Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea

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"Thave me!" gasped Tommy. "Pleathe, may I have another?"

"Don't you think it would be well to wait for supper?" suggested Miss
Elting. "In your greediness you have forgotten the others."

"I beg your pardon, but I wath tho hungry! If you had been a fithh
thwimming in the ocean all night you, too, would have an appetite. How
would you like to be a fithh, Mith Livingthton?"

"I am quite content to be a mere human being," was the Chief
Guardian's laughing reply. "Were you afraid when you found yourself
out in the ocean all alone?"

"Afraid? I--I gueth I didn't think about that. I wath too buthy trying
to keep from filling up with thalt water. Did you ever drink any of
that water, Mith Livingthton?"

"Hardly."

"Then take the advice of a fithh, and don't."

All hands were called to supper, thus putting an end to the
conversation, which had been heartily enjoyed by Mrs. Livingston.
Tommy always was a source of amusement to her. She appreciated the
active mind and the keen, if sometimes rude, retorts and ready answers
of the little lisping girl.

After supper a short time was spent in visiting among the girls
principally to discuss the marvelous experience of the two
Meadow-Brook Girls; then one by one the girls left to go to their
tents to don their ceremonial dress, and in place of the regulation
serge uniform of the Camp Girls figures clad in the ceremonial dress,
their hair hanging in two braids over their shoulders, and beads
glistening about their necks, began to make their appearance.

Barely had the girls put on their ceremonial costumes before a
moccasined Wau-Wau girl ran at an Indian lope through the camp, crying
out the call for the council fire:

"Gather round the council fire,
The chieftain waits you there,"

chanted the runner, circling the camp after having gone straight
through the center from her own tent. The girls began moving toward a
dark spot in the young forest where the wood for the fire had been
piled, but not yet lighted.

"What are we going to do?" questioned Tommy.

Miss Elting said she could not say; that the Chief Guardian had called
the council. Silent figures took their places, sitting on the ground,
curling their feet underneath them, speaking no words, waiting for the
flame that would open the Wau-Wau council. At last all were seated.
From among the number there stepped forward a dark figure who halted
before the pile of dry wood, then, stooping, began rubbing two sticks
together, while the circle of Camp Girls chanted:

"Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;
Burn, fire, burn!"

A tiny blaze sprang from the two sticks, then the chant rose higher
and higher, figures rose up, swaying their bodies from side to side in
unison as the blaze grew into a flame and the flame into a roaring
fire, the tongues of which reached almost to the tops of the slender
trees that surrounded the camp of the Wau-Wau Girls.

"I light the light of health for Wau-Wau," announced the firemaker,
turning her back to the flames and facing part of the circle of
expectant faces on which the lights and shadows from the fire were
playing weirdly.

This completed the opening ceremony. The council fire was in order,
the purpose of the meeting would soon be explained, thus relieving the
curiosity of some fifty girls who were burning to know what it was all
about. Not the least curious of these was Tommy Thompson.

CHAPTER XI

A REWARD WELL-EARNED

"I'm just perishing to know what it's about," confided Margery Brown
to the girl next to her. "What do you suppose it is?"

"I think it has something to do with last night," answered the Camp
Girl.

"Oh! you mean about Harriet and Tommy?"

"Yes. Be quiet, the C.G. is going to say something."

The Chief Guardian had already risen. Passing about the circle, she
extended a hand to each of the girls there assembled. There were no
other greetings than the warm clasp of friendship and good-fellowship,
but it meant much to these brown-faced, strong-limbed young women who
had been members of the organization for a year or more.

The Chief Guardian took her place by the fire.

"My daughters," she said, "we have gathered this evening about the
council fire, that ancient institution, to speak of matters that are
near to the heart of each of us. Last night two of your number gave a
marked demonstration of what a Camp Girl may do, of what pluck will
do, an exhibition of sheer moral courage, one of the greatest assets
of a Camp Girl."

"That ith uth," whispered Tommy to Harriet Burrell, who sat beside
her. Harriet's face was flushed. She feared the guardian was about to
speak of her achievements, which Harriet was not at all eager to hear.

"I refer to the thrilling experiences of Miss Burrell and Miss
Thompson in battling with the big seas far out there in the darkness,
and with every reason to believe that their efforts would prove of no
avail. It is not the battle of despair to which I refer. There was no
such. Rather, it was that dogged courage that never even permits a
suggestion of give-up to enter the mind of the fighter. It was a
courage such as this, combined with rare judgment and physical
ability, that makes it possible for Miss Burrell and Miss Thompson to
be present with us at the council fire this evening.

"They have not told the story willingly. I had to draw it from them
bit by bit, which I venture to say is more than any of my girls have
succeeded in doing." The guardian smiled as she glanced about at the
eager, flushed faces of the Camp Girls.

"Yes, yes!" they cried.

"As you all know, Miss Burrell, seeing the danger of her companion,
hurried to her rescue, with the result that both girls went into the
sea. They were quickly carried out to sea by the undertow, which they
fought away from and propelled themselves to the surface. Then they
began swimming, but in the darkness were unable to see the shore.
After a time, Miss Thompson, less strong than her companion, gave out.
Then began the real battle, and though Miss Burrell was benumbed with
cold, exhausted by her efforts, she managed by a great effort to keep
herself and her companion afloat. Fortunately for them, the wind had
shifted and they swam and drifted into the bay and eventually to the
shore. We have no means of telling how long our two plucky Wau-Wau
Girls were in the water, because they themselves cannot tell when they
reached the shore--but, think of it! cast away on a dark and stormy
ocean in a black night such as that was. That is a triumph, an act of
courage and heroism that should be held up as an example to every Camp
Girl in America. However, I should not advise any of you to attempt to
emulate the example set by our two young friends," added the Chief
Guardian warningly.

A ripple of laughter ran around the circle, then the ensuing silence
was broken by a remark from Tommy which sent the girls nearest to her
into a shout of laughter.

"Well, I thhould thay not!" exploded Tommy.

"You might tell the girls how you felt when you believed that all was
lost," suggested the Chief Guardian smilingly, nodding at Tommy. "Do
you recall how you felt in that trying moment?"

"I motht thertainly do."

"How did you feel?"

"I felt cold. I had what Harriet callth 'cold feet.' Then I gueth I
didn't feel much of anything till I felt mythelf thitting in the thand
with thome of me dry and thome of me wet, and Harriet trying to drag
me out of the thudth."

"Out of what?" exclaimed the Chief Guardian.

"Thudth."

"Suds," interpreted Miss Elting. "Grace refers to the froth left on
the shore by the beating waves."

"Yeth, thudth," repeated Tommy.

"Harriet, your companions would like to hear from your own lips about
your experiences in the water."

"Oh, please, Mrs. Livingston, won't you excuse me?"

"If you wish, but--"

"My own part was nothing more than an instinct to save myself, which
everyone possesses. I do want to say, though, that Tommy Thompson was
the bravest girl I ever saw. She was not afraid, nor can she be blamed
for getting numb and sleepy. I did myself. No one can ever tell me
that Tommy isn't as brave a girl as lives. She has proved that."

"Yeth, I'm a real hero," piped Tommy with great satisfaction.

"A heroine, you mean, Tommy," corrected Harriet.

"Yeth, I gueth tho," agreed the little lisping girl amid general
laughter, in which, the Chief Guardian joined.

"There is nothing else that I can think of to say, Mrs. Livingston. We
were fortunate; we have much for which to be thankful, for it was
through no heroism on my part that we got ashore and were saved."

Harriet sat down, inwardly glad that her part of the story was told.

"We have our own views as to that," answered the Chief Guardian. "And
now that we have cleared the way, I would say that the camp guardians
have unanimously agreed on giving each of you two young ladies a full
set of beads for your achievements of last night, for such
achievements touch upon nearly all the crafts of our order. They have
been worthily won and will prove a splendid addition to the already
heavy necklace of beads you have earned."

"I gueth we'll need a chain bearer inthtead of a torch bearer if we
keep on earning beadth," suggested Grace.

The two girls were requested to step out. They did so, posing demurely
before the blazing campfire.

Mrs. Livingston placed a string of beads about the neck of each of the
two girls. There were beads of red, orange, sky blue, wood brown,
green, black and gold, and red, white and blue, representative of the
different crafts of the organization.

Linking hands and raising them above their heads, thus forming a chain
about the blazing campfire, the Wau-Wau Girls began swaying the human
chain, chanting in low voices:

"Beads of red and beads of blue,
Beads that keep us ever true;
Beads of gold and beads of brown,
Make for health and great renown."

Tommy, chancing to catch the eyes of Margery Brown on the opposite
side of the circle, winked wisely at her. Tommy was in her element,
but quite the opposite was the case with Harriet. She was
uncomfortable and embarrassed, and though proud of the beads that had
been awarded to her, she felt that she scarcely had earned them. She
was suddenly aroused by the voice of the Chief Guardian.

"Miss Thompson will be seated," she was saying. "Miss Burrell will
kindly remain standing."

"Now you are going to catch it," whispered Grace, as she began
stepping backward toward her place, which she did not quite reach. She
sat down on Hazel instead, raising a titter among the girls near by
who had witnessed the mishap. But the interruption was brief. The
girls were too much interested in what was taking place there by the
campfire. They had not the remotest idea what the Chief Guardian was
going to do, though they felt positive that some further honor was to
be paid to Harriet Burrell.

"I think I but voice the feelings of the guardians and the girls of
Camp Wau-Wau, both those who are with us here for the first time and,
those who were members of this camp when the Meadow-Brook Girls
joined, when I say that Harriet Burrell is deserving of further
promotion at our hands. In the two years that she has been a member of
our great organization she has worn the crossed logs upon her sleeve,
the emblem of the 'Wood Gatherer'; she has borne with honor the
crossed logs, the flame and smoke, the emblem of the 'Fire-Maker.' She
has, too, more than fulfilled the requirements of these ranks,
filled them with honor to herself, her friends and the organization;
and instead of earning sixteen honors from the list of elective
honors, she has won more than forty, a record in the Camp Girls'
organization. She has fulfilled other requirements that pertain to an
even higher rank. She has proved herself a leader, trustworthy, happy,
unselfish, has led her own group through many trying situations and
emergencies, winning the love and enthusiasm of those whom she has
led."

[Illustration: Harriet and Tommy Received Their Reward.]

"My dear, what is the greatest desire of a Torch Bearer?"

"To pass on to others the light that has been given to her; to make
others happy and to light their pathway through life," was Harriet's
ready response.

There were those in the circle who quickly caught the significance of
the Chief Guardian's question. Many were now aware what reward was to
be bestowed upon the Meadow-Brook Girl.

"Who bring to the hearth the wood and kindling?" questioned the Chief
Guardian.

"The Wood Gatherers."

"Who place the sticks for lighting?"

"The Fire Makers." Harriet's replies were prompt, but given with some
embarrassment.

"Who rubs together the tinder sticks and imparts the spark that
produces the flame?"

"The Torch Bearer," answered Harriet in a low voice. Her face now
seemed to be burning almost as hotly as was the council fire before
her.

"What are the further duties of a Torch Bearer?"

"To act as a leader of her fellows in their sports and in their more
serious occupations, to assist them in learning that work, that
accomplishment, bring the greater joys of life; to assist the guardian
in any and all ways," was the low-spoken reply.

"Correct. And having more than fulfilled the requirements, I now
appoint you to be a Torch Bearer, a real leader in the Camp Girls'
organization, thus entitling you to wear that much-coveted emblem, the
crossed logs, flame and smoke. Workers, arise and salute your Torch
Bearer with the grand hailing sign of the tribe!"

CHAPTER XII

MYSTERY ON A SAND BAR

"I--I thank you."

Harriet, placing the right hand over the heart, bowed low, and the
ceremony was complete. The voices of the Wau-Wau Girls were raised in
singing, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Then they ran forward, fairly
smothering Harriet with their embraces and congratulations.

"You forget that I am the real hero," Tommy reminded them; whereat
they picked up the little girl and tried to toss her back and forth,
with the result that she was dropped on the ground.

The guardians added their congratulations as soon as they succeeded in
getting close enough to Harriet to do so. Grace also came in for her
share of congratulation and praise, with which she was well content.

"Come, girls," urged Miss Elting, "you know we have to make our beds,
and the hour is getting late."

"I'm not thleepy," protested Grace, "I could thtay awake for ageth."

"You will be by the time we find our sleeping place. It is some
little distance from here." Harriet glanced at the guardian
inquiringly.

"Yes, it is the cabin," answered Miss Elting. "Mrs. Livingston lost no
time in arranging for us to occupy it, though I am not at all certain
that it is the wise thing to do under the circumstances."

"Under what circumstances?" asked Harriet.

"Storms."

"But they can do us no harm."

"We shall have to take for granted that they will not. Mrs. Livingston
sent to town to ask permission of the owner, who readily granted it.
He had forgotten that he owned the cabin. It seems that no one has
occupied it in several years. Mrs. Livingston also obtained some new
blankets for us, but for to-night we shall have to put up with some
hardships. To-morrow you girls can fix us bough-beds; then we shall be
quite comfortable. But we shall have to cook out-of-doors, there being
no stove in the cabin."

"We shan't be able to cook on the bar. The breeze from the sea is so
strong there that it would blow the fire away."

"We must come to camp for our meals, then. Perhaps that would be
better after all. We don't wish to run away by ourselves; and besides
this, you are now a Torch Bearer and must take a more active part in
the affairs of the Camp, even if you are of the Meadow-Brook group,"
reminded the guardian.

Harriet nodded thoughtfully.

"How good and kind Mrs. Livingston is! And think of what she has done
for me. It is too good to be true."

"What is too good to be true?" questioned the Chief Guardian herself.

"Everything--all that you have done for me."

"We are still in your debt. Now you had better be getting along. Will
you need a light?"

"No, thank you. Harriet ith an owl. She can thee in the dark jutht ath
well ath in the light," answered Tommy, speaking for Harriet.

The Meadow-Brook party, after calling their good nights, started
toward the cabin, Harriet with the thought strong in her mind that
only one rank lay between her and the highest gift in the power of the
organization to bestow. She determined that one day she would be a
Guardian of the Fire, but she dared not even dream of ever rising to
the high office of Chief Guardian. Harriet's life would be too full of
other things, she felt.

They trooped, laughing and chatting, along the beach, and, reaching
the Lonesome Bar, followed it out. The bar was a narrow, sandy strip
that extended nearly a quarter of a mile out into the bay. About half
way out the cabin had been built and for some time occupied by a
Portsmouth man, who occasionally ran down there for a week-end fishing
trip. The cabin, as a camping place, possessed the double advantage of
being out of the mosquito zone and of being swept by ocean breezes
almost continuously. A fresh breeze was now blowing in from the sea,
and the white-crested rollers could be seen slipping past them on
either side. It was almost as though they were walking down an ocean
lane without even wetting their boots. The water was shallow on either
side, so that even though they stepped off they were in no danger of
going into deep water.

"We have forgotten all about a lamp!" exclaimed Harriet as they neared
the cabin.

"That has been attended to," replied Miss Elting.

"You know we have been thleeping, Harriet," reminded Tommy--"thleeping
our young headth off. Ithn't it nithe to be able to thleep while other
folkth do your work for you?"

They had hurried on and Tommy was obliged to run to catch up with
them. Miss Elting was lighting a swinging lamp when they entered the
cottage, which consisted of one room, above which was an attic, but
with no entrance so far as they were able to observe. Six rolls of
blankets lay on the floor against a side wall ready to be opened and
spread when the girls should be ready for bed. One solitary window
commanded a view of the sea. Tommy surveyed the place with a squint
and a scowl. There was not another article in the place besides the
blankets.

"There ithn't much danger of falling over the furniture in the dark,
ith there?" she asked.

"Not when we have a Torch Bearer with us," answered Buster, from the
shadow just outside the door.

"Thave me!" murmured Tommy.

"Oh, my stars! We'll laugh to-morrow, darlin'. It's too dark to laugh
now. Come in and sit down, Buster. It isn't safe to leave you out
there. No telling what you might not do after having given out such a
flimsy 'joke.'"

"Where shall I sit?" asked Margery, stepping in and glancing about the
room.

"Take the easy chair over there in the corner," suggested Harriet
smilingly.

"But there isn't any chair there."

"That ith all right. You jutht thit where the chair would be if there
were one," suggested Tommy.

"No sitting this evening," declared the guardian. "You will all
prepare for bed. At least two of you need rest--I mean Harriet and
Tommy."

"Yeth, we alwayth need that. I never thhall get enough of it until
after I have been dead ever and ever tho long."

"I am not sleepy, but, of course, being a leader now, I have to set a
good example," said Harriet lightly.

Tommy squinted at her inquiringly, as if trying to decide whether or
not it were prudent to take advantage of her now that Harriet was a
leader officially. She decided to test the matter out at the first
opportunity, but just now there was a matter of several hours' sleep
ahead, so Tommy quickly prepared for sleep, after which, straightening
out her blanket, she twisted herself up in it in a mummy roll with
only the top of her tow-head and a pair of very bright little eyes
observable over the top of the blanket.

Harriet waited until her companions had rolled up in their blankets;
then she opened the door wide so that the ocean breeze blew in and
swirled about the interior of the cabin in a miniature gale. The girls
did not mind it at all. They thought it delicious. This was getting
the real benefit of being at the sea shore. Harriet rolled in her
blanket directly in front of the door with her head pillowed on the
sill. To enter the cabin one would have to step over her. She went to
sleep after lying gazing out over the sea for some time.

"What's that?" Harriet started up with a half-smothered exclamation. A
report that sounded like the discharge of a gun had aroused her, or
else she had been dreaming. She was not certain which it had been. The
other girls were asleep, as was indicated by their regular breathing.
Harriet listened intently. She had not changed her position, but her
eyes were wide open, looking straight out to sea. Nothing unusual was
found there. She was about to close her eyes again when a peculiar
creaking sound greeted her ears. Harriet knew instantly the meaning of
the sound. It came from the straining of ropes on a sailboat.

Unrolling from the blanket and hastily dressing, the Meadow-Brook Girl
crawled out to the bar, wishing to make her observations unseen by any
one else. Now she saw it again, that same filmy cloud in the darkness,
towering up in the air, moving almost phantom-like into the bay to the
south of the cabin on Lonesome Bar.

"It's a boat. I believe it is the same one I saw in there before. But
I can't be sure of that. I don't know boats well enough; then, again,
the night is too dark to make certain. I don't know that it would be
anything of importance if a boat were to run in here to anchor for the
night. That evidently is what they propose doing," she thought.

That Harriet's surmise was correct was evidenced a few moments later
when the boat's anchor splashed into the waters of the bay and the
anchor chain rattled through the hawse hole. Harriet tried to get a
clear idea of what the boat itself looked like, but was unable to do
so on account of the darkness. Now the creak of oars was borne faintly
to her ears; the sound ceased abruptly, then was taken up again.

"They are putting a boat ashore!" muttered Harriet, who was now
sitting on the sand, her hair streaming over her shoulder in the
fresh, salty breeze. "I hope to goodness none of them comes out here.
The girls would be terribly frightened if they knew about this. I
don't believe I shall tell them, unless--"

Harriet paused suddenly as the sound of men's voices was heard
somewhere toward the land end of the bar. She walked around to the
rear of the cabin, peering shoreward. She made out faintly the figures
of two men coming down the bar. They were carrying something between
them--something that seemed to be heavy and burdensome, for the men
were staggering under its weight.

The Meadow-Brook Girl realized that she was face to face with a
mystery, but what that mystery was she could not even surmise, nor
would she for some time to come. She determined to act, however, and
that, if possible, without alarming her companions. Hesitating but a
moment, Harriet stepped out boldly and started up the bar to meet the
mysterious strangers with their heavy burden.

CHAPTER XIII

A STRANGE PROCEEDING

They did not appear to see her until Harriet was within a few yards of
them.

Then they halted sharply, dropped their burden and straightened up.
The right hand of one of them slipped to his hip pocket, then a few
seconds later was slowly withdrawn with a handkerchief in it.

"It's a girl," exclaimed one of the pair in a low voice.

"Well, what do you think about that?"

"Hello, there, Miss! What is it? Who are ye?" demanded one of the men.

"I was about to ask the same question of you. What are you doing
here?"

"This here is free coast, young woman. We've as good a right to be
here as yourself, and maybe more right," returned the stranger.

"That depends, sir. I wish you wouldn't speak so loudly, either. You
will awaken my companions. I would just as soon they did not see you,
for I don't like the looks of you in the dark."

"Companions!" exploded one of the men under his breath. "Whew! Where
are they?"

"In the cabin. We are occupying it now. Where were you going with that
box? You know there is nothing but the sea beyond here. This is a bar.
The mainland is the other way. Perhaps you thought you were headed up
the beach?"

"Sure we did, Miss. Thank you. We'll be going. Sorry to have disturbed
you. Got some provisions for a friend of ours who is down this part of
the coast on a fishing trip. Thank you."

They gathered up their burden and started back toward the beach as
fast as they could stagger, Harriet in the meantime standing where
they had left her, gazing after them with forehead wrinkled into
ridges of perplexity. Harriet watched the men all the way back to the
beach. She saw them put down the box they had been carrying and stand
looking back at her. Harriet quickly retraced her steps to the cabin,
in the shadow of which she halted and continued her watching.

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