The Woodcraft Girls in the City Part 45

"Oh, love, to be sure! The kind that are run serially in the 'Cosmo'

Magazine. I adore them and the moment the books are out I buy them to read again. I can devour the love scenes again and again, and enjoy them!" sighed Eleanor, sentimentally.

"When that box of books arrives, Eleanor, will you allow me to look them over first?"

"Of course you may, but I can't see why you would want to read them first-you couldn't finish them all in a month!" laughed Eleanor.

"I have no desire to read them, but I must see what you intend bringing into camp. From your words, I should say the books are unworthy the name. I have long taken up the crusade against the trash that some magazines publish as it is unhealthy for young people. There are scores of other periodicals just as bad but they haven't the wealth or influence to advertise and put over their injurious reading that this one you mention has."

"Why, how queer you are, Miss Miller! Everyone says the authors of those stories make fortunes out of everything written!" Eleanor defended.

"Ah, yes! What will be their report when the Day of Accounts comes and we each have to look at the facts bared by Truth?" sighed the Guide walking away.

Eleanor smiled ironically and looked at Zan. "Isn't she the funniest thing!"

"No, we all know Miss Miller's great ambition to provide clean wholesome literature for young people and Dad seconds her enthusiastically in her work. She wrote an article to the New York papers showing how subtle and poisonous was the moral and mental perversion of the s.e.x stories so flagrantly advertised by publishers who only thought of gain and notoriety. But the newspapers are not courageous enough to throw the gauntlet down to these publishers. Some of them wrote back that the concerns mentioned spent large sums advertising in their daily papers.

So Miss Miller has to try some other method to open the eyes of the parents and guardians to the danger threatening young people."

Eleanor stared at Zan and wondered, as half of it was Greek to her understanding. Miss Miller was heard ordering the carpenters to different duties, however, so Zan ran over to join them.

"The Brownies can find birch bark and make the ornaments to decorate the cabin," said Anna, as the Guide apportioned each group of girls to tasks.

"Moreover, they can remove the large sections of bark from this down-timber for the girls to use on the outside of the cabin after the posts are up," said Mrs. Remington.

And that is how the name "Boss" began for the Guide.

"I'll guarantee to have bark, totems, s.h.i.+elds, and other ornaments ready for use when the cabin needs them," added Mrs. Remington, calling the Brownies to go with Anna and her.

All that day the silent places of the forest resounded with sawing, chopping and hammering, but now and then a hot and tired girl would throw herself down on the moss to cool.

At luncheon that day, Mrs. Remington whispered to Miss Miller: "This work will take much of the softness out and leave them in good shape for other sport."

"Exactly!" replied the Guide, looking about at the hungry, eager faces of the members.

A call for "Boss" from Tim, who was a.s.sisting in the hauling of the logs, interrupted further comment at that time.

"Miss Miller, the young ladies don't want to dig a hole where the logs will rest. I tells them they must do it to have a firm foundation. Fact, I said, a hull cellar ought to be dug to keep the floor dry and sweet-smellin'," said Tim.

"Yes, a cellar must be excavated if only a foot, or two feet deep.

Otherwise the floor will soon be mouldy and damp."

So that afternoon, the girls dug and shovelled and worked on a pit about a foot and a half deep and as large as the floor was planned to be. The four logs forming the foundation square were well set before the horn sounded for rest that night.

"Didn't the time fly?" asked May, in surprise.

"It always does when one is pleasantly employed," added Mrs. Hubert, complimenting the Tribe on the work accomplished.

The next day the cross-beams of the floor were laid, and the four corner posts erected and firmly nailed into place. At the luncheon that noon, plans were made for the siding and roofing the cabin. That afternoon, the ridgepole and rafters of the roof were set and the uprights of the walls nailed in securely. When Mrs. Hubert blew the horn for "Quits" the girls looked longingly at the skeleton of their cabin.

"I'd like to tack a few sheets of tar paper on the outside before stopping work," ventured Elena.

"Not if you are a member of this union. The rest of us will strike if you are permitted to work over-time," retorted the Guide, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of Tim who thought the "Boss" a wonder.

The next day the paper roofing and siding was nailed on and then the girls began the interesting work of fitting on the great slabs of bark.

This had to be carefully done as any rough handling or nailing cracked the sections.

By evening the cabin was covered and looked very rustic with its forest blanket on sides and roof. But Tim said the wide c.h.i.n.ks between sheets of bark must be filled in, and this must be done with plaster.

"Where can we find any?" wondered Zan.

"I'll show you in the morning," replied Miss Miller.

So in the morning they went down to the sh.o.r.e and the Guide dug a pit where clay was found at a depth of ten inches. This was worked well with water until it was the proper consistency and then pailfuls of the mortar were carried to the cabin. The Brownies acted as hod-carriers while the girls did the mason work. Now and then a Brownie was allowed to fill in c.h.i.n.ks near the ground and rub it down between the bark.

This work was great fun and was finished by noon. Then the question of windows and door came up.

"I have two sashes in the garage left over from the addition built to the house last year," suggested Tim.

"Then we will have to make real frames?" asked Jane.

"No'm! They slides along grooves and is easier to shet when a shower comes up. If you had pulleys and fittin's like city houses they'd always be ketchin' and out of order," said Tim.

So the donation of two nice windows was gratefully accepted and the extra time saved was given to the door. This was a difficult thing to make as real hinges and a catch had to be fitted. Before the saddle and strike were done, the girls felt that doors were indeed an invention of the evil one to make folks want to swear. Fingers were bruised, and heads b.u.mped as each girl declared _she_ could do it-it was so easy!

But the door was finally hung-with Tim's help-and then the cabin was ready for furniture. The Brownies had carried in all the packing cases saved from the freight, and Mrs. Hubert had a remnant of pantasote in the loft of the house, left from the covering of her window seats.

While the Brownies made and painted totems and crude decorations, the girls made and upholstered box-furniture, and in a week's time, the cabin was ready for company. The visitors in this case consisted of Mrs.

Hubert and Tim's wife.

"This cabin beats the one we made on the farm all to smithereens!"

exulted Zan, admiring the inside and then stepping out to compliment the Little Lodge on the floral decorations and Woodcraft tokens they had made.

"We can keep all our Woodcraft stuff in here and when one of us wants to be alone she can sit in here and read or snooze," added Jane.

"I'll put the box of books in here and you girls can help yourselves,"

said Eleanor, generously.

"How about it-did they come?" asked Zan, curiously.

"Tim said the box was at the station and he is going to bring it in the morning," replied Eleanor.

Miss Miller was right on the spot when the box was taken from the automobile and Eleanor brought the hammer and driver to pry off the top boards. As expected, the Guide found trashy paper novels inside and a note from Eleanor's mother. This the girl read aloud.

"Dear Ella:

As you are camping where rain and dirt will spoil a good book I bought a lot from a 10-cent store and from a second-hand shop downtown. It won't hurt if these do get wet, so don't worry over them. I tried to buy your favourite authors-Lila Jane Lilly is one, isn't she? And the Dutchie another. If the other girls want to read them, be generous and let them,"

---- Lovingly, _Mother._"

"Humph! I should say a thorough soaking of rain would improve these books vastly," remarked the Guide as she gingerly turned the pages of the first few removed from the box. "In fact, if we could soak them back to pulp again and forever wash away the effects of the text, what a benefaction the world would have!"