"Must have been for someone else," she reported, looking right and left
along the pathway. "There's nobody out here."
She came back into the tent and began arranging her small possessions
on the shelf which swung overhead.
"How I'm ever going to keep all my things on one-third of this shelf is
more--" she began, but her speech ended in a startled gasp, for the floor
of the tent suddenly heaved up in the center, sending bottles, brushes
and boxes tumbling in all directions. The board which had thus heaved
up so miraculously continued to rise at one end, and underneath it a
pair of long, lean, powerful-looking arms came into