The Girl Scout Pioneers | Page 7

incense that just then permeated the woody glen.

"Don't let the girls get too far away from us," cautioned Madeline. "I
wouldn't like to get really lost, even for the joke of having you find me,
Gracie."
"But you would do a little thing like that to help me out on my personal
bravery stunt?" teased her companion. "I wonder why only the first
class girls are permitted to do all those wonderful things and get all the
really high honors?"
"Because they have gone through all the necessary trials and
examinations," replied Madaline sagely. "You and I can get credit for
our deeds, but we must show our full records to get the highest B. C.
That's fair. You can't make a major out of a private. He has got to go up
by degrees."
"Well, maybe it is fair, but I just love the glory of presentations. I am so
sorry for Margaret. I would have dug up the town today to find that
Merit Badge she lost last night."
"I like the way she braved it out, though," added Madaline. "She felt
badly enough, and it did mean so much to her," finished the
sympathetic scout.
"Oh, yes, I suppose so," rather reluctantly agreed the ambitious Grace.
"But I shouldn't relish the feeling that some grimy mill girl was
wearing the badge in a smoky factory."
"Oh, Grace, shame! That's not scouty. You must not speak so of the
mill girls. We hope to take some of them in our troop before long. We
would have no right to public support if we did not do something
definite for others, and the mill girls have so few chances. So don't,
Gracie dear, ever speak like that again."
"I won't if you say so, also if it isn't scouty. I am out to win the goal,
and I don't mind what I may have to do to get my scout good conduct
ball into the official basket. Now, how's the heel? Did the little pad of
soft leaves help to keep the pressure off?"

"Yes, that was a fine idea, and I shall see to it that some day, when
original work is called for, you get credit for the nature- aid heel pad.
Rather a clumsy title, but when we explain how easy it is to get soft
leaves to make pads for suffering feet, I am sure it will be welcome
news to many an ambitious hiker."
"Oh, Madie dear," suddenly exclaimed Grace. "Where are the girls
gone? They are not in the hazel nut clump, and I can't hear a sound!"
"Oh, my! Suppose they have gone looking for us the other way?"
Both girls in alarm, now scurried through the woods, calling and giving
the "Coo-ee" call, but not a sound answered them. Birds were flitting
about from limb to branch, and the strange stillness of the woods
frightened the little Tenderfoots.
"You go along the bank, and I'll scour the elderberry patch. This wood
is so dense in spots, and so clear under the hemlocks, it is easy to lose
and hard to find anyone in it," declared Grace. "I'm glad I brought my
big rope. I intended to tie every knot in the course, and cut them all out
to fetch back finished, and I haven't even unwound the rope."
"If there is anything easier than getting lost in the woods it must be
getting caught at whispering in the eighth grade," grumbled Madaline.
"I wish my old heel had behaved itself."
"And all the plans for my brave stunt gone to naught," put in the now
breathless Grace. "I would never have made up the hike if I had not
determined to get a glory mark out of it. Now see where we are! Miles
from home, and darkness coming on at each end. Where could those
girls have gone to?"
"Sure as shooting they have gone on searching for us. There's the
reservoir road, going in the opposite direction, and also Chestnut Hill.
To go either of those roads meant getting entirely away from the
foolish little scouts who stopped to chatter and chin. Just shows what
we can do when we don't know we shouldn't."

For some moments they brushed their way through the thicket, beating
down briars with their stout sticks, then coming to a broad clearance
they found themselves in a great grove of pines, clean as a floor, except
for the layer of savory pine needles, and almost dark as night from the
density of the pine canopies.
"My, how lovely!" exclaimed Grace.
"Yes, if we could only enjoy it," demurred Madaline.
"Grace! What's that? Over under that thick tree!"
"A man! Let's run!"
"And there is a big bag beside him," whispered Grace. "See the things
sticking out