The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong Part 1

The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong.

by Lillian Garis.

CHAPTER I

THE ACORN

It was Corene's idea. She had just returned from a glorious two weeks spent in a real Girl Scouts' Camp, and the brief time acted like a whiff of something good, and it tasted like more and Corene wanted it.

"Two weeks!" she repeated moodily.

"What can you expect?" queried Louise. "Everyone must have a turn."

"And two weeks make a real vacation for many girls," insisted Cleo.

"Two weeks spent right in one spot--in the ocean, for instance, would seem an awful long time to me," said fun-making Grace.

"Besides all that, you went away to camp early on account of having finished your school work," Cleo reminded her, "and consequently those very two weeks are so much extra. We haven't gone away at all yet."

"I know," agreed the abused one, "and please don't slap me, or do anything like that, girls. I have just been thinking of those wonderful days----" She slid down and thrust her feet out so suddenly and determinedly that she upset a harmless little vase, water, flowers and all, right on the floor of the recreation room.

It was one of the many "last days" of school. The group of girls in the Essveay School made the usual vacation plans, remade them and then amiably agreed to those made by home and mother; but all this in no way affected the present outburst of enthusiasm.

By rare good fortune many of the girls were privileged to spend their summers along the Jersey coast, or in the mountains between New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the intimacy of their school days was thus uninterrupted.

"Then, Corene," returned Cleo, "what do you intend to do about it? You can't hope to go back again to the big camp?"

"Oh, no; I suppose not. But everything will seem so tame," lamented the bobbed-haired girl.

"Tame!" repeated Louise. "You always have a livelier time out in Llynardo than we do at Sea Crest. At least you don't have to change your costume three or four times a day."

"I wouldn't do it," returned Corene. "What's the sense in going away for a good time and spending it amusing other folks?"

"How so, amusing other folks?" repeated Julia.

"Surely no one dresses to amuse herself," retorted the practical Corene. "I like pretty things, and all that, but I hate summer simping. Buddie calls it 'simping,' although he probably means primping."

"When we put on our Scout uniform last year we saved a lot of that,"

reflected Cleo.

"Which was it, Scout uniform or riding-habit, Cleo? It seems to me you spent a lot of time on horseback," Julia reminded her.

"And I intend to do the same this year as well," declared Cleo.

"That's the reason we are going to the mountains."

"Same here," agreed Louise. "We had a good time riding last year, but there were days when the sun was too hot. Now, under the trees in the mountains----" A sudden breeze blew in and sent layers of papers flying about.

"There you are!" commented Corene. "There's your mountain breeze, girls. No use bothering going any further."

"Oh, h-h--!" sighed a chorus.

"If it would only stay," continued Cleo. "What is so hot as a day in June?" she misquoted.

"The first hot day in September, after school opens," answered Louise, fanning her flushed cheeks with Julia's latest story. "At any rate, let's go into cla.s.sroom and try that science puzzle again. I'm not sure whether I made a bug or a bird for the seven-year locust."

It was that evening, when these girls as neighbors had gathered on Julia's porch, that the subject of a summer camp was taken up with added interest.

"I've been talking to mother about it," said Julia, "and she agrees we could have a much healthier and even happier time if we went to the mountains. We might miss the bathing----"

"But we will have the lake--the wonderful, pretty, friendly old Lake Hocomo!" enthused Cleo. "The ocean is lovely, of course, but don't you think it's awfully samey?"

"Samey? Oh, you mean similarly," joked Louise.

"No, she means monotonously," ventured Grace.

"Or synonymously," added Corene.

"Say, girls!" asked Cleo, "were we talking about the ocean or false syntax? I've sort of strayed off a little. I think I recall, however, that the lake was said to be lovely, and I'm willing to stick to that.

Who votes for the lake?"

"I do!"

"I do!"

"I do!" everyone voted for it, so it was agreed again that all would go to the lake, if their folks went with them, of course. And then Corene returned to her story of the wonders of camp life.

"But didn't you have to wash a lot of horrid dishes?" asked Grace.

"We washed dishes, certainly," replied the favored one, "but it was fun doing it. We had races at it and prizes, and when one does things that way it's fun, you know."

"I'm going to try that with Benny," declared Grace. "Our folks are again maidless, so Benny and I help. I'll race Benny and offer my cla.s.s pin as prize," she decided.

"Your cla.s.s pin for Benny? Why, Grace! You dishonor the Essveays. Make it a buckle or a barrette. Either would be just as useful to Benny.

He's sure to win, we all know that, for boys always win at anything they try out," declared Julia.

"Yes, by dumping dishes in, and dumping them out, and putting them over the gas oven to dry," retorted Grace. "That's the way a boy is so sure to win in a dish-was.h.i.+ng contest. But never mind that. Tell us, Corey, what do you propose for camp?"

"Make one, build one, run one," she proposed simply.

"Just like that!" added Cleo, with a chuckle. "Do you mean on paper or in the woods, Corey?"

"In the woods, certainly," again came the measured reply, and it didn't measure very much at that.

"Oh, be a dear and tell us how," begged Louise, settling herself in the cus.h.i.+ons of the porch swing for a real story. "I want to dream about something other than school to-night, and I'd just love it to be camp."

"A nice, wild, grizzly bear camp," added Grace. She skidded over to the swing and squirmed in beside Louise.