The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong Part 6

On that occasion the lady, being ill, was very comfortably propped in the big steamer-chair on the porch, Peg declaring she felt better out in the air, and that she preferred sleeping out there when the weather was mild enough.

So Peg of Tamarack Hills was a queer girl in many ways, and the mystery surrounding her home life always served to excite the curiosity of strangers, but had not, as yet, been explained.

Perhaps a half-hour after she entered the bungalow for breakfast she appeared again in the familiar roughrider's outfit, adjusting the leather-fringed skirt over her breeches as she stood in the doorway.

"I'll take s.h.a.g if that will make you feel any better, Aunt Carrie,"

said the girl, pulling her hat firmly on the cropped head. "Also, I'll ride slowly enough to talk to him, and I'll surely be back by noon.

Now promise you are not going to worry."

"I can't promise, my dear; but I'll try not to. You are growing up now, Peggie, and summer folks are so critical, you know."

"Toothpicks for summer folks!" retorted the girl scornfully. "We don't owe them anything, Carrie, and if that's all you have got to worry about----"

"I wish it were, dear," sighed the woman, but the girl was hurrying to the log-built barn where "Whirlwind," her blue roan, impatiently awaited her coming.

Then she was off "like a piece of scenery," as Pete put it. But Peggie Ramsdell had no thought of the picturesque effect she created, nor did she care for less friendly criticism that followed in her dust-blown path.

CHAPTER VI

OPENING DAY

"Everything is ready. Miss Mackin has sent our application to headquarters so that we may go on record, and now all we have to do is----"

Louise interrupted Corene. "I've got to move all the dishes for my precious dining-room, and who can spare a car to lug them out?"

"We'll pick you up and your tin pans on our way out this afternoon,"

replied Grace, quite breathless from the excitement. "And I've got to press out my uniform for the celebration."

"Come along, I guess we have everything for this trip," said Corene, gathering up a few more "odds and ends." What wouldn't that camp contain?

"Come along!" repeated Cleo. "I'm so glad we named it that, for I can just fancy we will make that our slogan. 'Come-a-long,'" she mimicked again, "and don't spill the eats, whatever you do."

Out at the fork in the roadway they were met by the rest of the Bobbies, and the camp on this, the opening day, was to receive a full patrol of eight members. Miss Mackin had been made official director, Corene was leader, and the other members were Louise, Grace, Julia, Cleo, Margaret, and Madaline, the last two being visitors, but also regular Scouts in the home troop.

Miss Mackin had already taken up her place in the camp and was now fully responsible, according to the best standards of the general organization; but in spite of that she allowed the girls to make the camp as they thought best, realizing that their plans were affording them a splendid chance to express individuality, and it was their proud boast that Camp Comalong was entirely theirs, from flagpole to the spring ditch, and from tent roof to the pine-needle pillows which Julia insisted should be used.

And they were really moving in!

A little gasp of antic.i.p.ation sort of choked Cleo as she realized she was going to sleep with that oft-mentioned thin "rag of canvas twixt her and the stars." She wondered what they would do when it rained, and was glad the good, strong board floor was raised high enough to crawl under should a storm get too furious.

Benny called this the cyclone-cellar, and it was stored with enough furniture which could not be utilized "just now" to give it a rather cyclonic appearance.

The blankets on the eight nicely arranged cots had not been folded just as Corene had directed, so this detail was the first thing attended to now.

"You see," she explained, "an awful lot depends upon the beds. They are our chief decoration, you might say," as she proceeded to make each bed very pretty indeed, with a diamond-shaped blanket in gay colors throwing its brilliancy clear up to the brown canvas ceiling.

Bits of waste paper seemed to come from nowhere and settle everywhere, and these kept the Scouts busy, for this was to be a model camp and fit for inspection "always."

"Now we'll all go home and take a bathtub bath," suggested Miss Mackin, "and be back promptly at two-thirty for the flag-raising."

If anyone doubts girls' ability to make life ideal in the open, such a one has surely a limited experience with life's loveliest creatures, for girls are naturally "little animals," and who-ever tried to teach a bunny how to dig its burrow?

At two o'clock Benny rounded up the Boy Scouts, and when these came together they formed quite a company, in which were five fifes, three were tin horns, several drums, a few being homemade and of recent production, besides mouth-organs and other varieties of noise-making instruments. Benny himself, being brother to Grace, was chosen color-bearer, and he started his company off for Tamarack Hills with many compliments following in the wake of the trusty, valiant Boy Scouts.

Friends and relations of the girls had gathered also, and it was a distinguished line of autos that parked down at the foot of the hill when the girls themselves, hiking now and disdaining car-rides, marched along to take formal possession of Camp Comalong.

The inspection came first and everyone took part in it Mothers were enthusiastic and even craved "camps like this" for the whole family.

Those fathers who could do so also attended the opening, and manlike talked proudly of their girls being the real thing in the Scout line.

The boys "drummed and fifed" madly, and of course drew a crowd.

"After this one afternoon," said Corene to Cleo's mother, "we are going to be strictly Girl Scouts, and we will only have visitors on regular days."

Miss Mackin was conducting one of the visiting school-teachers all over the grounds, for the fame of this girl-made camp had spread beyond its limits. Then the signal was given, and Grace pulled the rope that raised Old Glory over Tamarack Hills!

That moment was reverently solemn.

Every Girl and Boy Scout stood at attention, while the other spectators evinced their respect for the country's glorious emblem.

Then the salute was given and the strains of "Star-Spangled Banner"

stole out, first timidly, then a.s.suringly, over the hills to the soft accompaniment of the lake's gentle swish against the rocky sh.o.r.e.

The hours that followed were too well-filled with excitement and interest to bear commonplace reporting, but the capable director, Miss Mackin, or "Mackey," as she had already been affectionately dubbed by the Scouts, managed to get the grounds fairly well cleared of visitors in time for supper preparations to be begun before sunset, and presently the girls found themselves alone with their beloved scheme, "Camping in the Woods."

"We will have a cold supper to-night," said Mackey, "and we have two quarts of lovely fresh milk--a donation from the Boy Scouts."

"We might have treated them," said Grace. "They did so much for us, and their music was really splendid!"

"Indeed it was," agreed the director, "and some afternoon we will give them all a treat. But to-night we have to try things out, so we will keep to schedule. I think everything went beautifully, and I want to congratulate you all. My friends from Camp Norm were very much impressed, and envied me my comfortable quarters," she added considerately.

"They don't know the squad," laughed Corene, "and we had on our best behavior to-day. Wait, just wait until things get going."

"We'll get the water," volunteered Cleo, taking the nice, s.h.i.+ny new pail from its peg in the tree closet. There was a row of these tree closets, being small wooden boxes nailed low enough to reach easily, and holding all the kitchen pans and pots. No one claimed these, and as Corene announced early in the plans, each should take turns, just like the K. P., or Kitchen Police, in military parlance.

Up the hill to the spring now romped Cleo and Grace. It was joyous to begin, really, to start this first meal in camp. Fleet-footed were the happy Scouts on the initial errand, and if Grace stumbled and Cleo tripped it was small wonder, considering their excited state of mind.

They were within a few feet, or bushes, of the spring when they saw a figure leaning over it.

"Look!" whispered Cleo. "It's Peg!"

"Come on and let's speak to her," suggested Grace sociably.

"She might not like it," demurred Cleo.

"Let's try, anyhow," insisted Grace, quickening her pace.