Sophie noticed Elizabeth and Margaret exchanging disgusted looks. Why did Ginette have to do things like that?
“We mustn’t get too spread out, so let’s try to catch up to the other cabins. Come on,” Miss Rosy urged, starting up the path again.
“Let’s go, Ginette!” Sophie demanded. “I’m not getting behind again.”
Ginette left the salmonberries reluctantly, wiping her juicy chin with the back of her hand. As they continued hiking up the hill, the path became steeper and narrower. They came to a muddy section around which they had to detour in single file.
Margaret asked in a whiny voice, “When will we get to the lake? I’m tired.”
“We’re about halfway there,” Miss Rosy said.
“Only halfway!” Elizabeth wailed. “My feet are aching and so are my legs.”
Miss Rosy started singing, “Oh, it’s a long way to Tipperary. It’s a long way to go...”
Sophie was still at the end of the line, but she joined in the singing with her loud voice. If there were any bears around, they would definitely head the other way. When Miss Rosy finished the song, Sophie sang out, “I love to go a-wandering.”
Miss Rosy began singing, too, and soon all the girls were chiming in with “Valleree, Valieran...”
After a while, Sophie felt too hot, so she took off her jacket and tied it around her waist by the sleeves. But then the strings from the heavy bag of oranges dug into her shoulder, so she had to carry it in her hand.
Ginette was holding her drawstring bag in her hand, as well. In fact, her whole hand was in the bag. And she was chewing!
“Sacré bleu, Ginette!” Sophie hissed. “You’re not eating that banana loaf, are you?”
Ginette pulled her hand out of the bag and hid it behind her back. She stopped chewing.
“That loaf was to share with everyone,” Sophie whispered. “You’re supposed to be carrying it, not eating it!”
Ginette swallowed hard and stared at the ground guiltily. “J’ai faim. So hungry,” she mumbled.
“We’ll be there soon and having lunch. You have to wait, just like everyone else. Here, I’d better carry that banana loaf or there’ll be none left by the time we get to the end of the trail.” She took the canvas bag from Ginette. Now she had two bags to carry. The oranges and the banana bread. Plus her towel. She slung one bag over each shoulder. “Here, take my towel,” she told Ginette. “At least you can’t eat that.”
Frowning, Ginette put Sophie’s towel over her shoulders.
Although the sun was behind the clouds, Sophie felt hot and sticky. Her back was wet, and sweat trickled down her sides. She was just thinking about taking off her sweater when the hikers stopped.
“Finally we’re here,” Elizabeth said, panting. Her cheeks were as red as her hair ribbon.
“Almost,” Miss Rosy said. “The lake is just around the next corner. But first I want to show you this magnificent view.”
From the edge of the trail they could see right down the mountain, over the deep green treetops, all the way to the sea.
“Wow!” Peggy said. “Are those the islets we passed on our way to camp? They sure look small from here.”
“Right. And way across the water,” Miss Rosy said, pointing, “is Howe Sound. And that’s Porteau Cove where we boarded the boat yesterday.”
“Porteau?” Ginette asked.
“Yes, Porteau Cove. See, it’s not that far at all.”
Ginette nodded and stared hard at the cove and the misty north shore mountains behind it. Her pale eyes glittered.
As they hiked the rest of the way, the girls all sang, “Oh, we’re here because we’re here, because we’re here.”
Sophie sang, as well, but she was sure glad to get to the lake. The strings from the load of oranges were digging into her shoulder like knife blades.
“Who wants to go for a dip in the lake before lunch?” Miss Rosy called out.
“Me! I do!” Sophie cried with the rest of the girls. She dropped the drawstring bags on the pile of food near a log and pulled off her sweater, shorts, and shoes, then followed the other girls along the short dirt path to the lake. It was a small lake of brownish water surrounded by water plants, ferns, and overhanging trees. The girls from the other two cabins were already in the water, splashing and shrieking.
“Eeou!” Elizabeth squealed. “The bottom’s all muddy and squishy!”
“Eeou!” Margaret echoed her. “There are probably leeches!”
Miss Rosy said, “No, there aren’t any leeches. Don’t be such scaredy-cats, you two.”
“We can go this way,” Sophie said, balancing her way along an evergreen tree that had fallen into the water near the lake’s edge. She tiptoed along the broad trunk, holding out her arms like a tightrope walker. The bark was rough under her feet. When she came to the bushy crown of the tree, she took a quick breath, held her nose, and leaped into the water. It splashed up around her, surprisingly warm. She bobbed to the surface and yelled, “Come on in, you guys. The water’s great!” She floated on her back and gazed up at the sky. Puffy white clouds skidded across.
Betty and Brenda soon followed her.
“Just a minute, Sophie!” Miss Rosy called out. “Come back here, please. I want to talk to you.”
Sophie pulled herself back up onto the tree trunk and returned to shore.
“Did you forget you’re supposed to stay with your buddy, Sophie?”
“But Ginette doesn’t want to go swimming. She never does. Can’t I swim with Brenda and Betty?”
“I guess so. Ginette, you stay here with the picnic. You can look after it for us,” Miss Rosy told her.
Sophie didn’t think it was such a great idea to put Ginette in charge of the lunch. She would probably eat the whole banana loaf and anything else she could get her hands on. But Sophie wanted so badly to go for a swim in that lovely water that she merely shrugged and headed back to the lake.
At the edge of the water both Elizabeth and Margaret were still squealing about mud and leeches, but Betty and Brenda loved swimming in the warm water as much as Sophie did. They took turns jumping off the end of the tree trunk and splashing around. Sophie floated on her back. Yes! This was what camp was all about!
After a while, Miss Rosy cried out, “Lunchtime, everyone! Come on in. Let’s have our picnic. I’m starving.”
Sophie followed Brenda and Betty back along the tree truck to the log where they had put their extra clothes and the food.
“Two of these big buttered buns and a hard-boiled egg each,” Miss Rosy said, passing around the food. “Yum! So delicious! And nutritious!”
Sophie agreed. She pulled her towel around her back and took a giant bite of her egg sandwich. Delicious, all right. She hadn’t realized how famished she was until she started eating.
Miss Rosy handed out the oranges. “And don’t forget to drink plenty of water,” she said, pouring water from the canteens into their tin cups. “Now for our dessert. Mrs. Carson’s famous banana loaf. What a treat! Hmm. Where is it? Has anyone seen the banana loaf?”
Sophie caught her breath as everyone searched under the mound of towels and clothes for the banana loaf. Ginette sat there with the hood of her yellow raincoat pulled over her head and her hands behind her back. She seemed very uncomfortable.
“Here it is!” Peggy pounced and grabbed the drawstring bag from behind Ginette. She peered into the bag. “What’s left of it, anyway,” she said, dumping out the rest of the loaf.
Sophie was so embarrassed that she didn’t know where to look. Ginette had eaten almost half the big loaf!
“What do you expect from a dumb DP, anyway?” Margaret snorted.
“Margaret, that was very unkind!” Miss Rosy scolded. “We don’t call people names. I want you to apologize.”
Margaret was mad, but she muttered, “Sorry,” to Ginette, her lips barely moving.
Ginette didn’t look up from the ground.
Disappointed, Miss Rosy said, “Oh, Gine
tte, the banana loaf was to share with everyone.”
Ginette pulled her hood tighter and kept her eyes lowered.
“Well, there’s still enough for a slice each,” Miss Rosy said, opening her pocketknife. She cut the rest of the loaf into thin slices and passed them around.
“No thanks,” Sophie said. She couldn’t take any. The girls probably thought that it was just as much her fault as Ginette’s.
EIGHT
On their way back down the mountain, Sophie made sure to stay close to her cabin mates. She hurried Ginette along. They were about halfway down, near the place they had stopped to pick salmonberries, when Miss Rosy halted abruptly.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Get out! Get out of here!” She clapped loudly. “It’s a bear! Make as much noise as you can, girls!”
Sophie’s heart throbbed in her throat. She joined the other girls, yelling and clapping. “Get out of here, bear! Go away!” She picked up a stick and slashed the bushes. “Go away!”
There was a sudden rustle, and a dark, shadowy shape scampered deep into the bushes. Must be the escaping bear, Sophie thought. She yelled even louder.
“That’s it, girls!” Miss Rosy said. “He’s gone now. We scared him off. Well done! Oh, watch out. Don’t step in that.” She pointed at a round plop on the ground beside the salmonberry bushes.
“What’s that?” Margaret asked.
“Bear scat,” Miss Rosy said.
“What’s scat?”
“You know. His droppings.”
“Eeou!” Margaret squealed, and so did all the other girls.
“Let’s hurry and get back to camp,” Miss Rosy told them. “And everyone sing as loud as you can.”
“We’ll be coming round the mountain when we come,” Sophie shouted out with her cabin mates.
When they got back down the mountain to camp, everything was in an uproar.
“Where’s Danny?” Mrs. Carson asked. “He’s missing! No one’s seen him since breakfast. Have you girls seen him?”
Sophie gulped. The glimpse of red she had seen flashed through her mind. Maybe Danny had tried to follow them and got lost in the woods. He could be anywhere. The bear! She gulped again. Should she say something?
“Such a cute little guy!” one girl said.
“What if that bear got him?” Peggy said, her eyes huge.
“Bear?” Miss Bottomly asked.
“We think we might have seen a bear on our way down the mountain,” Miss Rosy told her.
“Oh, dear!” Miss Bottomly said, her hand over her mouth.
People began dashing all over the place.
Miss Bottomly clapped her hands for everyone’s attention. “Girls,” she said in her loud, stern voice, “stop this instant. There’s no point getting into a panic.”
Everyone froze to listen to her.
“Let’s have a plan,” Miss Bottomly went on. “First, and let me emphasize this, stay with your buddy. Especially now. Girls from cabins one and two, I want you to check the beach area and around the mess hall. Girls from cabin three, check all the cabins, including under all the beds. Danny may have crawled under one of the bunks and fallen asleep. And girls from cabins four and five, you have the toughest job. I want you to search the woods along the trail from here to the lake. Everyone report back to the flagpole in one hour at five o’clock. If we do find Danny, we’ll ring the bell. Again, please stay with your counsellors, your cabin mates, and your buddies at all times. Hurry now.”
The girls and their counsellors dispersed. The girls from cabin four turned around and headed back up the lake trail, following Miss Rosy. Sophie was right behind her.
“I have an idea,” Sophie said to the counsellor.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but I think Danny might have started to follow us when we were going up to the lake.”
“Did you see him?”
“Well, not exactly. Not really. I noticed a flash of red when we turned onto the trail.”
“And you didn’t say anything?”
“I know I should have, but you guys were way up ahead, so we had to catch up. And then...and then I just forgot about it, I guess.”
“Oh, Sophie! What if Danny did try to follow you and got lost in these woods? He could be anywhere. There are miles and miles of trails in these woods. And that bear...”
Sophie didn’t know what to say. She had a big lump in her throat and fought back tears. She could barely swallow. “Maybe he turned left at the fork where we went right?” she suggested.
“Come on, girls,” Miss Rosy said. “We’ve got to hurry. It looks like the girls from cabin five are going straight up to the lake, so let’s try this lower trail first. And keep making plenty of noise.”
The girls got long sticks and rushed along the trail. They poked into the underbrush and ferns to search. “Danny!” they called loudly. “Danny! Where are you?”
Sophie’s heart beat frantically. She shouted until her throat ached. If that bear got Danny, it would be all her fault. She slashed at the bushes and yelled even louder.
“Gently now,” Miss Rosy cautioned. “We wouldn’t want to hurt him if he was in there.”
They checked all the underbrush between their cabin and the start of the lake trail, but found nothing. Sophie felt more and more panicky by the minute.
“Let’s try this trail,” Miss Rosy said. “Be sure to keep together, no matter what.”
It wasn’t long before Ginette let out a gasp and tugged at Sophie’s arm. “Sophie! Regardes! Look!” she squeaked, pointing at a patch of red under a thick bush.
Sophie pushed through the underbrush and stared. Danny! He was curled into a ball behind a moss-covered rock, fast asleep. She breathed deeply and grinned at Ginette. “Miss Rosy!” she cried out. “We found him! Ginette found Danny! He’s right here! And he’s okay. The bear didn’t get him.”
Everyone rushed over and peered into the bush.
Danny stirred at the sound of their voices, then opened his eyes. He nearly jumped when he saw everyone gaping at him.
“Hi, Danny,” Sophie said quietly, bending down. “We’re sure glad we found you.”
Danny looked disappointed. “I thought this was the best hiding spot ever.”
“It was a great hiding place, Danny,” Miss Rosy said, brushing the dirt and twigs off his red shirt and pants and from his curly hair. She gave him a big hug. “It was too good. You gave us all a terrible scare. We thought you were lost.”
He shook his head. “Me? I’d never get lost. But I sure am hungry. When’s lunch?”
The girls all laughed.
“Hey, want a shoulder ride back to the mess hall?” Sophie offered.
Danny nodded enthusiastically as Sophie stooped. He climbed onto her shoulders, and she carried him down the trail to camp.
When Mrs. Carson saw them coming, she ran up to Sophie. “Danny! Danny!” she shouted. When Sophie let him down from her shoulders, Mrs. Carson scooped him up, not knowing whether to hug him or scold him, so she did both at the same time.
Supper of fried chicken and baked potatoes and chocolate cake for dessert was a bit late that evening, but when it came, everyone enjoyed it all the more. Especially Sophie. But the best part, besides finding Danny safe, was that everyone seemed to have forgotten that Ginette had been such a hog and had eaten most of the banana loaf.
That night the girls in cabin four took forever to settle down. It had started raining again, and the wind was howling among the tall, swaying trees, but the bunks in the cabins were cozy and warm.
“Go to sleep, you guys,” Miss Rosy begged for about the fifth time. “I’m exhausted. Please, please, please, go to sleep! Okay, the next person to make a sound will be stuck outside in the rain.”
That shut the girls up, except for a bit of giggling. But soon even the giggling stopped, and all Sophie could hear was the rain swishing against the roof and the windows rattling in their frames. She tossed in her bunk and tried to find a comfort
able spot for her head on the towel-covered flashlight that was her lumpy pillow. Finally she fell into a deep sleep.
After a long time, the bunk moved, jolting Sophie awake. It took her a few seconds to realize it was Ginette climbing down the ladder from the upper bunk. The cabin door squeaked open and clicked closed.
She must be going to the washroom, Sophie thought. She turned her face to the wall and curled her legs, but she couldn’t get back to sleep. The whole cabin was totally dark, and except for someone snoring softly in the bunk across the room from her, and the wind blowing rain against the roof, it was silent.
Sophie sighed deeply and pulled her blanket around her back more tightly. She held her breath and waited for Ginette to return, but she didn’t.
Maybe the girl had taken the wrong path and got lost. It was so dark and stormy out there. She probably didn’t even have a flashlight. Sophie thought she’d better check on Ginette. Besides, now she had to go to the bathroom, too.
Sophie grabbed her rain jacket and shuffled into her running shoes. She fished out her flashlight from inside her towel and tiptoed to the door. Silently she opened it, went out, and shut it with a quiet click. Now she was glad Maman had insisted that she take her warm flannelette nightgown, even though it was decorated with dancing reindeers and came only to her knees.
She pulled her jacket hood over her head and started down the path to the washroom, following a wet tunnel of raindrops lit by her flashlight. The wind had picked up and was moaning through the tall evergreen trees. Sophie had to hold on to her hood to keep it on. She squinted as cold raindrops blew into her face.
A single oil lamp, swaying slightly from the ceiling above the row of sinks, illuminated the washroom and cast shifting shadows along the concrete floor. “Ginette? Are you here?” Sophie whispered loudly into the dimness.
No answer.
She checked the toilet cubicles, but Ginette wasn’t there.
Strange, Sophie thought. After using the toilet, she left the cabin and searched outside. A movement down at the dock caught her eye. That was odd. Someone was on the dock near the canoes. Sophie hurried down. As she ran, she saw that the wind had blown up the water in the cove into pale frothy whitecaps.
Sophie's Friend in Need Page 6