Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea
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Janet Aldridge >> The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea
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"We did," replied Miss Elting. "When you wrote that you would be glad
to have us join the camp, I made the arrangements and wrote you that
we would be here yesterday."
"I never received the letter."
"But why do you call thith plathe Camp Wau-Wau?" demanded Grace. "Camp
Wau-Wau ith in the Pocono Woodth, Mrs. Livingthton."
"Yes, my dear; but a camp may move, may it not? This is the same old
Camp Wau-Wau, but in a different location. This year we concluded to
make our camp by the sea shore, and chose Lonesome Bar for our camping
place."
"Lonesome Bar!" exclaimed Miss Elting.
"That explains it. We Were looking for Lonesome Cove."
"Which we found," chuckled Harriet.
"We've had the most awful time, and Harriet got drowned," put in
Margery Brown.
"Drowned?"
"Yeth, thhe did," nodded Tommy eagerly. "And we had thuch a time
undrowning her! Thhe thwallowed a whole ithe pond of water."
Miss Elting here explained to the Chief Guardian what had happened.
Mrs. Livingston was amazed. She gazed curiously at the smiling
Harriet.
"I suppose I should not be surprised at anything Harriet does, but
that you all should have fallen into a pond with your car is
incredible. What became of the car?"
"It's there!" chuckled Jane. "They'll be cutting it out in sections
when they take ice from the pond next winter, I reckon. Where can I
send a letter? I must have another car, and that quickly! It's
something like hard labor to get in and out of this place! But let's
be introduced to these nice girls that I see in camp here."
"You are the same old Jane, aren't you?" answered the Chief Guardian,
with an indulgent smile. "I trust your father is well?"
"He is, thank you, but he'll be wanting to have nervous prostration
when he hears about my driving into an old pond. Hello, little girl!
Have I seen you before!" questioned Crazy Jane, catching a little
golden-haired girl by the arm and gazing down into the latter's blue
eyes.
"This is Miss Skinner, from Concord, young ladies," introduced Mrs.
Livingston.
"How do you do, Mith Thkinner," greeted Tommy. "Like mythelf, you
aren't fat, are you?"
"I am not," replied Miss Skinner.
"Where do we stow our belongings?" asked Miss Elting.
Mrs. Livingston looked puzzled.
"Every tent in the camp is full," she replied. "Really, I do not know
what I am going to do with you, girls."
"That is easily answered. We will sleep out-of-doors," proposed Jane.
"We were out all last night, and in our wet clothing at that."
"How soon will you have vacancies?" asked Miss Elting.
"Four girls will be leaving the last of next week, Miss Elting.
Others, I don't recall how many, are to go about the middle of the
week following. Until then I fear you will have to shift for
yourselves."
"We can have something to eat, can't we?" interjected Margery, in a
hopeful tone.
"Yeth, Buthter mutht have thomething to eat all the time," averred
Tommy.
"There is plenty for all. Now, come and meet our girls. We have a very
fine lot of young women at Camp Wau-Wau this summer, and we think we
have an ideal camp, too. I am so sorry that I did not know you were
coming. I might make room for two of you on the floor in my tent.
There isn't a bit of floor space left in any of the other tents."
"I think we all should prefer sleeping out-of-doors, so long as the
weather remains fine," answered Miss Elting.
"That is just the point. What will you do when it rains?" smiled Mrs.
Livingston.
"I know," spoke up Tommy. "I'll jutht run and jump into the othean and
get wet all over, all at onthe; then I won't mind it at all. Do you
thee?"
"I do," replied the Chief Guardian gravely.
Mrs. Livingston already had begun introducing the Meadow-Brook Girls
to the Camp Girls, most of whom had not been in Camp Wau-Wau when the
Meadow-Brook Girls had visited it in the Pocono Woods two seasons
before. By the time the introductions had been finished and the camp
inspected, supper time had arrived. The girls sat down at long tables
in brightly lighted tents and enjoyed a delicious supper. It was the
first real meal the newcomers had enjoyed in more than a day, and they
did full justice to this one, especially did Margery, though openly
teased by Tommy because of her appetite.
Mrs. Livingston had been kept thoroughly informed of the progress of
the Meadow-Brook Girls through her correspondence with Miss Elting, so
that she was fully prepared to bestow the rewards that the girls had
earned. A council fire was called for that evening, at which the
achievements of Harriet Burrell and her companions were related to the
camp, and the beads that each, of the five girls had earned were
bestowed. Harriet now had quite a string of colored beads, the envy of
every Camp Girl. Each of the other girls of the Meadow-Brook party had
performed either heroic or meritorious acts, for which they were
rewarded by the gift of beads according to the regulations of the
order. Unfortunately, the now badly damaged trunk that had been
carried at the rear of Jane McCarthy's car contained their ceremonial
dresses, so that the Meadow-Brook Girls were unable to appear in the
regulation costume; and they also lacked other important equipment,
namely, blankets in which to wrap themselves for outdoor sleeping.
"There is not an extra blanket in camp," said Mrs. Livingston, when
the situation was explained to the Chief Guardian. "I don't know what
we shall do. I fear you girls will have to go into town and stay at a
hotel."
"Oh, no. We have slept out-of-doors under worse conditions," declared
Harriet. "Please do not concern yourself over us. We shall get along
very nicely. Do you happen to have an extra piece of canvas in camp?"
"There is a side wall that we use for covering our vegetables, such as
potatoes. You may use that if you wish, but I warn you it is not very
clean."
"We will give it a good dusting. It will answer very nicely to lie on
and we'll sleep close together to keep warm. I am not sure but I
should prefer sleeping out in that way. The Indians many times slept
in the open without covering. I don't see why we shouldn't do the
same."
"Are there any thnaketh here?" inquired Tommy anxiously.
"Oh, no," the Chief Guardian replied smilingly.
"Any bugth?"
"Naturally, there are some insects; fleas, perhaps, but you don't mind
those."
"No. My father thayth I hop around like a thand flea at a clam bake
mythelf, but if I wath fat I couldn't do that, could I?" asked Tommy
with a sidelong glance at Buster.
Margery, who had been an interested listener to the conversation, now
turned her back, elevating her nose disdainfully. She made no reply to
Tommy's fling at her. Harriet already had gone to bring the canvas,
which was to be their bed for the night. She determined on the morrow
to make bough beds for herself and companions, provided any suitable
boughs were to be had. The canvas was dragged to a level spot. Jane
and Hazel scraped the ground clean and smooth while Harriet was
beating the canvas to get the dust out of it. This done, the canvas
was spread out on the ground and folded over twice, leaving sufficient
of it to cover them after they had taken their positions for the
night.
Tommy regarded the preparations with mild interest.
"Who ith going to thleep next to the wall?" she asked.
"We thought we should place you next to the fold," replied Miss
Elting. "You can't kick the cover off there."
"And where ith Buthter going to thleep?"
"In the middle."
"That ith all right. I don't withh to be too clothe to her. We might
thquabble all night."
"Now, Tommy, you first," nodded Harriet.
Tommy took her place on the canvas with great care, gathering her
skirts about her, turning around and around as if in search of the
softest possible place on which to lie.
"You are thure Buthter ithn't going to thleep near me?" persisted Miss
Tommy.
"Yes, yes. Please get in," urged Miss Elting.
"I jutht wanted to know, that ith all." She lay down, then one by one
her companions took their places on the canvas. Harriet was the last
to turn in. Before doing so she drew the unoccupied half of the canvas
over the girls, leaving Tommy at the fold, as had been promised. There
were no pillows. It was a case of lying stretched out flat or using
one's arm for a pillow. The latter plan was adopted by most of the
girls, though Harriet lay flat on her back after tucking herself in,
gazing up at the stars and listening to the surf beating on the shore
as the tide came rolling in. Now and then a roller showed a white
ridge at its top, the white plainly visible even in the darkness, for
the moon had not yet risen.
The campfire burned low, the camp itself being as silent as if
deserted. Now and then twitterings in the tree tops might have been
heard; were heard, in fact, by Harriet Burrell, but not heeded, for
her gaze was fixed, as it had been for some moments, on two tiny
specks of light far out on the dark sea. One of the specks was green,
the other red. They rose and fell in unison, now and then disappearing
for a few seconds, then rising, high in the air, as it appeared. The
two lights were the side lights of a boat, red on the port and green
on the starboard, and above them was a single white light at the
masthead.
"According to those lights the boat is heading directly toward the
beach," mused Harriet reflectively. "I wonder if I ought to show a
light? No. They know where they are going. Besides, they can see the
light of the campfire. The wind is increasing, too."
Harriet dozed. She awakened half an hour later and gazed sleepily out
to sea. The same lights were there, though they now appeared to be
much nearer. All of a sudden they blinked out and were seen no more.
The girl sat up, rubbing her eyes wonderingly.
"Could they have sunk? No, of course not. How silly of me! The boat
has turned about, and the lights are not visible from behind." But she
did not lie down at once. Instead, she rested her chin in the palms of
her hands and gazed dreamily out over the water. A fresh, salty breeze
was now blowing in. She could hear the flap, flap of the canvas of
the tents off in the camp, a thin veil of mist was obscuring the
stars, the pound of the surf was growing louder and the swish of the
water on the beach more surly.
All at once what looked to her to be a huge cloud suddenly loomed
close at hand, then began moving along the beach.
"Mercy! what is it?" exclaimed the girl under her breath. She crept
from beneath the canvas and ran down to the beach. "It's a ship! How
close to the shore they are running, and they have no lights out."
Harriet watched the vessel for some moments. She saw it swing around a
long, narrow point of land a short distance to the south of the camp
and boldly enter a bay. She was unable to make out with any
distinctness what was being done there, but she heard the creak of the
boom as it swung over and the rattle of the tackle as the sails came
down, though unable to interpret these sounds. Soon there came a sharp
whistle from human lips, answered by a similar whistle from the shore,
then all was quiet.
Harriet Burrell crept back under the canvas, wondering vaguely what
could be the meaning of this. She was too sleepy to think much about
it and soon dropped into a sound sleep, from which she was destined to
be rudely awakened.
CHAPTER VII
A SUDDEN STORM
The canvas that covered the sleeping Meadow-Brook Girls was suddenly
lifted from them, then whipped back with a force that nearly knocked
the breath out of some of them.
A chorus of yells greeted the giant slap of the canvas, and a bevy of
girls rolled and scrambled out of the way.
"Hold it down, or we shall lose it," cried Harriet, her voice barely
heard in the roar of the wind. But no one of the party seemed inclined
to act as an anchor for the canvas, which was rolled, then whisked out
of sight.
"There, now you have done it!" shouted Crazy Jane McCarthy. "We sleep
on the ground for the rest of the night!" A gust of wind had thrown
Jane off her balance and knocked her down.
"Take hold of a tree," advised Harriet.
"I can't get to one," wailed Margery. "I can't walk."
"Creep," suggested Tommy shrilly.
"Yes, we must seek cover. I fear there will be rain soon," added Miss
Elting. "This is an awful blow. I can feel the spray from the ocean."
"Will the ocean come up here?" questioned Margery apprehensively.
"No. Don't be foolish," answered Harriet. "But we shall get wet, all
the same."
Half walking, half crawling, the Meadow-Brook Girls crept farther back
among the small trees, through which the wind was shrieking and
howling. They saw the campfire lifted from the ground and sent flying
through the air, leaving a trail of starry sparks in its wake.
"There go the tents!" cried Miss Elting.
A medley of shouts and cries of alarm followed hard upon the
guardian's words. A gust more severe than any that had preceded it,
and of longer duration, had rooted up the weakened tent stakes or
broken the guy ropes. A whole street of tents tipped over backward,
leaving their occupants scrambling from their cots, now in the open
air.
"Girls, see if you can lend the Wau-Wau girls assistance," commanded
Miss Elting. "Hurry!"
About all that was necessary to get to the distressed campers was to
let go of the trees to which the Meadow-Brook Girls had been clinging.
The wind did the rest, and they brought up in confused heaps near and
beyond the uncovered tents. Cots had been overturned by the sudden
heavy squall, blankets and equipment blown away. The cook tent was
down and the contents apparently a wreck.
"Cling to the trees! Never mind saving anything now!" cried Mrs.
Livingston, whose tent had shared the same fate as those of her
charges. "Take care of yourselves first. The squall is blowing itself
out. It will soon pass."
Almost before the words were uttered, the gale subsided. A sudden hush
fell over the camp. "There!" called Mrs. Livingston. "What did I tell
you? Now, hurry and get the things together. Never mind sorting out
your belongings. We must get some cover over us as soon as possible,
for we are going to have rain."
The rain began in a spattering of heavy drops. The thunder of the surf
was becoming louder and louder, for the sea had been lashed into foamy
billows by the brief, though heavy, blow. The waves were now mounting
the bluff back of the beach, leaving a white coating of creamy foam
over a considerable part of the ground below the camp.
"Do you think it ith going to rain?" questioned Tommy.
"It is, my dear," answered Mrs. Livingston. "You had better prepare
yourself for it."
"Yeth, I think tho, too. I think I will. I told the girlth what I
would do. Here goeth." Tommy turned and ran toward the beach at full
speed.
"Come back, Tommy! Where are you going!" called Miss Elting.
"I'm going to fool the rain. I'm going to get wet before the rain
cometh."
"Maybe she is going to do as she said--jump into the ocean," suggested
Margery Brown.
Harriet suddenly dropped the piece of canvas at which she had been
tugging, and started after Tommy, who had already headed for the
bluff, and was running with all her might, apparently to get into the
water before the rain came down hard enough to soak her. The little
lisping girl had no intention of getting into the water, knowing full
well that by standing on the edge of the bluff a moment she could get
a drenching that would be perfectly satisfactory so far as a thorough
wetting was concerned. But even in this Harriet Burrell saw danger.
"Don't go near the edge, Tommy!" she shouted.
Tommy Thompson merely waved her hand and continued on. Nor did she
halt until she had reached the edge of the bluff, having waded through
the white foam with which the ground had been covered. She stood
there, faintly outlined in the night, and with both hands thrown
above her head as if she were about to dive, uttered a shrill little
yell.
"Stop! Come back!" begged Harriet.
"I'm going to take a thwim," replied Tommy.
A great, dark roller came thundering in. It leaped up into the air,
hovered an instant, then descended in an overwhelming flood right over
the shivering figure of the little Meadow-Brook Girl standing on the
edge of the bluff. Harriet had reached the scene just in time to get
the full force of the downpour. Neither girl could speak, both were
choking, when suddenly the ground gave way beneath their feet and they
felt themselves slipping down and down until it seemed to Harriet as
if they were going to the very bottom of the sea.
Now they were lifted from their feet. They were no longer slipping
downward. Instead, they were being carried up and up until they were
free from the choking pressure of the water, and once more were
breathing the free, though misty, salt air of the sea.
"Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.
"I'll try. I don't know. We have been carried out to sea by a receding
wave. The bank gave way. Oh, what a foolish girl you are! Swim! Swim
with all your might! We shall have to fight hard. We may not be able
to save ourselves as it is. Swim toward the shore!"
"Whi--ch way ith the thhore?" wailed Tommy.
"I don't know. I can't see. I think it must be that way." She placed a
firm grip on Tommy's shoulder, turning the smaller girl about, heading
her toward what Harriet Burrell believed to be the shore. She wondered
why she could see no light over there, having forgotten that the
campfire had been blown away in the squall.
The two girls now began to swim with all their might. It seemed to
them, in their anxiety, as if they had been swimming for hours.
Harriet finally ceased swimming and lay floating with a slight
movement of her arms.
"What ith it?" questioned Grace.
"I don't know."
"But you thee thomething, don't you?"
"That is the worst of it. I do not. Look sharp. Can you make out
anything that looks like the shore?"
"I thee a light! I thee a light!" cried Tommy delightedly.
"Yes; I see it now. That must be on the shore. We have been going in
the wrong direction. Swim with all your might!"
For a few moments they did swim, strongly and with long overhand
strokes, Tommy and Harriet keeping close together, Harriet ever
watchful that a swell did not carry her little companion from her.
They had made considerable progress, but still the shore seemed to
have disappeared from view. The light that Tommy had discovered had
gone out. At least, it was no longer to be seen. Harriet stopped
swimming, and, raising herself as high as possible out of the water,
again and again took quick surveys of their surroundings. The seas
were heavier and less broken where they now were. Slowly it dawned
upon Harriet Burrell that they were in deep water. She raised her
voice in a long-drawn shout. Both listened. No sound save the swish of
the water about them was to be heard. The wind had not come up again,
but a fresh, salty breeze was blowing over them, chilling the girls,
sending shivers through their slender bodies.
"Oh, what thhall we do?" sobbed Grace. "What can we do to thave
ourthelveth?"
"I don't know, Tommy. About all we can do is to keep up our courage
and wait for daylight. We must keep moving as well as we can, or we
shall get so cold that we shall perish."
"Wait until daylight? Oh, thave me! I thall die--I thurely thall.
Thave me, Harriet!"
"Keep up your courage, darling. We are far from being goners yet, but
we have before us a night that will call for all the courage we
possess. Now pull yourself together and be a brave little girl."
"I don't want to be brave; I want to go home," wailed Grace.
"So do I, and we shall go as soon as we are able to see where home
is," answered Harriet, forcing a laugh.
"Then why don't you go?"
"I can't."
"I'm going." Tommy began to swim. Harriet propelled herself up to her
companion and grasped her by an arm.
"Tommy, you _must_ obey me! You don't know where you are going. You
may be swimming out to sea for all you know. Be a good girl and save
your strength. The night may become lighter later on, then we shall
manage to reach the shore somehow."
"But why don't you go now?"
"Because I don't know where the shore is, dearie. We are lost, just as
much lost as if we were in the middle of the Atlantic," answered
Harriet solemnly.
CHAPTER VIII
A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN NIGHT
"Be brave! Remember that you are a Meadow-Brook Girl, Tommy,"
encouraged Harriet. "We are swimmers. We can't drown unless we get
into a panic. There is a boat somewhere hereabouts. I saw one sail
into the cove, or the bay, whichever it is, before I went to sleep
this evening. The men surely will be coming out in the morning; then,
if we are too far from shore to get in, we ought to be able to attract
their attention. They will pick us up."
"Do--do you think we are far from thhore?"
"I fear so. Still, I can't be certain about that. I am dreadfully
confused and don't know one direction from another. I wish the moon
would come up. That would give us our points of compass. Perhaps the
clouds may blow away after a little. We shall at least be able to see
more clearly after that."
"Oh, I'm tho cold! I'm freething, Har-r-r-i-e-t."
"I will fix that. Come, swim with me. We will ride the waves," cried
Harriet. The swells were long and high. Now they would ride to the
top of one, then go slipping down the other side on a plane of almost
oily smoothness. At such times Tommy would cry out. Even Harriet's
heart would sink as she glanced up at the towering mountains of water
on either side of them. It seemed as if nothing could save them from
being engulfed, buried under tons of dark water. At the second when
all hope appeared to be gone they would find themselves being slowly
lifted up and up and up until once more they topped another
mountainous swell.
Fortunately for the two girls, the tops of the swells were in most
instances solid, dark water. The strong wind having gone down, the
crests generally showed no white, broken foam. When such an one was
met with it meant a rough few moments for the Meadow-Brook Girls and a
severe shaking up. Tommy had been in the surf on many occasions, when
at the sea shore with her parents, and understood it fairly well.
Harriet had never been in the salt water, but was guided wholly by the
instincts of the swimmer, of one who loved the water, and for whom it
seemed almost her natural element, and in the excitement of the hour
she at times forgot the peril of their position. So far as she knew
they might already be far out to sea, with a mile or more of salt
water underneath them.
In the meantime there was intense excitement in the camp. Miss Elting
had been a witness to the sudden disappearance of Grace and Harriet.
She had seen both girls enveloped in the cloud of spray and dark
water. Jane McCarthy had gone bounding toward the beach, followed by
their guardian and several of the Camp Girls, who, though not having
seen Harriet and Grace disappear, surmised something of the truth.
Reaching the edge of the bluff, they saw at once what had occurred. A
large portion of the sandy bluff had sloughed off and slipped into the
sea, having been loosened and undermined by the persistent smash of
the waves against the bluff. Jane started to leap down, but Miss
Elting caught her in time.
"No, no, no," protested the guardian; "you must not!"
"But they are down there drowning!" screamed Crazy Jane.
"There is nothing we can do to save them. They aren't there. You can
see they are not."
"But if not, where are they?" cried Jane.
"My dears, if they went in there they undoubtedly have been carried
out. The undertow is very strong in a storm such as this," said Mrs.
Livingston sadly. She had hurried down to the beach upon seeing the
others running in that direction, to ascertain the cause.
"Some one get a boat!" screamed Margery.
The Chief Guardian shook her head sadly.
"There is no boat here. Even if there were, we could not launch it
against that sea, nor would it live a moment did we succeed in getting
it launched. We can do no more than trust in God and wait. You see the
wind is blowing on shore and--"
"No, it is blowing off toward the cove. The wind has shifted,"
answered Jane McCarthy. "But that doesn't help us a bit."
"Gather wood and build a fire," commanded Mrs. Livingston.
The Camp Girls hurriedly set about gathering fuel for a fire, but
having brought wood, the fuel refused to burn. The rain had thoroughly
soaked everything. The merest flicker of flame was all they were able
to get. They tried again and again, but with no better results,
finally giving up the attempt altogether.
"I am afraid we shall have to let it go," decided the Chief Guardian.
"A light would help so much, and, if the two girls are alive, would
serve as a guide for them."
Jane interrupted by uttering a shrill cry. She listened, but there was
no response. She cried out again and again, then finally gave up the
effort.
"I'm afraid they are gone," she moaned.
"Unless they were hurt when the wave struck them I do not believe they
are lost," said Miss Elting, with a calmness and hopefulness that she
really did not feel, though she dared not permit herself to admit that
Harriet and Grace really had been lost. "Both are excellent swimmers,
and Harriet never would give up so long as there was a breath of life
left in her body."
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