by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER VII THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS CHANGE THEIR MINDS
For a full minute the two camps were so convulsed with laughter that theywere unable to go to the rescue of the two unfortunate tennis players,now so thoroughly wound up in the net as to be quite helpless. The morethey tried to extricate themselves the more entangled did they become.
Then something else was discovered. Sam Crocker was seen groveling on theground, both bands clapped tightly against his face.
"What's the matter with you?" demanded Dill Dodd after the twounfortunates, bruised and sore, had been assisted out of the net.
"If you had eyes you could see without asking so many questions. She letthe racquet go when she struck at the ball and it got me. The end of thehandle hit me on the nose. It's harder than iron, too. It's broken, assure as you're alive. Oh, why did I ever permit myself to get into thisscrape?"
"That is too bad," replied Dill sympathetically. "Here we go and buy thebest racquets to be had, then you have to break one the first thing."
"What!" yelled Sam. "It wasn't the racquet that was broken, it was mynose!"
Tommy and Margery, after having escaped from the net, had sat downheavily. Sam still sat where Tommy's racquet had laid him low, nursinghis injured nose and rocking his body to and fro.
The campers screamed with laughter. He presented such a ludicrous figurethat they could not help laughing. Even Miss Elting could not hide heramusement.
"That's right. Laugh if you want to. I'd laugh myself if I weren't afraidof ruining my nose forever. They deserve to be laughed at," he declaredangrily.
"We aren't laughing at Tommy and Margery, we are laughing at you," criedCrazy Jane.
Harriet, in the meantime, had brought a basin of water and, kneelingdown, was washing the blood from Sam's damaged nasal organ. As she wipedaway the blood she observed that his nose was leaning slightly to oneside. Dill, who had been an interested spectator, had observed the samething.
"Out of plumb, isn't it?" he questioned quizzically.
"It's broken. Didn't I tell you it was?" groaned Sam. "I may not knoweverything, but I know my own nose and I know when it's broken."
The guardian stepped over to where Sam and Harriet were sitting. Sheexamined Sam's nose carefully.
"If you twitht it a little you can tell whether it ith broken or not,"suggested Tommy.
Sam yelled in anguish at the thought.
"Don't you dare try it!"
"Never mind Tommy. She is just a little savage," chuckled Harriet."Neither Miss Elting nor I would give you the slightest unnecessarypain."
"That sounds very well, Harriet. I fear, however, that I shall have togive Sam quite a little pain," said the guardian.
"What are you going to do?" cried Sam.
"First straighten your nose, then bolster it so it will stay straight."
"Shall I get the tent pole?" asked Dill eagerly.
"Don't wear out my patience, fellows," warned Sam. "I'm a wounded man,I'm a desperate man and I'm not wholly responsible for what I say or do.Are--are you going to twist it, Miss Elting?"
"I shouldn't call it that. I am going to shape it, to mould it, restoreit to its natural shape as nearly as I can, then secure it there withadhesive plaster."
"Yeth, that ith the way," agreed Tommy, nodding eagerly. "Let me helpyou, Mith Elting."
"You will please keep away from me. Haven't you done enough damage as itis?" demanded Sam.
"That ith what I get for trying to be helpful," answered Tommy in anaggrieved tone. "Any one would think I had broken your nothe on purpothe.I didn't break it at all; the racquet broke it."
"Never mind him. He doesn't know what he is talking about," soothedGeorge. "Shall I hold his hands while you are making temporary repairs,Miss Elting?"
"If you boys will go way back somewhere and sit down, we'll have the jobdone in a few minutes," suggested Jane.
"Yes, please do not interfere," urged the guardian. "Now, don't jerk,Sam. I am going to straighten your nose."
Sam winced as she pressed his nose back to its normal position, and hishands gripped a handful of dirt from the tennis court, but he uttered nosound. While the guardian held the nose in place she instructed HarrietBurrell how to place the adhesive plaster, which Harriet did withdelicate, skilful fingers.
"Does it hurt much?" asked the girl sympathetically.
"Hurt? Oh, no. It is the pleasantest sensation I ever enjoyed. That'swhat I'm trying to make myself believe," he added, speaking thickly, soas not to strain the muscles of his face. "But how am I going tobreathe?"
"You have your mouth left," laughed Harriet.
"There," announced the guardian finally, "I don't believe a surgeon couldhave done better. How do you think he looks, boys?"
The boys gathered about Sam, hands thrust into their trousers pockets,and regarded him solemnly.
"I gueth," smiled Tommy, "if you would thtand him up in a cornfield hewould thcare all the crowth away. He lookth jutht like a thcare crow,doethn't he?"
"Just what I was going to suggest," added Dill. "He'd scare the crows allright and the owner of the corn patch, too."
"Is that all?" asked Sam, dolefully.
"I think so." The guardian smiled down into the boyish face.
"I wish I could see how I look."
Tommy ran into the tent, returning quickly with a hand mirror, which shehanded to the boy she had unwittingly wounded.
"Look out that your face doesn't break it," warned Dill.
"If my face doesn't, your head may," retorted Sam sharply.
"Well, what do you think of it?" asked Dill Dodd with a grin.
"Think? Why, I think I should rather have my face than yours right thisminute."
This thrust restored Sam to good humor once more. His companions and thegirls joined in the laugh at Dodd's expense. The boys had replaced thenet, but the hour was too late to think of having further practice.Harriet said they must begin to prepare their supper. The boys decidedthat it was time they were getting back to camp and starting their ownevening meal. They declined an invitation to remain and take supper withthe Meadow-Brook party. Harriet begged them to sit down a little whileuntil the fire was fairly started. Instead, they placed the wood andstarted the fire for her, after which Hazel, whose turn it was to getsupper that night, promptly set about her task.
Captain Baker relapsed into his gloomy state again. The recollection ofthe miserable failure of all his carefully laid plans rankled in hismind. He knew now that the girls were not deceiving him when they saidthey knew nothing about tennis playing. He had never seen a more pitifulexhibition than that of the afternoon; he hoped never to see another likeit.
"Well, I'll have to tell Herrington, I suppose," he said, after remainingsilent for several minutes. "But I'll tell you truly, I'd rather bekicked all the way down to Newtown and back than to do it."
"If you prefer I will write to Mr. Herrington myself and explain why itis impossible for the girls to enter the tournament," suggested MissElting demurely.
"Never!" exclaimed George with strong emphasis. "I'm not quite such anamby-pamby as to hide behind a woman's skirts. I'll face the music, I'llswallow my medicine and make a maple syrup face while I'm swallowing thebitter stuff. I'm going right down to-morrow and have the disagreeablejob over."
His companions had also relapsed into their former attitude of dejection.The full weight of their disappointment came back with overwhelmingforce.
"I wish I could talk without danger of cracking my face. I'd like to makea few remarks just at this time," said Sam, talking as if he had a hotpotato in his mouth.
"Try the sign language," suggested Dill teasingly.
"All right, I will," mumbled Sam Crocker, snatching up a pail of waterand hurling it at Dill, who succeeded in eluding all except a few dropsthat rained over his head and down his neck.
"That's a sign of my displeasure. Want any further signs? There areplenty of them left over yonder in the
spring, if the ladies will kindlylend us the water pail."
"No, no more signs," replied Dill, backing away, laughing. "I would muchprefer that you remain quiet. Be as silent as a clam, if you like. I'llnot criticise you."
"I thought you wouldn't like the sign language after you'd felt it,"snarled Sam.
"When did you say the tournament is to be held?" questioned Harrietmysteriously.
"Five weeks from to-day," answered George Baker. "Why?" He was eyeing heralmost suspiciously.
"We have been wanting something to do, something to occupy our time andkeep us out of mischief, ever since we came up here to camp. I have beenthinking it over, thinking of your thoughtfulness and kindness, and foryour sakes, boys, I for one propose that we girls set to work and learnthe game. We surely ought to be able to accomplish something in fiveweeks. Don't you believe we can?"
"You--you--you mean that you _will_ play in the tournament?"
Harriet nodded.
"Yeow!" howled Captain George Baker, at which his companions came runningtoward him. "They're going to play, they're going to play!" he shouted."Hi-diddie-um-dum, hi-diddie-um-dum!" he sang, dancing about as though hehad taken sudden leave of his senses.
"What do you say, girls?" questioned Harriet, glancing about at hercompanions.
"We say whatever you do. You are the captain of the Meadow-Brook Girlsjust as Captain Baker is captain of the Tramp Club," answered Jane.
"Then we will play." Harriet nodded with an emphasis that left no doubtas to her earnestness. "You shall teach us to play and we will do therest."
"Of course we expect to be beaten badly," sighed Hazel. "But we shallmake good your entry for us, so that you boys will not be open to anyaccusation except that of bad tennis judgment and too great faith in thepowers of the Meadow-Brook Girls," she added with a bright little laugh.
Harriet Burrell sprang to her feet, eyes snapping.
"Wrong!" she flashed.
"What?" groaned George.
"Oh, we'll enter the tournament, but not to lose. We'll enter to win,boys!"
__A few seconds of impressive silence followed Harriet Burrell's bolddeclaration, then such a shout rose from the throats of the boys of theTramp Club as perhaps never had been heard in those woods before.