by Lilian Garis
CHAPTER XI
THE FOOD SHOWER
As someone had said events were crowding at camp, and it now seemeddifficult to keep schedule and not break the "rest rule." This lastobligated the director to see that the girls rested for a time afterthe noon-day meal. As the Bobbies were such active little animals, andso eager to crowd each moment with an event--big enough to occupy anhour--Mackey had to be very decided in this order for an hour's restevery afternoon.
It was that particular period that the unwelcome callers had socompletely dissipated the day before, so to-day Mackey decided to stayat camp and write up her notes, rather than scour woods for newmaterial. Thus she could keep tabs on that relaxation period.
"We're so glad to have you, but hope we are not spoiling all your realvacation," said Louise considerately, when the patrol finished dinner,had cleaned up things and were now out under the trees resting."Honestly, Mackey, tell us! Didn't you plan to come and be ourguardian angel, or did you just happen along that day?"
The director laughed merrily. It seemed to her girls that she couldlaugh more heartily than any sort of teacher they had ever come incontact with. Her big brown eyes would roll so comically, and she hada way of tossing her head up in such a frank fit of mirth, that hermanner was really an inspiration to those about her.
"Don't guardies always come that way?" she replied to Louise'squestion. "And do you want to 'sack' me for someone else? I'm sureanyone at Camp Norm would be glad to try for the place."
Conservative Louise could not stand that, and she almost upset Mackeyand her camp stool in objecting.
"Did the mothers have anything to do with it?" pressed Grace.
"Or headquarters?" went on Julia.
"Well," evaded Mackey. "I came, I saw and I conquered. So why worry?"and the Bobbies were obliged to be satisfied with that reply.
"Has anyone seen Peg, lately?" was the next question. It came fromCleo.
"'Has anybody here seen Kelly,'" chirped Grace, falling into the funnyold tune. "'Kelly with the gre--heen necktie!'" she persisted, in spiteof a shower of leaves and twigs that struck at her defiant head.
"We can't call this rest," remonstrated Mackey. "Julia, I wouldn'tpull up those little roots, you will have mud puddles there if itshould rain to-night."
"Oh, that's so!" exclaimed Julia. "How will we arrange when the raincomes? What about my fire?"
"We will have to use up some of the dry boxes," suggested Madaline.
"Or get an oil stove," proposed Margaret.
"Or we could make a shack--build one over our camp kettle," added Cleo.
Mackey waited to try out their resources before interfering. Then shesaid:
"It's lots of fun to build fires in the rain; that is if you don'thave to dry out too quickly after a long hike. We can always find drywood inside of the old logs, and by scooping out some shavings we caneasily start some of your nice, little cord pieces, that you havestocked under the tent. No, you can't use artificial wood, boxes noroil stoves. All that is against the camp system."
"Then I think," said Julia, the good housekeeper, "we had better addto our woodpile. We have had such splendid weather, rain must be aboutdue."
"We can go out wood hunting when the sun goes down, or cools off, latethis afternoon," agreed Mackey. "I think Corene had such a planalready fixed."
"Indeed I did," spoke up Corene. "I know what a time we had once atthe big camp when the wood pile went low and the storm ran high.Unkink your muscles, girls; there's a heap of chopping ahead."
"And do you remember last year at the beach? We were donning ourdimities about this time daily," recalled Louise, with a well meaningsigh.
"I'm gaining pounds," announced the willowy Julia. "I was weighed thismorning."
"Have I grown any?" joked Louise, giving one of her inimitablestretches.
"You do all seem to be taking to camp life like squirrels to nuts,"interrupted the director. "I shall have quite a record to my credit ifyou keep it up."
Time passed so quickly that the call for their class in basketryseemed almost to overlap the rest hour.
"To make souvenirs!" This was the attraction that roused the Bobbieseven from their own joys in camp routine, for now that they were "awayfrom home," each girl longed to bring back a token to mother, father,sister or brother; and with more than one of them the entire familywas promptly put down on the list to receive a handmade souvenir fromCamp Comalong.
"Undertake simple things so you will be sure to finish them," warnedMackey, for girl-like they planned the most attractive articles heldout in the display catalogues.
Bags, baskets and little matted trays were finally decided upon, andMiss Freeland, the manual training teacher who stopped at Norm, foundan enthusiastic class ready for her dictation.
They sat squat on the ground like Indians when the lesson started, butbefore its finish the squatters had squirmed and crawled from oneposition to another, fitting each new attempt with a new move, untilat the end there seemed to be a heap of girls all piled around theamiable Miss Freeland.
"Don't forget we are to receive callers to-day," warned Mackey. "Ithink the home folks have been very considerate to leave us alone solong."
Reluctantly the new task was laid aside, for, as usual, being new, itwas also attractive, and at the thought of company everyone stirredaround to make things look pretty.
Fresh flowers, straightening the burlap curtains on Louise'ssideboard, arranging the tent with an eye to absolute order--all thiswas attended to with skill acquired in the short practice, and MissMackin had little to fear from the critical eye of any possiblevisitor.
Honking of auto horns soon warned the Bobbies that their company wascoming, and when the honking swelled into a concert, and the concertswelled into a volley, the campers realized they were due to enjoy asurprise.
No less than eight cars were finally driven up, and each carried acapacity load of passengers--the whole company representing a surpriseparty on the Bobolinks.
"Surprise! Surprise!" called out the visiting girls, quite like theold time gayety, when country folks came to a party and brought therefreshments with them.
So many friends entirely unexpected!
It seemed the home folks had sent out the invitations and managed tocorral friends for every single Bobbie, not forgetting Mackey, who wasso glad to welcome Molly Burbank, a friend of her high school days.
And the boxes and the bundles!
"A regular picnic!" sang out Louise. "Let's put everything on the bigtable."
"And Helen!" chuckled Cleo. "I am so glad to see you! When did youcome back to the lake?"
"Isabel, dear, ducky Izzy!" chirped Grace. "We have been talking aboutyou a lot. Can you stay?"
Then there was Mary, Carol, Annette, and so many other school andhome-town friends that for a little time the mothers seemed neglected,but presently Louise was "hanging on her folks" with such enthusiasmshe threatened to do damage to something, while Cleo hugged her motherand her big coz Alem, and Grace almost strangled her mother, so thatit all looked like a new version of Mother's Day.
The inspection was punctuated with constant exclamations of wonder andapplause, and that the Bobbies would find themselves expected toshoulder added responsibilities when they should return home was veryevident.
"If they can do so well in camp we may hope for great things at home,"remarked more than one delighted visitor, but the Scouts shook theirheads and refused to promise.
Miss Mackin was arranging "the treat." She and her friends had takenover all the tasks so that the younger girls might more fully enjoythe company. The long table, with its dainty paper table cover, wasarranged with paper plates (for company only), and the bunches ofrarest wild flowers Miss Mackin had gathered the day before gave areal festive look to "the board."
"I know I'm going to have my favorite cake," crowed Cleo. "Did youever see such a perfectly scrumbunctious food shower?"
"Never," agreed Grace, "and I do hope there's something to keep
in mybox, for we can't be sure of our own cooking all the time, you know."
"Don't you like it?" defied Corene. She was not willing to have thecommissary department thus suspected.
"Oh, yes, Corey, and your codfish made with condensed milk is so--new,and sweetish----"
Corene threw a paper box cover at the head of her tormentor but MissMackin did not see the deprecation.
Then the spread was ready, and the company sat down to a camp tableladen with home made goodies.
"This is one real joy of the small camp," Miss Mackin explained. "Inthe larger camps they do not generally permit the importing of food;but for Comalong it's a real blessing. You see, we have just beenexperimenting with our little furnace, and there's the camp kettle,"she pointed out the inclined pole with its kettle on end, that hungover one of Julia's furnaces. "And we haven't tried baking cakes sincewe came," she admitted with an explanatory laugh.
"But the pan cakes? Aren't they all right, Mackey?" asked Cleo. Shehad "tried" pan cakes once or twice.
"Yes, indeed, Cleo. You did very well with those," praised thedirector, "but for real chocolate cake----"
"And fudge cake!" exclaimed Louise.
"And angel cake!" added Grace.
So it went along the table, each Scout acknowledging her particulargift with a special exclamation.
There was so much to talk about. And what a buzz and hum of voicessurprised the little wood creatures! Not even the pet bunny venturedout from his hollow stump while all that party talked and talked.
"If only we could have company?" proposed Julia. "I mean overnightcompany."
"Perhaps we can," whispered Cleo.
"Where would they sleep?" Grace queried.
"We have hammocks, and maybe we could make room between the cots, bypushing them up together."
"Oh, Cleo," Grace broke out. "How could we make room between the cotsunless you mean to put someone on the floor?" and she howled at theidea.
"Of course, I don't mean that," protested Cleo, between her cakebites. "I mean to tie two cots together and put blankets between theedges, I mean over the edges. There would be room for Helen in thatspace."
"But fancy Izzy sleeping on the rail!" Grace was bound to ridicule theidea.
"At any rate I'm going to ask Mackey!" declared Cleo. "Helen wouldlove to stay, and we would love to have her. We could put hammocks upif it didn't rain."
At this juncture Grace was asked to refill the water pail, so she andMadaline raced off to the spring. Both cast furtive glances over thehill to Peg's cottage, but not even Shag was in sight to indicate lifearound the log cabin.
"Queer where she keeps herself," remarked Grace, "but I'm going tofetch her some cake, anyhow."
"I would too," agreed Madaline. "She doesn't seem like a girl whocould bake a good cake."
"No," added Grace, "but she surely can ride horseback. I just wonderwhere she goes every day."
"The girls are going riding to-morrow. Perhaps they'll find out."
"Maybe. But aren't we having a lovely picnic?"
"Wonderful. We'll have enough cake for all week."
"I never thought sandwiches could taste so good. I suppose it'sbecause we haven't had any homemade bread since we came."
"And Cleo's mother brought jam; Cleo hid it in her box back of thecupboard," said Madaline.
"Hurry, they may want the water; at any rate we can treat them tothat," declared Grace, and the water bearers made all possible hasteover the trail back to camp, spilling just enough of the fresh fluidto tickle the spangle-weed along the way.
"They're going to stay! They're going to stay!" Cleo ran to meet Gracewith the good news, for lovely as camp had seemed with the patrol asits sole occupants, the prospects of company "to stay," and that theguests should be "Dare-to-do-Izzy" as Isabel was popularly called, andjolly little Helen would could "see a joke half a mile off"; no wonderthere was new joy apparent in camp.
"Everyone is going," chirped Julia, "and I hope they all saw how muchwe have improved."
"Your pounds, do you mean, Jule? Maybe they couldn't see them. Youshould have pointed them out," teased Louise.
"Now, Weasy, maybe you think they all saw your inches," returnedJulia. "There's mother's handkerchief, I know she didn't intend toleave that to me," and she hurried to the big gray car, with thedainty speck of lace and linen.
"Give them a cheer," prompted Miss Mackin.
"Hurrah for the home folks," led Corene.
"Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" boomed the lusty cheer, until the hillsechoed and the lake repeated the hail.
Then the picnic and shower were over, and the Bobbies were so excitedthey hardly knew whether to show Izzy the spring or Helen thewoodpile.
The colors were lowered by Louise and Julia, and then clouds gatheringbeyond the rim of trees glowered ominously, and that reminded themthat they must hurry to gather more wood before the rain would come.