Hildegard G. Frey

“ The good-byes were all said and the yacht began to back away from the dock. Katherine looked after it with hungry eyes as it steamed away into the sunset, carrying with it the friends that had meant to her all that was bright and happy about her school days. She looked until the waving handkerchiefs were a blur in the distance, and the white form of the Sea Gull itself faded from view.
Then she squared her shoulders, held up her head, and grasping the umbrella as if it were the sword Excalibur, turned and followed Nyoda across the dock toward the railway station. ”

“ In the next tent she encountered the same sleepy protest. “I didn’t think we went out when it was misty,” said Migwan, regretfully leaving the warm embrace of her blankets.
“I’m so comfortable,” sighed Nakwisi.
Katherine stood in the doorway with arms akimbo and delivered her mind. “What kind of sports are you, anyway? Just because it’s cold and misty you want to stay in bed all day and sleep. It’s no test of energy to get out on a fine morning and paddle a canoe, that’s pure fun; a cold, wet day is the real test of sportsmanship. ”

“ You’ll have some fun even if your aunt is deaf and would rather read than talk. Don’t worry.”
Katherine’s head suddenly went down on her knee. “What’s the matter?” cried the three in added dismay.
“It isn’t because I don’t want to stay,” said Katherine in a choking voice, “it’s because I want to go home. It’s hotter out there than a blast furnace, and our one-story brick shack is like an oven, and we haven’t one-tenth of the comforts that people have here, but it’s–home!”
Migwan rolled Katherine over and took her head into her lap. “I know just how you feel,” she said softly. ”

“ OUT OF THE STORM
“Is there enough blue to make a Dutchman a pair of breeches?” asked Gladys, anxiously scanning the heavens. “If there is, it will clear up before noon.”
“Well, there’s enough to patch a pair, anyway,” said Katherine, pointing to a minute scrap of blue showing through a jagged rent in a gray cloud.
“A patched pair is just as good as a new one,” said Gladys with easy philosophy. “It’s all right for us to go for a hike today, isn’t it, Uncle Teddy?”
“Most any day is good for a hike, if you really want to go,” answered Uncle Teddy cheerfully. ”

“ A few minutes later, an old turtle who had been sitting on a log near the water all afternoon poked his head out of his shell in astonishment at the sight of the enormous human crabs who suddenly swarmed over the beach, laughing, tripping, shrieking and rolling over on the sand. The Captain did beautifully, because he was tall and the skirt that fell to him was short and did not impede his progress, but Slim, to whom Sahwah had wickedly given one of Katherine’s longest, got so tangled up that he finally turned a somersault right into the water, where he lay kicking and splashing. ”

“ Katherine nodded dumbly. “But, how am I going to ‘pass on the light that has been given to me,’ if I am to be away from people?” she said sadly after a moment.
“By doing the duty that lies nearest you,” replied Nyoda, pressing her shoulder with a gentle hand. “You can be just as much of a Torch Bearer at home as anywhere. I know the prospect seems empty, even with the knowledge that you are doing your duty. By all the tokens, your place in life seems to be out in the busy world, rubbing elbows with people on all sides. ”

“ All this time Katherine had been leading Sandhelo because she could hang on to him and keep her balance when the wind threatened to sweep her off her feet.
“Get ready for business, now, old chap,” she said to him. “It’s time for your act.” And, climbing on his back, she bent low over his neck and urged him forward with a cluck and a poke.
But Sandhelo chose this crisis to indulge in a return of his artistic temperament. Not an inch would he budge. “What shall I do?” wailed Katherine, when all her clucking and prodding had been in vain. ”

“ Just then a tiny golden beam fell on the water in front of the canoe. “It’s clearing up,” said Sahwah joyfully. “It isn’t going to rain after all today.” She twisted her head upward to see where the sun was breaking through the clouds. “Why―” she exclaimed in bewilderment, “where is the sun?”
They all looked around. There was the sun, just beginning to peep over the eastern horizon. “It’s–it’s just rising!” said Katherine, dumbfounded. “Did it oversleep, too?”
“No, it didn’t,” said Uncle Teddy. “Old Sol is the one person who always wakes on time. ”

“ The Sea Gull was as swift as her white namesake, and flew over the sparkling lake like a real gull. So taken up were the Winnebagos and Sandwiches with the appointments of the yacht and such fun they had going anywhere they pleased on board by day or night, that before they knew it they were in the harbor of Detroit where Katherine and Nyoda and Sherry were to be set ashore to finish their respective journeys by train. ”

“ Behind the beach the land rose in a steep bluff for about fifty feet and stood high out of the water, its grim, rocky sides giving it the look of a mediæval castle. A steep path wound up the hillside, crossed in many places by the roots of trees growing along the slope, which were both a help in gaining a foothold and a fruitful source of mishap if you happened to be in too much of a hurry. ”

“ Go fishing with you this afternoon? I certainly will!” If Aunt Clara could be said to love one sport more than any other that one was fishing. “Where did you get all the worms?”
“They’re the relics we found,” said Katherine. “We dug them out of the hole we made.”
“I dug most of them,” said Anthony.
“He never touched one!” said Slim in an indignant aside to Hinpoha. “To hear him talk you’d think he was the only one who ever did anything around here.” ”

“ That I’ll stop being a joke?”
“Of course you will!” said Gladys emphatically. “Do you know what I heard papa saying to Uncle Teddy one night? He said, ‘Wouldn’t Katherine be a stunning looking girl if she carried herself better and was well dressed?’ Did you hear that? He said ‘stunning,’ mind you. Not only ‘nice looking,’ but ‘stunning.’”
“Did he really say that?” asked Katherine in amazement. “I didn’t think anybody cared how I looked; men least of all.”
“Men notice those things a lot more than you think they do,” said Gladys with an air of worldly wisdom. ”

“ Somewhere in the back of every man’s brain there slumbers the instinct of the explorer, a legacy from his far off ancestors who boldly set out to discover the unknown places of the earth, and even the modern boy and girl thrill with delight at the prospect of entering some new, wild region.
Landing was extremely difficult because there was no sand beach, and great care had to be exercised that the canoe was not dashed on the rocks and her sides ripped. Both Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy stepped overboard in water up to their knees and held the boat steady while the rest climbed out onto the rocks. ”

“ Katherine pulled the twig from the earth and stood looking at it, fascinated. Slowly the truth dawned on her. The Sandwiches had gotten ahead of them again. Without having planned the panic they had instantly seen the value of it and one of them had spirited Eeny-Meeny away during the confusion. “Boys are smarter than girls,” she admitted ruefully to herself. “At least, some are.”
Then another thought flashed through her mind. She had told Antha not half an hour ago that they were planning to hide Eeny-Meeny. Antha had told the boys and they had decided to do the same thing themselves. ”

“ Nobody was able to answer this.
“If we’re smart enough we’ll find out,” said Katherine, waving her long arms. She was as keen on the scent of the mysterious Dark of the Moon Society as a hound after a stag.
That night darkness had hardly fallen when the Captain, Slim and the Bottomless Pitt complained of being utterly tired out and announced their intention of going to bed.
“What made you so tired, boys?” asked Mrs. Evans solicitously. “Are we expecting you young people to do too much? I don’t want you to go home worn out.” ”

“ What geese we are!” said Sahwah, coming to herself with a start. “Worrying about something that’s miles off! Cheer up. We may all get drowned and never have to go home at all. You always want to look on the bright side of things!” And then the pendulum swung the other way, and the two leaned against each other and laughed until their sides ached at their foolishness.
“But poor Katherine was really blue,” said Gladys, when they were themselves again. “She has those awful spells once in a long while and they last for days unless she gets mixed up in something exciting and forgets herself. ”

“ Being Chief that week it was Katherine’s duty to blow the rising horn in the morning. The day after the return from the canoe trip was the morning for war canoe practice. The crew practised three mornings a week before breakfast. Katherine, who had gone to sleep with the idea firmly fixed in her mind that she must wake by a quarter to seven so that she could rouse the others, awoke with a start, dreaming that she had overslept and the others had tied her in her bed and gone off without her. The world was dull and grey and covered with a chilly mist. ”

“ There will be many readers who will maintain that Hinpoha won the greater victory, although the Captain’s exploit won him more glory among his friends. To go off and fast has the halo of romance about it; to cease from talking for three days sounds easy, and in the case of a woman is apt to provoke smiles and hints that she must have talked in her sleep to make up for it.
When Uncle Teddy went over on the third sunset he brought the Captain home with him in the canoe. ”

“ Can’t we come down and cheer you up? Is there room for two more on that ledge?”
“Always plenty of room on the mourners’ bench,” said Katherine, moving over.
“All right, we’ll come,” said Gladys. “How do you get down? Oh, I see, there’s a sort of path going down behind mother’s tent. Look out, we’re coming.”
Sahwah and Gladys crawled backward down the bluff, hanging on to the grass and roots, and dropped to the ledge beside Katherine. They settled themselves comfortably and swung their feet over the edge. ”

“ Evans, “it seems to me we four have no better right to be Chiefs than you girls. If you hadn’t wanted to come camping there wouldn’t have been any tribe at all. It seems to me the Winnebago girls have the best right to be chiefs of any here.”
“We haven’t any better claim than the Sandwich boys,” said Katherine. “If it hadn’t been for them there wouldn’t have been any Uncle Teddy or Aunt Clara to help you so you would feel equal to the responsibility of bringing us up here.” ”

“ I wore the page that poem was on completely out of the book reading it so often, and wished and wished I had been there to see it happen.”
“So did I,” said Hinpoha.
“Let’s do it,” said Katherine suddenly. “We have all the props. Here’s the mule, and the rocky shore–that low wedge around the base of the cliff will do beautifully for the Paso del Mar. And ‘gusty and raw is the morning,’ just the way the poem says, and if there isn’t enough fog to ‘tear its skirts on the mountain trees,’ we can pretend this light mist is a real fog. Everything is here, even the bell on the mule. ”

“ Evans, enjoying to the utmost the pleasure caused by the arrival of the big canoe, “now, where’s the crew?”
“Here, here!” they all cried, tumbling over each other in their haste to get to the landing and into the boat.
“All aboard, my hearties,” cried Uncle Teddy, cutting the canoe loose from the launch and holding it steady against the pier.
“But dinner’s ready,” protested Aunt Clara. “Can’t you wait until afterwards for your ride?”
“Not one minute,” her husband solemnly assured her. “Not one of us will be able to eat a mouthful until we have had a ride on the new hobby horse. ”

“ Papa has bought Lake Huron and we’re all going camping!”
And without noticing the tears in Katherine’s eyes, she pulled her out of Migwan’s lap and danced around with her.
“Your papa has done what?” cried Migwan, her voice shrill with amazement. “Oh, how do you do, Mrs. Evans.” For Gladys’s mother, proceeding more leisurely up the walk than her impetuous daughter, was just coming up the steps. “What’s this about Mr. Evans buying Lake Huron?”
“Oh, nothing so startling as that,” said Mrs. Evans, laughing in great amusement. “We haven’t started out to own the world yet. ”

“ Pierre in the canoes, like a squadron of battleships accompanying a liner. They parted from him with genuine regret and sang a mighty cheer in his honor as they pushed off on the return trip to Ellen’s Isle.
“Uncle Teddy,” said the Captain, as they sat around the fire at Ellen’s Isle that night, talking over the events of the previous day, “I am going to do the three-day fast like the Indian boys did.”
“Ho-ho-ho!” shouted Slim. “You couldn’t go a day without something to eat.”
“Don’t judge others by yourself,” retorted the Captain. “You couldn’t, I know well enough. ”

“ But why were you looking so solemn?”
“I was merely wondering about Antha,” replied Katherine. “Now we’ve got Anthony where we understand him; but Antha is still the spiritless cry baby she was when she came. She hasn’t a particle of backbone. I’m getting discouraged about her.” She pulled a patch of moss from the rock beside her and tore it moodily into shreds.
“Are you quite, quite sure you’re not low in your mind?” asked Gladys.
Katherine sat up with a jerk, sending a loosened particle of stone bounding and clattering down the face of the cliff. “Of course not!” she said energetically. ”