Amy Bell Marlowe

“ There was the big bateau, its sail furled, almost over the spot where Wyn and Polly were sure the lost motor boat lay!
“Oh, dear me!” cried Bess. “Now we can’t have any fun on the raft. Those men will be in our way. What do you suppose they are poking around there in the water with those poles for?”
Wyn began to paddle fast. She shot ahead of the other girls and aimed directly for the bit of beach on which the boys’ canoes were drawn.
The noise and laughter up at the camp assured her that Tubby had arrived and that all the Busters were at home. ”

“ She remembered how badly she had been treated by Bess Lavine only that morning.
“I can’t go over there any more,” she muttered. “That girl will never forget–or let the others 154 forget–that father has been accused of being a thief. It’s a shame! A hateful shame! And we’re every bit as good as she is―”
Her gaze dropped to the tumbling wavelets between her and the distant green hillock. She was about to resume her seat and catch the tiller, which she had held steady with her knee. ”

“ As the squall threatened in the northwest, it had been observed by many on the shores of Lake Honotonka–and many on the lake itself, as well. Sailing craft had run for havens. The lake could be nasty at times and there might be more than a capful of wind in the black cloud that spread so quickly over a sky that had–an hour before–been of azure.
Had the two girls from Green Knoll Camp been observed by the watermen as they embarked in their canoes at Meade’s Forge, they might have been warned against venturing far from the shore in those cockleshells. ”

“ And I expect Polly would dislike Bess just as Bess dislikes her–and for no real reason!
“And it seems too bad. Mr. Lavine is very rich while John Jarley is very poor. Usually it is the wicked man who prospers–for a time, at least I really don’t understand this,” sighed Wyn, traveling homeward. “If Polly’s father is guilty as they believe he is, what did he do with the money he must have made by his crimes?” ”

“ They “were going back to civilization,” as Frankie said, and it made them a bit thoughtful.
“I expect,” said Mina Everett, “that we have had just the best time that we will ever have in all our lives.”
“Why so?” demanded Bess. “Can’t we go camping again?”
“Sure we will!” declared Dave Shepard.
“I see what Mina means–and I guess she is right,” Wyn remarked, earnestly. “We may go camping again; but it will never be just like this first time. For the girls, I mean. We had never done such a thing before. And then–if we go next summer–we’ll be a whole year older. And a year is a long, long time.” ”

“ AN OVERTURN
Dave Shepard had stopped the motor boat land now he hailed the pretty girl in the skiff.
“I say, Miss Jarley! did you have any luck?”
“I’ve got a good string of white perch. They love to feed among these stumps,” returned Polly.
“Oh, Polly Jolly! sell us some; will you?” cried Wyn, eagerly. “We’re so hungry.”
“Do, do!” chorused several of the other girls and boys aboard the Happy Day.
Polly, smiling, held up a long withe on which wriggled at least two dozen silvery fish. “Aren’t they beauties?” she demanded. “Wait! I’ll row out.” ”

“ This is Frank Cameron.” She kissed Polly warmly. “How fine you look, Polly! Tell me! will all we girls look as healthy and be as strong as you are, by the autumn? You’re a picture!”
“A pretty shabby one, I fear, Miss Wyn,” protested Polly, yet smiling. “I am in the very oldest clothes I have, for there is much dirty work to be done around here. We have hardly got ready for the summer yet. Father has been so lame.”
“And you must introduce me to your father, Polly,” Wyn said, quickly. “We have something for him to do–if he will be so kind.” ”

“ We must keep those men off, for they are hunting for the sunken boat, too,” concluded Wynnie.
“My goodness! how exciting!” cried Grace Hedges.
“And we’ll actually win the prize your father offered us, Bess!” gasped Percy Havel.
“I don’t see that we have had much to do with it,” said Frank. “Wyn made the discovery.”
“What is for one is for all,” declared Wynnie. “But we won’t win Mr. Lavine’s prize unless the boat is raised and the silver images are delivered to Dr. Shelton. ”

“ Polly could not go over to the camp, for both she and her father could not leave the landing at once. Some fishermen might come along at any time to hire a boat. The season was opening now, and after the “lean months” that had gone by, the Jarleys had to be on the watch for every dollar that might come their way.
“It seems an awfully hard life for such a man–and for Polly,” whispered Wyn to her companion. “I’d just love to have Polly for a member of our club.”
“So would I,” agreed Frank. “She’s just as sweet as she can be. But Bess would go right up in the air!” ”

“ She scarcely spoke to the two Denton girls as the Coquette swept across the lake. Wyn told her just how it all happened and the condition of the two canoes when they lost sight of them.
“I saw one; maybe the other can be found,” Polly said. “I’ll speak to father and, if the moon 160 comes up clear bye and bye, we’ll run out and see if we can recover them.”
But for Bess she had no word, or look, and when the other put out her hand timidly and tried to thank her, as they neared the shore, Polly only said:
“That’s all right. We’re used to helping people who get overturned. It really is nothing.” ”

“ Nearly forty canoes were “some bunch,” to quote the slangy 215 Frank, who was, by the way, just as eager as any of the other contestants.
Although Frank believed that Wyn, and perhaps Bess, as well as Polly and Grace, had a better chance than she of winning the race; there was, of course, a chance of the very best canoeist getting a spill and so being put out of the race.
It is not always the best paddler who wins; there is too much uncertainty in handling the “tippy” craft–especially in moments of excitement, and among many other similar craft. ”

“ It’s the frailties of the sex we cannot get over. You all know very well that a boy with a teenty, tinty garter-snake on the end of a stick could chase this whole crowd either into the lake, or into hysterics.”
“Shame!” cried Wyn. “That is rank treachery to the ‘manhood’ of us girls of the Go-Ahead Club.”
“You are right, Wyn,” agreed Mina. “Why, we none of us have any nerves now–but plenty of nerve, of course.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Frank, starting back suddenly. “See that! Is it a spider over your head, Mina?” ”

“ Where under the sun you girls could have hidden our canoes I don’t see. And your own haven’t been used this morning, that’s sure.”
Wyn and her mates broke into uncontrollable laughter at this.
“Who’s the joke on now?” cried Bess.
“What will you give to find your canoes?” exclaimed Frankie.
“Aw–say–don’t rub it in,” begged Tubby. “We own up to the corn. You beat us. Where are the canoes?”
“Ahem!” said Wynifred, clearing her throat loudly, and standing forth.
“Hear, hear!” cried Mina.
“Oh! you’ve got it all fixed up for us, I see,” muttered Ferd. ”

“ Two motor boats followed behind and picked up the swamped contestants.
But before Grace was picked up she saw Polly Jarley flash by in the birchbark. There were but three cedar boats ahead of the boatman’s daughter, and all were coming down the return course, the paddlers straining to do their very best.
Wyn had a splendid, even stroke; Bess was getting heated, and bit her lip as she paddled. It always hurt Bess when she lost. Up from the rear Polly urged her birchbark with long, steady heaves 219 that seemed to prove her magnificent muscles tireless. ”

“ Therefore, those two still had work on their hands when Bess sighted a motor boat coming swiftly toward their camp from the direction of Gannet Island.
“Now somebody’s going to butt in and bother us,” declared Bess. “It can’t be the Busters, I s’pose?”
“That’s exactly who it is!” cried Wyn, delightedly. “That’s the Happy Day. Dave said if his cousin, Frank Dumont, could come up here, he would bring his father’s motor boat. And he must have come yesterday when we were busy and did not see him.”
“Hurrah!” cried Frank. “A motor boat beats a canoe all to pieces.” ”

“ Wyn demanded, “with everybody talking about her father the way they do?”
“Come, girls!” commanded Mrs. Havel. “Don’t gossip. Find some other topic of conversation.”
“Ha! quite so,” cried Frank, with a grimace upon her own homely face. “A girl may be as 123 pretty as a picture and spoil it all by an ugly frame of mind. How’s that for a spark thrown from the wheel?”
“Stand back, audience!” exclaimed Dave. “Something like that is likely to happen any minute.”
“I don’t really see how the old professor gets on with you boys at all,” remarked Bessie Lavine, with a sigh. ”

“ Crisp radishes and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes added to the fare.
“Gee!” sighed Tubby, “doesn’t it take girls 180 to live right in camp? And look at those doughnuts.”
“I fried them,” cried Mina, proudly. “Mrs. Havel showed me how, though.”
“Mrs. Havel, come over to Gannet Island and teach us how to cook,” cried Dave. “We don’t have anything like this.”
“Not a sweetie except what we buy at the Forge–and that’s baker’s stuff,” complained Tubby.
“Don’t you think you boys had better be pretty good to us–if you want to come to tea–or breakfast–once in a while?” asked Wyn, pointedly. ”

“ It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of their lives. And they attended a great “vendue” too.
“I just had to write that story–I couldn’t help it,” said Miss Marlowe, when she handed in the manuscript. “I knew just such a farm when I was a little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a mystery about that place, too!”
Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale wherever good books are sold. ”

“ After father had started down to the Forge in the motor boat he knew that a storm was coming. And ahead of it was a thick fog. He told Dr. Shelton over the ’phone that it was a bad time to make the trip the whole length of Lake Honotonka.
“The doctor would not listen to any excuses, however; and it was his boat that was being risked. And his silver images, too! Those rich people don’t care much about a poor man’s life, and if father had refused to risk his on the lake in the storm Dr. Shelton would have given his trade to some other boatkeeper after that. ”

“ But Wyn Mallory knew that the Jarleys must have hoped to win the twenty-five dollar prize. The Coquette was being mentioned as a possible winner among the knowing ones about the course.
“Dr. Shelton!” she cried, tugging at the angry man’s arm. “Do you mind if Polly and I sail the boat instead?”
“Eh? You–a girl?” grunted the doctor, “Well, why not? I’ve got nothing–as I said before–against his daughter. It’s the man himself who has no business at this end of the lake. ”

“ Havel, in charge of the Go-Aheads, reported regularly to her brother-in-law, Percy’s father, the story of the overturn made a great stir among the mothers especially, whose consent to the six girls living under canvas for the summer had been gained with such difficulty.
“What do you know about this, girls?” cried Frank, on next mail day. “My mother and father are coming out here. They can stay but one night; but they say they must see with their own eyes just how we are living here.” ”

“ Tubby had emitted nothing but a series of excruciating grunts; but now, when he saw the goat making ready for another charge, he met the animal with a yell, leaping into the air with his legs a-straddle, so that the Billie ran between them, and then Tubby footed it up the gully as fast as he could travel. ”

“ So Green Knoll Camp presented a very orderly appearance when the boys and Professor Skillings appeared ahead of the bateau that was to take all their goods and chattels back to their home town.
“Goodness! aren’t you girls smart?” cried Dave Shepard, the first ashore. “Are you all ready?”
“Every bit,” declared Wyn.
“Then we can get off in the Go-Ahead at once?”
“Right,” declared Frank, laughing. “And as soon as you can teach Wyn and me how to manage the motor boat, we girls sha’n’t need you boys at all.” ”

“ The Coquette laid over and slipped away from the shore. Her last words had silenced all the girls–even Mrs. Havel herself.
Bess burst into tears. She was quite broken down, and Wyn went off with her to the tent, her arm over her shoulder, and whispering to her comfortingly.
“I don’t care. Polly’s served her right,” declared Frank Cameron.
164“I do not know that Polly can be blamed,” Mrs. Havel observed. “But–but I wish she was more forgiving. It is not for herself that she speaks, however. It is for her father.”
“And I’ll wager he’s just as nice a man as ever was,” declared Frank. ”

“ You see, I am captain of the Go-Ahead Club.”
“The Go-Ahead Club?”
“Yes. We are six girls. We each own canoes. And we are just crazy to spend next summer under canvas.”
“You are going camping?”
“That is our intention,” Wyn said, nodding.
“Oh, then! come up to Lake Honotonka,” cried Polly. “I can show you beautiful places to camp, and we can have lots of fun―”
“That likewise is our intention,” broke in Wyn. “We have just decided to camp for the summer on the shore of the lake. Rather, our parents, guardians, and the cat, have finally agreed to our plans. ”

“ On the next morning Grace and Percy were not allowed to lag over the breakfast dishes till all hours.
“This shall be no lazy girls’ camp,” declared Mrs. Havel. “The quicker you all get your tasks done, the better. Then you can have games, and go fishing, and otherwise enjoy yourselves.”
The fish-fry they had enjoyed at Cave-in-the-Wood Camp the evening before had given them all an appetite for more, and as Polly Jarley appeared early, according to promise, Wyn began 136 to bustle around and hunt out the fishing tackle. ”

“ We will have no touring car. I’ll say no more about the Go-Ahead Club.’
“Oh, you can manage the grown-ups,” concluded Frank, with a laugh, “if you go about it right.”
The bateau of stores went up the Wintinooski two days before the girls and boys were to start; yet for fear that all might not have gone right with the provisions, Wyn insisted that each member of the Go-Ahead. Club pack in her canoe the usual “day’s ration” that they had been taught should always be carried for an emergency. ”

“ And now we’ve cleaned out the cave and it’s great. All we need is some captives to take over there and chain to the rocks,” laughed Dave.
“And fatten ’em up till they’re fit to eat,” drawled Tubby Blaisdell.
“Stop it, Tub!” cried one of his mates. “We’re not going to play cannibals, but pirates.”
“Well, in either case,” declared Bess, “you will not get captives at Green Knoll Camp.”
“Is that what you call this pretty hillock?” 118 cried Dave. “Well, it is a beauty spot! And how nice you girls have made everything. Why! you don’t need any boys around at all.” ”