by Nell Speed
CHAPTER XIV
THE FORAGERS
"Miss Douglas, them week-enders done cl'ared the coop. Thain't narychicken lef' standin' on a laig. Looks like these here Hungarians don'tthink no mo' of 'vourin' a chicken than a turkey does of gobblin' up agrasshopper."
"All of them gone, Oscar?"
"Yas'm! Thain't hide or har of them lef'. If I hadn't er wrung theynecks myself, I would er thought somethin's been a-ketchin' 'em; butland's sakes, the way these week-enders do eat chicken is a caution!"
"All right, I'll get our young people to start out today and find somemore for us. A big crowd will be up on Friday."
"Yes, I'll be bound they will, and all of them empty. I should think therailroad cyars would chawge mo' ter haul the folks back from this herecamp than what they do to git 'em here. They sho' goes back a-weighingmo' than what they do whin they comes a-creepin' up the mountain actin'like they ain't never seed a squar' meal in they lives."
Oscar's grumbling on the subject of the amount of food consumed by theboarders was a never failing source of amusement to the Carter girls.They were never so pleased as when the boarders were hungry and enjoyedthe food. No doubt Oscar was pleased, too, but he was ever outwardlycritical of the capacity of the week-enders.
Lucy and Lil, Skeeter and Frank were delighted to be commissioned to gohunting for food. Many were the adventures they had while out on theseforaging parties and many the tales they had to tell of the inhabitantsof the mountain cabins. There were several rules they must obey andbesides those they had perfect liberty to do as they felt like. Thefirst rule was that they must wear thick boots and leggins on thesetramps. The snake bite Helen had got early in the summer had been alesson learned in time and now all the campers were made to comply withthe rule of leggins whenever they went on hikes. The second rule wasthat they must be home before dark and must report to Douglas or Helenas soon as they got home. The third was that they must tell all theiradventures to one of the older girls. If they obeyed these three rulesthey were sure to get into no trouble.
"Fix us up a big lunch, please, Helen. We are going 'way far off.There's a man on the far side of Old Baldy that Josh says has great bigfrying-sizers," declared Lil.
"Well, be sure you are back before dark," admonished Helen, in hergrownupest tone, according to Lucy.
"All right, Miss Grandma, but I don't see why I have to get in beforedark if you don't. You know you and Doctor Wright came in long aftersupper one night--said you got lost, but you can tell that to themarines," said Lucy pertly.
"Just for that, I've a great mind to put red pepper in your sandwiches,"said Helen, blushing in spite of herself.
"Well, I suppose if we get lost, we won't have to get in before dark,either," teased Lucy.
"Yes, but don't you get lost. Douglas and I are always a bit uneasyuntil you are back, as it is," pleaded Helen. "You know mother wouldhave a fit if you were out late."
"Oh, don't listen to her, Miss Helen. We'll take care of the girls andbring 'em back safe. Frank and I couldn't get lost on these mountains ifwe tried," and Skeeter drew himself up to his full height, which wasgreat for a boy of fifteen and seemed even greater because of hisextreme leanness.
"Can't we take our guns, Miss Helen?" pleaded Frank.
There was another rule that the boys must not take the guns if the girlswere along. Guns are safe enough if there are no bystanders.
"Oh, Frank, ask Douglas! I am afraid to be the one to let you do it."
"Can I tell her you say yes if she does?"
"Yes, I reckon so! But if she does say yes, please be awfully careful."
"Sure we will! I tell you, Miss Helen, if anything happens to thesegirls, Skeeter and I'd never show our faces in camp again."
"I know you will look after them," said Helen. These boys were greatfavorites with Helen, and they admired her so extravagantly thatsometimes Lil and Lucy, their sworn chums, were a bit jealous. "I'vemade your kind of sandwiches, Frank, sardines. And I've stuffed someeggs with minced ham the way you like them, Skeeter."
"Bully!" exclaimed both knights.
"And I s'pose what Lil and I like or don't like didn't enter your head,"pouted Lucy.
"Why, Lucy, you know you like sardine sandwiches better than anything,you said so yourself," admonished Lil.
"Helen didn't know it."
"If you don't like what I put up, you can do it yourself next time,"snapped Helen.
"''Tis dog's delight To bark and bite,'"
sang Douglas, coming into the kitchen to spy out the nakedness of theland preparatory to sending her order for provisions to the wholesalegrocer in Richmond. "What are you girls scrapping about?"
"Helen said----"
"Lucy's always----"
"Yes, I haven't a doubt of it," laughed the elder sister, who was everthe peacemaker. "I haven't a doubt that Helen did say it, but she wasjust joking, and I know Lucy is always trying to help and is a deargirl. Now you children trot along and bring back all the chickens youcan carry. Have you got your bags?" Gunnysacks were always taken tobring home the provender. "And money to pay for the chickens? If yousee any eggs, buy them, and more roasting ears, but don't try to carryeverything you see. Have the mountaineers bring them to camp. Good-bye!Be sure to come back before dark."
"Ask her about the guns," whispered Frank to Lil.
"Douglas, can the boys take their guns? Helen says she says yes if yousay yes. They won't carry 'em loaded."
"We--ll, I believe we can trust you; but do be careful, boys."
With a whoop the boys flew to their tent for the guns. The sizablelunch was dumped in the bottom of a gunnysack and slung over Skeeter'sshoulder, and the cavalcade started, after many admonitions from Douglasand Helen to be careful of their guns and to come back before dark.
"Ain't they the scared cats, though?" laughed Lucy.
"Yes; what on earth could happen to us?" said Lil.
"Nothing, I reckon, with Skeeter and me here to protect you--eh,Skeeter?"
"I just guess we could hold a whole litter of bears at bay with theseguns. I almost wish we would run into some kind of trouble just so Frankand I could show your big sisters we are responsible parties."
"Maybe we will," and Lil danced in glee at the possible chance ofgetting into trouble so their devoted swains could extricate them."Maybe we will meet a drunken mountaineer--or maybe it will be a wholelot of drunken mountaineers, a camp of moonshiners--maybe they willcapture Lucy and me and carry us to their mountain fastness and therehold us for ransom."
"Huh! And what do you think Skeeter and I'll be doing while they arecarrying you off?" sniffed Frank. "Standing still, I reckon, and weepingdown our gun barrels!"
"Well, s'pose they are all of them armed to the teeth, a company ofstalwart brigands," suggested Lil, who, by the way, was something of amovie fan, "and they come swooping down on us, the leader bearing alasso in his brawny hand."
"Yes," put in Lucy, "and he will swirl it around and will catch both ofyou in the same coil and then will tie you to a tree there to await hispleasure. I think there had better be two leaders, though, Lil. So youcan have one and I can have one. I bid for the biggest."
"Bid for him! If you girls don't beat all! I do believe you would liketo be attacked by outlaws," and Skeeter looked his disgust at theeternal feminine.
"Of course we'd like it if it came out all right; that is, if theleaders fell in love with us and reformed and turned out to be gentlemenwho took to moonshining and highwaying because they had been cheated outof their inheritances by fat-faced uncles in Prince Albert coats," andLil looked very saucy as she switched on ahead of the others down thenarrow trail.
"And where would we come in?" asked Frank whimsically. "We would have tostay tied to the tree while you and Lucy acted about a thousand feet ofreels. I tell you what I mean to do. I mean to train a squirrel to comegnaw me free. What you say to that, Skeeter?"
"Squirrel much! I'm going to be so quick with my gun that the boldbrigands wi
ll wish they had stayed with Uncle Albert. As for lassoing--Iam some pumpkins myself with the rope. Look at this!" and twirling thegunnysack around with the lunch serving as ballast, Skeeter caught hischum neatly around the neck.
"Oh, oh! You'll mash the sandwiches!" wailed the others.
"Let's sit down and eat 'em up now," suggested Skeeter. "I am tired ofbeing made the beast of burden. I believe in distribution of labor."
"Why, Skeeter, we haven't walked a mile yet, and it can't be more thanten o'clock."
"Well, then, my tumtum must be fast. I shall have to regulate it. Ittells me it is almost twelve." No one had a watch so there was no way toprove the time except by the shadows, and Skeeter declared that theshadows on the mountain perforce must slant even at twelve.
"Let's eat part of the lunch," suggested Lucy. "That will keep poorSkeeter from starving and lighten the load some, too. There is notelling what time it is, but if we are hungry I can't see that it makesmuch difference what time it is. I'm starved myself almost."
"Me, too," chorused the others.
They ate only half, prudently putting the rest back in the gunnysack forfuture reference.
"Gee, I feel some better," sighed Skeeter, whose appetite was ever amarvel to his friends since it never seemed to have the slightest effecton his extreme leanness. Oscar always said: "That there young MarsterSkeeter eats so much it makes him po' to carry it."
"Do you boys know exactly where we are going?" asked Lil. They hadwalked a long distance since the distribution of burdens and now hadcome to a place where the trail went directly down the mountainside.
"Of course we do! Josh said that when we got to a place where the pathsuddenly went down we were almost over the cabin where Jude Hanfordlives. Didn't he, Frank?"
"He sure did!"
"But there was a place back further where a path forked off. I saw it,didn't you, Lucy?"
"Yes, but I thought it was maybe just a washed place."
"This is right, I'm sure," said Skeeter confidently, so the youngpeople clambered down the mountainside following Skeeter's lead. Thepath went almost exactly perpendicularly down the mountain for fiftyyards and then, as is the way with mountain paths, it changed its mindand started up the mountain again.
"This is a terribly silly path," declared the self-constituted guide,"but I reckon it will start down again soon. Josh said that Jude Hanfordlives almost at the foot of the mountain."
"Let's keep a-going; there's no use in turning back," said Frank. "Thispath is obliged to lead somewhere."
"Maybe it leads to the brigand's cave," shivered Lil.
"Which way is home?" asked Lucy.
"That way!"
"Over there!"
"Due north from here!"
But as the three of her companions all pointed in different directions,Lucy laughed at them and chose an entirely different point of thecompass as her idea of where Camp Carter was situated. They had beenwalking for hours and as far as they could tell had not got off of theirown mountain. No one seemed to be the least worried about being lost, soLucy calmed her fears, which were not very great. How could they getlost? All they had to do was retrace their steps if they did not findJude Hanford's cabin, where the frying-sized chickens and the roastingears were supposed to thrive.
"Let's eat again," suggested the ever empty Skeeter.
They had come to a wonderful mountain stream, one they had never seenbefore in their rambles. It came dashing down the incline singing a gaysong until it found a temporary resting place in a deep hole whichseemed to be hollowed out of the living rock.
"What a place to swim!" they exclaimed in a breath.
"I bet it's cold, though, cold as flugians." Lil trailed her fingersthrough the icy water and a little fish rose to the surface and gave anibble. "Look! Look! Isn't he sweet?"
"Let's fish," suggested Lucy.
"Fish with what? Guns?" asked Skeeter scornfully.
"No, fishing lines with minnows for bait," and Lucy found a pin in hermiddy blouse and with a narrow pink ribbon drawn mysteriously fromsomewhere tied to the pin, which she bent into a fine hook, she gotready for the gentle art. A sardine from a sandwich made excellent bait,at least the speckled beauties in that pool thought so as they rose toit greedily.
"E--e-ee!" squealed Lucy, flopping an eight-inch trout out on the bank."I caught a fish! I caught a fish!"
"Oh, gimme a pin, please," begged the boys, so Lucy and Lil had to findfish hooks for their cavaliers and more strings and in a short while allof them were eagerly fishing.
"I never saw such tame fish in all my life," said Frank. "They are justbegging to be caught. It seems not very sporty to hook them in,somehow."
"I didn't know there were any trout in these streams. Doctor Wrightsays there used to be but the natives have about exterminated them. Gee,there's a beaut!" and Skeeter flopped a mate to Lucy's catch out on thegrass.
"Let's stop fishing and fry these," he suggested, "I'm awfully hungry."
"Hungry! Oh, Skeeter! I'm right uneasy about you," teased Lil.
"Well, I never did think sandwiches were very filling. Somehow theydon't stick to your ribs. Come on, Frank, we can get a fire in no time."
"How can we fry anything without lard and a pan?"
"Oh, we won't fry, we'll broil."
"We, indeed!" sniffed Lucy. "You know mighty well, you boys, that whencooking time comes, Lil and I'll have to do it. I know how to cook fishwithout a pan--learned in Camp-Fire Girls. Just run a green switchthrough the gills and lay it across on two pronged sticks stuck up oneach side of the fire. You go on and make the fire while Lil and I tryto catch some more fish. I wonder what Doctor Wright will say when wetell him we caught game fish with a bent pin tied on lingerie ribbon. Hebrought up all kinds of rods and reels and flies and whipped the streamsfor miles around and never caught anything but Helen's veil."
The trout seemed to have become sophisticated when two of their numberhad been caught and refused to be hooked any more with bent pins andlingerie ribbon, although it was pink and very attractive. The fire wentout and Lucy and Lil had to try a hand at it before it could bepersuaded to burn.
"It looks to me like fire-making must be woman's work because theycertainly can do it better than us men," said Skeeter solemnly, and theothers laughed at him until Lil slipped into the water. Only one footgot wet, however, so there was no harm done.
The fire finally burned and the two little fish, after being scaled andcleaned, were strung across on a green wand. Of course the fire had notbeen allowed to get to the proper state of red embers so the fish werewell smoked before they began to cook.
"Umm! They smell fine!" cried the famished Skeeter.
"They smell mighty like burnt fish to me," said Frank.
They tasted very like burnt fish, too, when they were finally taken fromtheir wand and the young folks drew up for the feast. They lacked saltand were burnt at the tail and raw at the head, but Skeeter picked thebones and pronounced them prime.
"I believe it's getting mighty late and we have not found Jude Hanford'scabin yet. You stop stuffing now, Skeeter, and let's get along," saidFrank, gathering up the gunnysacks and guns.
"Do you think we had better cross this stream?"
"Sure, if we go back, it will just take us home. We won't dare show ourfaces at camp unless we have at least the promise of some chickens androasting ears. I hope to carry back some in the gunnysacks."
"Of course we must go on," chorused the girls. "We are not one bit tiredand if we go on we are sure to come to Jude's cabin."
Go on they did, how far there was no telling. The path went down, down,down, but led only to another spring. The boys shot some squirrels andthe girls found a vine laden with fox grapes.
"Let's get all we can carry so we can make some jelly. Helen was wishingonly the other day she had some. They make the best jelly going," saidLucy, and so they pulled all they could reach and decided the ones thathung too high would be sour.
"Do you know I be
lieve it's most supper time--I'm getting powerfulempty," declared the insatiable Skeeter.
"Supper time! Nonsense! I betcher 'tain't three o'clock," and Frankpeered knowingly at the sun. "That mountain over yonder is so high,that's the reason the sun is getting behind it. I betcher anything ontop of the mountain it is as light as midday."
"I do wish we could find Jude's cabin. This has been the longest walkwe ever have taken," sighed Lil. "Not that I am the least bit tired."Lil was not quite so robust as Lucy, but wild horses would not drag fromher the admission that she could not keep up with her chum.
"Let's sit down a minute and rest," suggested Frank, "and kinder get ourbearings. I'm not sure but perhaps it would be less loony if we startright off for home."
The sun had set for them and it was growing quite gloomy down in thevalley where the path had finally led them. Of course they well knewthat it was shining brightly on those who were so fortunate as to be onthe heights, but the thing is they were in the depths.
"All right, let's go home," agreed Skeeter. "We will strike them atsupper, I feel sure."
They retraced their steps, stopping occasionally to argue about thetrail. There seemed to be a great many more bypaths going up themountain than they had noticed going down.
"This is right. I know, because here is the fox grape vine we strippedon the way down," cried Lucy, when there was more doubt than usualabout whether or not they were on the right road.
"Well, more have grown mighty fast," declared Skeeter. "Look, this isstill full."
"But we couldn't reach the high ones and decided like Brer Fox that theywere sour."
"Brer Fox, indeed! That wasn't Brer Fox but the one in Aesop," laughedLil.
"Well, he acted just like Brer Fox would have acted, anyhow, and I betAesop got him from Uncle Remus. But see, Lil! This isn't the same vine.We never could have skipped all these grapes. Only look what beauts!"
"We might just as well pick 'em," said Skeeter, suiting the action tothe word. "They might come in handy later on for eats if we can't findour way home."
"Not find our way home!" scoffed Frank. "Why, home is just over themountain. All we have to do is keep straight up and go down on the otherside. These paths have mixed us up but the mountain is the same oldcove. He can't mix us up."