Margaret Widdemer

“ A brilliant idea came to Winona—which, by the way, she afterward carried out. “Our side-porch is almost all screened. I wonder if mother wouldn’t let me sleep there? I’m going to ask her, anyway.”
“I wish I could, too,” breathed Louise, “but our side-porch is where everybody goes by—that’s the worst of living on a corner. I know I never could break the milkman and the baker of contributing rolls and milk on top of me in the early morning!”
“What a splendid idea! Then you could have ‘breakfast in your bed,’ like Harry Lauder,” said Winnie, and both girls stopped to giggle. ”

“ It was a big hotel that they had come upon, and its wide porches were full of women, young and old, rocking, and talking and embroidering, and willing enough to look at the things the girls had. The arrangement was that Winona should take care of the smaller things, the painted and embroidered linens and so forth in the suitcases, while Louise attended to the pottery and larger art-craft things, and a row of Adelaide’s jellies. She didn’t expect to sell the jelly to people who already had three meals a day, but she was agreeably surprised. ”

“ The girls were curled on the bottom of the canoe, in the middle, and the boys were paddling at the ends. The morning breeze, cool and fresh, struck their faces, whipping Louise’s red hair about her face in little curls, and blowing Winona’s blue tie straight back over her shoulder in the sunshine.
“This is something like living!” Tom declared, spatting the water with his paddle because he was so happy. “Pass me about three bananas, will you, whoever’s nearest the lunch? I feel hungry.”
“You aren’t,” said Louise swiftly. “You just want those bananas because you know they’re there. ”

“ At the mention of dinner everybody became energetic as by magic. Winnie split her two dozen rolls neatly down the middle, and set them in rows on a newspaper, ready for the broiled bacon. Marie, with her red wrapper pinned up out of harm’s way, banked the fire, while Edith mixed cocoa and condensed milk industriously in the bottom of a gigantic kettle which was discovered, too late, to have been intended to boil the water in. ”

“ The other Blue Birds were having lovely times frolicking all over the road, chasing butterflies and picking flowers and playing with the dog. Florence found it rather stupid to sit in solitary grandeur on a stretcher, and listen to what Winona and Adelaide, before her, and Marie and Edith, behind her, were saying about their own affairs. So at the first stop to change bearers she wanted to get down. But Mrs. Bryan was firm.
“No, indeed,” she said, “the first thing Blue Birds must learn is to obey orders and keep promises. ”

“ They thought so, too, and presently Nataly and Helen went off in search of the farmhouse which had promised to keep them supplied with perishable provisions.
Winona and Adelaide, freed of any further duties till supper-time, went off exploring. It was a perfect day, bright and breezy and not too hot. Winona half-danced along, singing under her breath. The sun glinted on her pretty hair and lighted up her blue eyes. Adelaide looked at her wistfully.
“I do wish I were you!” she said abruptly.
Winona looked at her in surprise. “Wish you were me? Why, on earth?” she asked. ”

“ So the girls ran over to meet their Guardian, and the hoptoad was averted. Just behind the newcomers arrived Marie and Edith, Marie dignified and neat, as usual, in her dark-blue sailor-suit, and Edith in a fluffy pink dress that did not look as if it could stand much strenuous picnicking.
“Did you bring the rolls, Winnie?” called Marie.
“Certainly I did, and Helen has the bacon.”
“And I have the hard-boiled eggs,” said Louise gayly, “and here is the trolley—it sounds like a French lesson. We mount the trolley that we may go to the picnic. Come on, girls.” ”

“ Adelaide turned and faced Winona.
“Well, go ahead and talk,” she said. “It won’t make things any less so.” Then suddenly she burst out, “You don’t know what it’s like. You don’t know how it feels never to have anything extra. If I go to a party I’m likely to be the worst-dressed girl there. If I go to school and the girls treat I have to say I don’t want any because I can’t pay back. I can’t invite anybody to meals, because I can’t give them extra nice things to eat. ”

“ And in the opulent days which followed the winning of the carnival prizes, and the selling of lovely amounts of Camp Fire goods, Camp Karonya decided that it ought to own a phonograph. The treasury, which was a suitcase under Helen’s bed, had money in it, and the girls badly needed something to dance by. To be sure, the camp boasted a mandolin, two guitars, a mouth-organ and a banjo, to say nothing of Mrs. Bryan’s Iroquois drum. But all these had to be worked by hand, and the orchestra, after performing for several long evenings while their friends practised folk-dances with abandon, struck. ”

“ Vicky took her hand, and they strolled off down one of the wood-paths.
“I’d rather not ask Louise,” explained Vicky, “because—well, she laughs so about everything. She might laugh at me. And that other girl is sort of grown-up talking. But—well, it’s—I’d like to be like the rest of the people—other little girls, you know—and it’s dreadfully hard when you haven’t any father or mother, and your uncle’s an artist with a temp’rament. Sometimes he gets us governesses, and they say we’re queer, and sometimes we just do as we please. But—well, there isn’t anybody to show us things.” ”

“ Louise was visibly fretting at having to stay indoors, and finally Winona had to lead the way out to the back garden again. And, naturally, the first thing to meet their eyes was the big black tray, with Nataly’s own card fatally conspicuous in the very middle of it. Winona tried to steer her around it, but it was no use. Your own name is one thing you are sure to see or hear before anything else. Winona, talking sixteen to the dozen about everything she could think of, picked up the card furtively and put it in her pocket. ”

“ When they began to clear away Edith declared that she didn’t dare go near the spring again. So it was Winona and Louise who took the few things there were to wash, the cocoa-kettle and dish-pan and drinking-cups and the silver, over to the spring. It was pleasant, lazy work, not a bit like home dish-washing. Louise splashed the things up and down in the running water, and Winona dried them.
“Isn’t it nice?” sighed Winnie. “Oh, I do wish we could camp outdoors all this summer, instead of living in hot houses! Don’t you always hate to sleep indoors when it’s hot?” ”

“ Tom grinned a little, shamefacedly.
“Well—I simply yanked out that old tablet, and began at Civil War again. I said ‘As I was just saying to your mother!’ and I gave her every subject over!”
His hearers howled, and after a minute Tom himself joined in. “Did it work better this time?” asked Winona at last, wiping her eyes.
“Not a work,” said Tom cheerfully, reaching for the last cooky. “That is, all but the hat one. That was clever of you, Lou. She got almost human over that, and began to talk about how many engagements she had—had to break half of them. ”

“ Winona paddled frantically. “Do you think we can get back in time to be judged?” she panted.
“We’ll try,” said Billy, working his paddle more slowly, but with greater effect than Winona’s.
“No—oh, Billy, Billy! There goes the signal—they’ve given the launch prize, and they are to give the float and rowboat prizes right afterwards, and then the canoes! There goes the gun again. Oh, dear!”
Winona had really been working harder than she should have over her canoe decorations, and helping with the float besides, as well as doing her routine camp-work. ”

“ Both boys fired.
“Oh, what a shame to kill them!” mourned Winona; but Tom said hurriedly again that they had special permission from Mr. Gedney, and sat up to see if he had done anything.
“We each got one!” said Billy in a tense whisper. “They’ve dropped on the farther shore—there by the farmhouse!”
The boys pushed the canoe up close and sprang out. They were dashing excitedly across country after their prey. Suddenly the waiting girls heard wild howls, and the tall, angry form of a wild-eyed man in overalls suddenly appeared from nowhere with a pitchfork. ”

“ We don’t really know yet that they’re missionaries!” said Billy.
“Sorry you don’t know a Gates Ajar when you see it,” said Tom, grinning.
“I do,” said Billy decidedly. “That isn’t one. Here are your roses, Winnie. You look like somebody’s step-mother in all that train and glasses. Where did you get them?”
“Winona!” called Louise, tearing downstairs, “I’ve just remembered that Clay has been calling the fritters ‘crullers’ ever since we made them. He’ll send them in with the ice-cream if he isn’t told not to.”
She fled to the kitchen. ”

“ Merriam, “is to get baths and put on cool dresses, both of you, and come down to dinner. Your father and Clay are getting it. You aren’t to do a thing till to-morrow, dear. You must be tired with your trip.”
“I don’t think anything could tire me!” said Winona blithely. And she and Florence, as each of them in turn took baths in the one thing a camp doesn’t possess—a bathtub—felt that it was good to be home and have mother pet you, after all! ”

“ In each tent a squaw was to sit—or rather, at its door, for the tepees, in order to fit on the limited space of the float, had to be made rather small, and would have been a tight fit for even the smallest squaw. Some of the girls were to dress as chiefs, and were working hard on war-bonnets and leggings. Even Puppums was to grace the occasion, guarding a pappoose—little Lilian Maynard, the smallest Blue Bird. There was some idea of including Hike the Camp Cat, now a cheerful and opulent-looking kitten, but it was thought better of, because he yowled so when they rehearsed him. ”

“ Remember we’ll miss you all the time, Ray-of-Light. And 279 I don’t know what I’ll do without Florence to run errands for me. Come back as soon as your mother can spare you.”
“We will,” said Winona. “Only it feels like the poetry—don’t you remember?
“Remember what I tell you, says the old man to his son—
Be good and you’ll be happy—but you won’t have any fun!”
“Just the same,” said the Guardian, “being what you are, Winona, I’d venture to promise you that in the long run you will get more happiness out of being happy than out of having fun.” ”

“ Louise answered before Miss Lawrence had a chance. “You know perfectly well she will, Win. Why, she nearly had a fit when I climbed into a clean middy of hers day before yesterday. And these are uncommonly glad and happy rags we have on.”
“If she doesn’t like it,” explained Miss Lawrence with perfect clearness, “she knows just what she can do. My niece Nataly is a spoiled young person if ever there was one. But don’t worry, my dear”—for Winona was looking distressed at the idea of Nataly’s objection—“I’ll see that she’s perfectly satisfied.” ”

“ The Blue Birds wove raffia baskets and table-mats, and Marie and Edith crocheted bags and 151 collars. Adelaide devoted herself to canning. The rest helped her sometimes, but more of the time she took pride in putting up the fruit all by herself.
There were embroidered tea-cloths and runners, and there was hammered brass-work. The honor-counts rolled up like snowballs, for the girls made nearly everything a girl is capable of making or decorating. There was almost enough made to stop. ”

“ Winona said no more—there didn’t seem to be any use. She picked up her ball of red tinsel, and began to wind it around and within, and across, every point of the “fever-chart,” till there was a solid network. It was not a bad imitation of a springing fire.
“Now do you see?” she said. “That’s a big, red blaze coming out of the canoe, and when we’ve lighted the Greek fire inside it ought to look real enough to burn you.”
“Not bad,” admitted Tom. “But I don’t see its connection with a black bonnet and forty jack-o’-lanterns.” ”

“ It tasted good, but everyone looked forward with joy to real camp cooking.
“Wait till you see how I can broil venison steak,” threatened Louise, as she ate a very large helping of despised roast beef from a mere unromantic cow.
“Where’ll you get the venison? Pick it?” called back Winona from the other side of the table.
“No, she’s going to grow it!” said Elizabeth.
“Nothing of the kind!” said Louise cheerfully. “All you do is to go out with a gun, and stalk till you find a magnificent moose feeding peacefully among the underbrush.” ”

“ Bryan. “We haven’t enough in the treasury to pay expenses, even if we only stay a little while. It’s for you all to decide whether you want to get the money from your parents for the provisions, or whether you will earn it.”
“Earn it?” asked Winona, “How could we, in such a little while?”
“You’ll have to work that out yourselves,” replied Mrs. Bryan, as she usually did.
“Well, I can’t ask dad for much money,” Louise frankly confessed. “Times are hard, and me poor father needs his gold for the lit-tul ones at home!” ”

“ We were the pedigreed geese, I think!”
“Never mind,” said Louise soothingly, “be glad Father Goose didn’t get you, instead of sorry you didn’t get his pets. They probably would have been tough, anyway.”
“And we can fish,” suggested Winona. “Nobody’s going to jump out of the river and tell us that these are his pedigreed perch.”
“The game-warden may, if the river’s been stocked lately,” said Billy.
“It hasn’t,” asserted Tom. “Don’t you remember? We found out all about that before any of us came up here last year. All these fish are old enough to die. Pass me the bait, please, Winnie.” ”

“ Marie serenely remarked. “Bring them along.”
Winnie reappeared in a minute, very flushed and triumphant, with a hand of bananas under her arm, and a huge chocolate cake, with almost undamaged icing, poised carefully before her.
“Oh, I remember!” said absent-minded Dorothy, “I brought that cake. It was in the satchel with the knives and forks.”
“You certainly saved all our lives,” said Louise feelingly, and went on whittling toasting-sticks for the bacon. “Here, Winnie, take a stick and start in to be useful.”
“How do you do it?” Winnie wondered—“cook bacon, I mean? ”

“ The needle-work, much to the girls’ surprise, went more quickly than anything else.
“It must be the wistful sweetness of your expression, or else they think I look too well-fed to be sorry for, Win,” said Louise as they munched their sandwiches on the dock. The dock-keeper had given them permission. “You just sit still and look pleasant, and the sales get made. I have to chase all over creation, and tease and joke and cheapen, to get them to buy mine.”
“I’m afraid to talk much, for fear my accent will break through,” explained Winona. “It’s the goods, I think. ”

“ Still Winona hesitated. It certainly is a nuisance to have a small sister who wants to tag, when you are just starting off to have a particularly nice time with your most intimate friends. And to add to the charm of the situation, just then in rushed Puppums through the back door, and seeing Winona with her hat in her hand, promptly sat up and began to beg wildly. Winona began to laugh. ”