by Keineth(Lit)
jaw and the all-understanding warmth of her dark eyes told of the
character which made her a leader of others and a spirit beloved among
them all.
Each new day of the camp life brought to Keineth some new experience,
thrilling in its strangeness to the little girl. She had learned to
love going to sleep with the great, star-lit vault of the sky
enveloping her; the singing of the "bugs," as Peggy had put it, was
fairy music to her ears; she had conquered her first terror of the
shell-like canoes and now could paddle with confidence, even venturing
alone upon the shallow water. And to her own surprise she was enjoying
the companionship of the other girls!
Among them was one named Stella Maybeck. Stella was not an attractive
girl--she was too tall and too thin, her voice was loud and her manners
a little careless. She had big, dark eyes with a hungry look in their
depths. She adored Ricky and showed a preference for Keineth's company.
At first Keineth felt a little repelled by the girl's rough ways, but
gradually she grew to feel that beneath them was a warm, kind heart and
that it was, perhaps, shyness that often made Stella's manner
disagreeable.
They walked together on the tramps into the woods and Keineth enjoyed
the fund of knowledge the other girl seemed to have concerning all the
little woodland creatures and their ways.
"I don't see why you like to be with Stella Maybeck," Peggy had said to
her one day. "I think she is horrid!" she finished unkindly.
"Why, Peggy!" Keineth frowned. It was very unfair in Peggy to speak in
this way concerning one of the other girls. Keineth did not suspect
that perhaps a little jealousy prompted Peggy's ungraciousness.
This little cloud was to grow over the whole camp. And in the second
week Ricky's girls learned a lesson of greater value to them than all
the scoutcraft they loved.
Twice a week the vegetable man came to the camp with fruit and
vegetables. These the girls placed in the storehouse, one of them
carefully checking off the purchases as they did so. One morning some
oranges were reported missing. Ricky paid little attention to the
incident. The next day one of the girls came to her and announced that
a ring had been taken from her sleeping tent. Although disturbed, Miss
Grimball gently rebuked the girl for having disobeyed the camp rules in
bringing jewelry to it and sent her away, bidding her speak to no one
of her loss.
Then Miss Grimballs silver purse containing ten dollars in bills was
taken from her desk!
Like a flash the story spread through the camp. The girls gathered in
an excited group. Keineth and Stella, with arms locked, stood together.
From the other side of the group Peggy saw them. The jealousy that had
been slumbering within her heart suddenly gripped her.
"Well, I think I could guess who did it, all right, and I just think
it's a shame for anyone like that to I dare to come to Ricky's camp!"
It was not necessary to do more than fix her gaze indignantly upon
Stella Maybeck. With a little gasp Stella turned and ran into her tent.
The others pressed closer to Peggy.
"Oh, do you think so?" they whispered in awed voices.
"Peggy!" cried Keineth, imploringly.
"I'm not going to say another word," Peggy answered, perhaps a little
frightened at what she had done.
The girls waited breathlessly for Miss Grimball to take some action in
the matter. Each felt that the disgrace must be wiped from the happy
camp life.
At noon Ricky's whistle sounded. The girls assembled on the gymnasium
ground. Their captain stood before them, dear-eyed, smiling at them all
with her usual confidence. Stella, with Keineth, had joined the others
and stood in the background.
"I think you all know what has happened. I am disturbed, but I will not
suspect one of my girls. All I want to say is this--so great is my
trust in your loyalty, in your honor, and in your sense of what is
square--if one of you, through an unfortunate yielding to temptation,
has taken these things that have been lost, they will be returned,
because you are girls of honor. So I am not worrying. Now, please do
not talk of the matter among yourselves."
The routine of the day went on. The girls avoided Stella; only Keineth
kept close to her side. Keineth longed to pour out to Stella her
confidence in her innocence and her indignation at Peggy, but a certain
pride in Stella's manner forbade it; she could not find the right
words, so she simply occasionally squeezed Stella's hand!
In this way two unhappy days passed. Then on the third morning Peggy,
crossing the path leading to the kitchen, saw Jim Crow scurrying toward
the wood with a spoon in his mouth! On tip-toe she followed him.
Turning off from the trail near the edge of the woodland, he stood for
a moment as though listening, then dropped his treasure into the hollow
trunk of a dead tree!
And there Peggy, following the rascal, found the oranges, the ring, and
Ricky's silver purse!
In that moment when Peggy stood alone among the trees, the stolen
things in her hands, she learned a lesson that she could never forget!
She walked slowly back to Miss Grimball's office and told her the story
of Jim and of her own unjust accusation of Stella.
"We should have suspected Jim, the villain," Ricky laughed. "Another
chapter in scoutcraft, Peggy. Will you go, my dear, and tell Stella?"
Then she gently put her hand upon Peggy's head, "Judge not, my dear,"
and, leaning, she kissed her.
Peggy rushed off in search of Stella. She found her sitting on the
dock, a picture of misery, Keineth by her side.
"Stella, I was a wicked, wicked girl! It was Jim Crow stole the things,
and I found them in an old tree and I wouldn't blame you if you never
forgave me! I think the reason I was so horrid was because I was just
_jealous_ that Ken loved you more than she did me--" For lack of breath
Peggy stopped, her soul clean from her confession.
A great joy came into Stella's dark eyes. She held out her hand and
Peggy caught it in a tight grip.
"Now I'm going to call all the girls together and tell them the whole
story and that I'm just terribly ashamed." She ran from them, her hands
to her mouth, loudly giving the call of the camp. There was great
rejoicing at Camp-Wish-no more. The cloud of suspicion had lifted. The
girls could not be nice enough to Stella, and for the first time she
seemed to lose her shyness and awkwardness among them. Then Ricky
decided that, in order to entirely forget the whole thing, they would
go on an all-night hike to the old mill on Cobble Hill.
"Hooray--hooray!" went up from eager throats.
"Three cheers for Stella!"
"Three cheers for Peggy!" they cried again.
"Down with Jim Crow!"
That night, under the stars, Keineth snuggled close to Peggy. She had
asked to be Peggy's blanket mate.
"You're all right, Peg," she whispered, Billy-fashion, "and I do love
you most
of all!"
CHAPTER XIV
THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
"Sport's Week" had begun at the Shore Club. The excitement of it
gripped the Lee family. Each talked of the game in which he or she was
most interested and no one listened to the other. Barbara, with an
absorbed air, mentally played the shots she would make when on Friday
she would meet in the final round of match play for the championship
title her old foe, Carol Day. Peggy had no thought for anything but the
swimming contest. Mr. Lee was chairman of the committee on arrangements
and spent most of his time at the telephone. Mrs. Lee did her part in
the decorating of the club-house and went about with her arms full of
gay bunting and her mouth full of pins.
And Keineth shared the excitement! For she had qualified in the
children's tennis tournament and would play in the doubles and had
drawn Billy for her partner!
It was her first real contest! Secretly she shivered with fright but
outwardly tried to appear calm like Peggy. All the day before the
tennis matches began she went about with her racquet in her hand as
though to accustom her trembling fingers to its hold.
Though Billy, since the day he had tried to make Keineth confide in him
the story of her father's absence, had maintained toward her a scornful
indifference, he had accepted her as a partner because there was no
alternative. But he managed to convey to her that he considered it an
unfair indignity that he should be so handicapped. And he talked
entirely of the paddling races.
However, Keineth could not be discouraged. In her mind was one thought
only--they _must_ win! For, each day, in her room she was writing a
careful account of all that happened to send to her Daddy, and failure
could have no part in the story.
And in the very first match they defeated Molly Sawyer and Joe Gary!
Margaret Dale, playing with Charlie Myers had, after a hard game,
beaten Grace Schuyler and Merton Day. Then Keineth and Billy played
against them. It was a close match; the courts were circled by an
interested crowd of onlookers. Though Billy had had to play with all
his skill to meet Charlie Myers' strength of volley, he knew that
Keineth had more than done her part, too.
"She played way over her head," he answered sullenly to the praise his
family bestowed upon her.
One more set put them in the final match against Jim Downer and his
sister Helen. A taste of victory had given to Keineth a poise that
steadied her in her game; this matching of strength, skill and
quickness--something she had never known before--had developed a
surprising confidence in herself. Her joy was not in the defeat of
their opponents, rather in her own mastery of all those things which
for so long she had been trying to learn!
"Good luck to you, kiddies," Mr. Lee had said to them at the breakfast
table. "Play your best and then you won't mind if you are defeated. And
if the other fellows play better, don't think up any excuses--it's
something to be good losers!"
In the brief moment of waiting before the final match began, Keineth,
standing quietly near the courts, thought how different she was from
the funny little girl who had come to Overlook two months before. She
knew now what her father had meant when he had told her that that old
life, with him and Tante in the old house, had cheated her out of the
other things children had. He had been right He would be pleased, now,
to know the part she was taking with the others.
The judges called the match; Keineth caught her breath and ran on to
the court. She gave one whispered word to Billy.
"We've _got_ to win!"
Billy had not enjoyed Keineth's sudden rise into fame. He felt less
tolerant and the old grudge flamed into being. If they won now--and
everyone said they would--they'd all think it was Keineth that had won
it. They'd make an awful fuss over her--they always did over girls--and
there'd be no living with either her or Peggy. He could throw the game,
just fall down on one or two returns and no one would know the
difference! He felt very sure of winning the paddling races and what
did he care about the tennis match, anyway?--it'd be different if they
were the real matches, but they were just for children. These thoughts
ran through his mind as he swung his racquet backward and forward in
the air, a heavy scowl wrinkling his face.
And Keineth's confident "We've got to win" had been the last drop in
his cup of annoyance.
The first two games were slow, a little volleying and a good many
"outs." Someone called from the gallery, "Warm up!" Keineth threw her
head back with an answering smile, for she recognized Mr. Lee's voice.
Their opponents won the third game against a thirty. That spurred
Keineth; the fourth game was faster with some hot volleying and pretty
returns and won by Keineth and Billy in a quickly mounting score.
Excited, Keineth did not notice that Billy had not returned one or two
balls with his usual skill.
The next, a deuce game, was hotly contested. Her face ablaze with
interest, Keineth held her little body tensely poised on one toe, ready
for instant action. The faces of the crowd around her blurred into
nothing--there seemed only left in her small world those two beyond the
net!
The next game was bewildering. Keineth played desperately, but they had
only won thirty points when the others made the game! The set stood
four to two in Keineth's favor, but their opponents were playing
stronger with each game.
In the seventh game Billy dropped off shamelessly. He was never quite
ready. Before Keineth realized the situation the others had won and won
easily!
"Billy!" Keineth whispered imploringly. The indifferent look on Billy's
face struck terror to her heart. What _was_ the matter with him?
The next game Keineth won alone--if Billy could not play she'd play for
him! Her little teeth, clenched tight together, gleamed white through
her parted lips. The crimson of her cheeks mounted into her fair hair.
"What a picture!" Mrs. Lee whispered to her husband. She was not
thinking of the game at all. "What a spirit! Think, William, what that
can mean in this world when the child's grown up!"
"That's just why this sort of sport is good for them," Mr. Lee
whispered back. "But what is the matter with Billy?"
That is what Keineth wondered, too. They had won five games--they
_must_ win the next and set! Walking close to Billy she confronted him,
her face ablaze. For just a moment they looked hard into one another's
eyes; not a boy and girl, the one proudly conscious of his boyhood and
two years' difference in age, the other a very young and all-admiring
girl--but just two mortals contesting together against two others.
And at last they, Keineth and Billy, met on equal ground--Keineth had
proven her mettle--let Billy show his! Keineth's clear, straightforward
gaze made Billy drop his eyes in sudden shame.
"Play square," she said sternly.
And Billy played square! Their
opponents had not a chance!
"Well, Billy did wake up," some one said and some one else added: "If
they'd lost it would have been his fault. That Randolph girl played a
corking game for her age!"
They had won the tennis tournament! Keineth did not enjoy half so much
the silver cup they placed in her hands as she did Peggy's delight and
Mr. Lee's hearty handclasp of congratulation. The young people carried
them off to luncheon at the club-house, where they made merry far into
the afternoon.
That evening Billy, with a very serious face, approached his father,
where he sat alone on the veranda.
"Dad, I've withdrawn my name from the paddle races!"
"What's wrong, son?"
"I'm not a good sport--that's why," Billy answered with his usual
frankness. "I had a sort of grudge against Keineth because she wouldn't
tell me about her father and I'd vowed to get even and I just laid down
on that tennis game--until she made me ashamed!"
"But she did make you ashamed, Billy?"
"Yes--she told me to play square and I just thought then that no one
would ever have to tell me to play square more than once!"
Mr. Lee laid his arm across the boy's shoulder.
"Laddie--these games we play teach us a lot, don't they? There is
something in them more than fun and more than the health they give!
You've learned a motto to-day that you can pin on your shield when you