The Camp Fire Girls on Ellen's Isle; Or, The Trail of the Seven Cedars

Now she could see the paddles flashing out on both sides, and the caterpillar became a creature with wings. In she came, straight for the landing, her crew sitting erect as pine saplings, dipping their paddles in unison.

Up flashed the paddles on the cheer, giving the salute; then down again in time for the next stroke.

“Ready! Back paddle! One! Two!”

Down went the paddles, held stiffly against the sides of the canoe to stop her, while the water swished and foamed over the blades; then the strokes were reversed to back her up.

“Cross rest!”

The paddles lay idly across the gunwales and the Nyoda floated in to the landing.

“Disembark!”

“Salute!”

“Yea!” Up went the paddles.

“Dismiss!”

Crew practice was over. The crew dove off the sides of the dock like water rats and began to play tag around the war canoe, swimming around it, and under it and diving off the bow, until a far-echoing blast on the horn warned them it was time to come and play another sort of game.

At breakfast Aunt Clara told about seeing the big moose break through the woods on the opposite shore, and immediately there rose a great clamor.

“Oh, Uncle Teddy, can’t we go over there and see if we can see it?” cried Sahwah.

“Can’t we have a big hunting party and kill it and bring home the antlers to hang in the House of the Open Door?” asked the Captain.

“You forget it’s not the hunting season,” replied Uncle Teddy, “and don’t seem to be aware of the fact that there are such things as game laws in this fair country.”

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he said. “We’ll hunt the moose anyhow, but we won’t try to kill him. We’ll just try to get a look at him. They are getting so scarce nowadays in this part of the country that it’s worth a chase just to see one. If he really lives in those woods over there he’ll probably let himself be seen sooner or later. All we have to do is find out where he goes to drink and then watch that place.”

The Winnebagos thought that hunting the moose for a friendly purpose was much nicer than killing him after all, and they were perfectly satisfied with the sport as it was. The boys, of course, would rather have hunted him down and secured his antlers, and thought that just looking at him was rather tame sport, but under the circumstances that was the best they could do.

“I know what we’ll do,” said Migwan. “You remember the story of the Calydonian Hunt in the mythology book? Well, we’ll pretend this is another Calydonian Hunt.”

“Oh, Hinpoha,” groaned Migwan, “how did you ever manage to get a passing grade in ‘Myth?’”

“The only kind of myths Hinpoha cared about were the ‘Hero and Leander’ kind,” said Sahwah slily. “She knew that one by heart.”

Hinpoha blushed and made awful grimaces at Sahwah.

“I should think that one would appeal to you particularly, Sahwah,” said Migwan; “you’re so fond of swimming.”

Sahwah snorted. “Leander was a fool. It was all right to swim the Hellespont on moonlight nights when the sea was smooth, but if he’d had any brains in his head he’d have rigged up a breeches-buoy for use in stormy weather and gone across in safety and style.”

There was a loud burst of laughter at the picture of the romantic Leander traveling across the Hellespont in a breeches-buoy, and when that had subsided Uncle Teddy remarked, “Well, have you made up your minds what you want to call this expedition in search of the moose? By the way, Mother, are you absolutely sure it was a moose and not a bossy cow you saw?”

Aunt Clara did not deign to answer his teasing.

They all thought this was a fine idea.

“Who will be Jason?” asked the Captain. “Wasn’t he the captain, or the first mate, or the vessel owner, or something, the time they went looking for the golden calf?”

“The Golden Fleece, not the golden calf,” said Migwan quickly, while they all laughed harder than ever at the Captain’s floundering attempt to quote mythology.

“Well, the Golden Fleece, then,” said the Captain. “Who’s going to be Jason?”

“Whoever’s commander of the trip will be Jason,” replied Uncle Teddy.

“Who will that be?” asked Sahwah.

“Whoever’s Chief at the time we go,” replied Uncle Teddy.

“That will be you, because you’re Chief this week,” said Sahwah.

“But Aunt Clara is Chief, too,” protested Katherine.

“Then there will be a Mr. and Mrs. Jason,” said Sahwah promptly. “And all the rest of us will be Argonauts.”

“You forget that the figurehead was the most important part of the ship in the eyes of the Greeks,” said Aunt Clara sweetly.

“If we don’t hurry and get started,” said Mr. Evans sagely, “that moose will be nowhere to be found. If you are going to argue as long over every detail of the hunt as you have about this much of it, the moose will have time to get clear over the Arctic Circle before we ever land on the other shore. I move we call ourselves the Argue-nots and go over this afternoon without delay. This weather is too fine to be wasted on dry land.”

Accordingly, right after dinner, the second great Argonautic Expedition put out to sea. Mrs. Evans, who had a headache, offered to stay at home and keep Sandhelo company and watch the island.

The space under the seats of the Argo II, as she was temporarily re-christened, was stowed full of “supper makin’s,” for they planned to stay until after nightfall.

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. This was an exciting business, for every few seconds a wave would wash up over those rocks, and if the leap was not made just at the right instant, the unwary lander got a pair of wet feet. But that only added to the fun. When all were out the canoe was pulled up and carried back a safe distance and left upside down with the paddles underneath it, so the sun could not shine on them and crack them. Sunshine, which gives life to most things, is absolutely fatal to wet paddle blades.

“The Argonautic half of the Expedition came up to our expectations,” said Migwan, as they floundered on, “but the Calydonian Hunt seems to be a wild goose chase.”

“Where do mooses stay when they are in the woods?” asked Hinpoha, falling over a root and pausing to rub her ankle.

“On the ground,” said the Captain, trying to be funny.

“How very odd,” said Hinpoha. “I had an idea they climbed up into a tree and built a nest. I may not know much about your old mythology, but I do know a few things about a moose.”

“Oh, well,” said Hinpoha, laughing with the rest, “have it your own way. By the way, what is the plural–meece? Anyway, I wasn’t talking to you in the first place when I asked my question. I was talking to Uncle Teddy, and I’m going to ask him again. Where would you go to look for a moose in the woods?”

“They like shallow water in summer and slow-moving streams,” replied Uncle Teddy. “They wade out and eat the plants growing in the water.”

“I suppose if we see him at all we’ll see him that way,” said Hinpoha. “We’ll probably only get a glimpse of him from a distance.”

“Probably,” agreed Uncle Teddy, “unless—”

“Unless what?” asked Sahwah, pricking up her ears.

Uncle Teddy smiled mysteriously. Then from his pocket he produced something which looked like a trumpet made of birchbark.

“What is it?” they all chorused, crowding around him.

“Wait and see,” he said, still with that mysterious smile.

“Everybody find a comfortable place and sit absolutely still,” he ordered.

“What’s going to happen?” asked Hinpoha curiously.

“Nothing–very likely,” replied Uncle Teddy tantalizingly.

“May we climb a tree?” asked the Captain.

“Surely,” replied Uncle Teddy, “if that’s your idea of a comfortable place to sit. And if you will promise to be absolutely still when you get there and not fall out at the wrong time.” The Captain swung himself up into a big cedar tree that stood nearby, and sat with his feet dangling over their heads.

“What are you doing, Cap?” called Slim from the ground, “going to heaven?”

“Looks like it,” said the Captain, going a notch higher in search of a better seat.

Slim had not climbed a tree. It was too strenuous for him. “Fine chance you’ll have of getting to heaven, if you have to climb, Slim,” jeered the Captain, now that he was comfortably settled.

Slim only laughed and sat back comfortably against a stump.

“What’s going to begin?” asked the Captain, craning his neck downward to watch Uncle Teddy.

Uncle Teddy put the birchbark trumpet to his lips and sent forth a strange call, that sounded like an animal.

“Why are you doing that?” asked Sahwah.

“I’m going to try and make old man moose come to see us,” said Uncle Teddy. “It’s lots easier than going to see him. You remember the saying about Mahomet and the mountain? Well, now the mountain is coming to see Mahomet. The sound made by this birchbark trumpet resembles the call of the female moose, and when the male hears it he comes to see what it means. Like his human brothers, Mr. Moose is a dutiful husband and comes when his wife calls him. Everybody sit still now and see if he comes.”

Again he sent the call echoing through the woods. The watchers strained ears and eyes, but nothing happened.

As soon as he was gone they all sprang to their feet and began excitedly comparing notes on what they had seen.

“Did you ever see such big antlers?” said Sahwah. “So flat and wide. I always thought antlers were like the branches of a tree.”

“And the funny hump on his nose,” said Hinpoha.

“But did you ever see anything so funny as that thing hanging down from his neck?” said Katherine. “It looked just like a bell.”

“Let’s follow him,” said Sahwah enthusiastically, “and see if we can catch a glimpse of him again.”

For a while they could follow the footprints of the big creature in the soft mud along the river bank; then the tracks ceased abruptly. The moose had turned and dashed into the deep woods.

“Now which way did he go?” asked Sahwah.

“You are asking more than I can tell,” answered Uncle Teddy.

“Oh, yes, let’s go on,” begged Sahwah.

“We might get lost and not find our way back,” said Hinpoha.

“We’ll remember this big cedar tree,” said Uncle Teddy. “It’s the only one around here and it’s right near the river.”

Fixing the location of the big cedar tree in their minds they struck into the woods in the direction they thought the moose had taken.

“It’s queer we don’t hear him,” said Sahwah. “You’d think an animal as large as that would make a great noise running through the woods. Just listen to the racket Slim is making over there.”

“That’s where the moose has a secret no man can find out,” said Uncle Teddy. “Big and awkward as he is, he moves through the forest as silently as a phantom. How he does it no one knows. A horse or a cow, though smaller, would make ten times as much noise.”

“Do you suppose we’ll find our way back to the cedar tree?” asked Gladys, beginning to look rather solemn as the trees and bushes closed around them in seemingly endless array.

As he was speaking they came upon another cedar tree, as big and as old as the first; the only one they had passed since that one. “Now there is a landmark worth noting,” said Uncle Teddy, pointing to the tree. “Giant cedar, towering above other trees, only one in sight. Fifteen minutes’ walk due west from the other cedar beside the river. And you see we will have to turn right here because there seems to be a path at right angles to the direction we have been traveling, while it is swampy straight ahead.”

He called the rest around him and made them all make a note of the trail they were taking. So they all jotted down, “Due west from cedar by river until you come to another; then turn south.”

And right in the path, a few steps ahead, was a soft, muddy place and in it there was a fresh footprint, which was just like those made by the moose on the river bank.

“He is around here!” cried Sahwah excitedly. “Maybe we’ll see him yet if we keep going.”

They picked their way carefully, avoiding the swampy ground and pretty soon they came to a third cedar, just as tall as the other two, and also the only one in sight.

Some distance ahead stood a fourth big cedar and ten minutes’ walk beyond that a fifth.

“It will be as easy to find our way back as if we were walking down a street full of signposts,” said Gladys, who had become fascinated with this method of looking for guideposts through the woods. “All we have to do is walk until we come to a cedar tree. It seems almost as if they had been planted that way on purpose. Let’s keep on and see if there are any more.”

Sure enough, in about ten minutes they came to another one, and there the trail through the woods ended at the foot of a rocky hill.

“That makes six cedar trees we’ve passed,” said Gladys, jotting down the fact in her notebook.

“Uncle Teddy, won’t you please call the moose again,” pleaded Sahwah. “Maybe he’d come again.”

“I doubt it,” said Uncle Teddy. “He found out once that it wasn’t his mate calling him.”

“Try it again, anyway,” begged Sahwah.

“He’s ‘wise,’” said the Captain. “You can’t blame him. Nobody could fool me twice either.”

“We might as well start back now,” said Slim, beginning to think longingly of the supper cached under the first cedar by the river. “We’ve had our hunt, and seen the moose, which was what we came for. Aren’t you all satisfied yet?”

“Oh, Slim, are you very hungry?” asked Sahwah. “Katherine and I want to go up the hill a little way and poke into that ravine up there; it’s so dark and mysterious looking.”

Slim sighed and looked longingly back toward the trail by which they had come.

“Oh, never mind, we won’t go,” said Sahwah, seeing the look.

“Oh, go on,” said Slim good naturedly.

Katherine fished in her pocket and drew out a tin foil-covered package. “Here’s a piece of chocolate I’ve been carrying around with me ever since I’ve been at Ellen’s Isle,” she said. “It’s pretty stale by this time, I guess, but it’ll keep you from starving while Sahwah and I go and explore the ravine.”

Slim took the chocolate without any scruples regarding its staleness and Katherine and Sahwah started up the hill. Then the rest thought they would like to go into the ravine, too, and all came streaming after.

“There’s another cedar tree!” cried Gladys, pointing ahead of her. Springing from the steep side of the ravine and towering high above it stood a seventh cedar tree, more lofty and more ancient looking than the others.

“What a peculiar place for a tree to take root,” said Gladys. “It looks as though it would slide down the hill any minute.”

“I reckon it’s firm enough,” said Uncle Teddy. “It’s been hanging on there for considerably over a hundred years, by its size.”

“What’s this on the rock?” asked Sahwah, who had been examining the boulders which lay at the bottom of the ravine just under the tree. She pointed to a mark on one of the stones, an arrow chiseled out of the hard rock. They all crowded around and exclaimed in wonder. What could it mean?

“Maybe somebody’s buried here,” said the Captain.

“Rather a heavy tombstone,” said Uncle Teddy. “And not much of an epitaph. I’ll want more than an arrow on mine.”

But the consuming interest they had all shown in the arrow on the rock was driven out of them the next moment by a wild uproar at the other end of the ravine–the sound of a great crashing accompanied by a frightful bellow. Then there was another crash; the sound of rock striking against rock, a ripping, tearing, falling sound, a thud and another frightful bellow.

“Goodness, what was that?” asked Uncle Teddy, running forward in the direction of the noise, followed by the others.

They soon saw. On the ground at the upper end of the ravine lay the great bull moose they had seen that afternoon when he had come, in the pride of his strength, to answer the call of the birchbark trumpet. Now he lay in a heap, his sides heaving convulsively, beside a good-sized rock he had either carried over the edge of the precipice in his fall from above, or which had carried him. At the top of the ravine there was a deep hole in the soil where the ground had given away and hurled him over the edge. But the fall was not the worst of it. Down in the ravine there stood a broken sapling about two feet high, its sharp point standing up like a bayonet. Straight onto this the moose had plunged in his fall, ripping his chest open in a great jagged gash from which the blood flowed in a stream.

“Kill him, kill him,” said Aunt Clara, catching hold of her husband’s arm in distress, “I can’t bear to see him suffer so.”

“I have nothing to kill him with,” said Uncle Teddy, in equal distress.

But the moose was beyond the need of a friendly bullet to end his sufferings, for after a few more convulsive heaves he stiffened out and lay still.

“Is he dead?” asked Hinpoha.

“Yes,” answered Uncle Teddy.

“I’m so glad,” said Hinpoha, still keeping her eyes averted. “The poor, poor thing. Are you going to bury him?”

“Bury him!” shouted the Captain in amazement. “Bury that moose? Not for a hundred dollars! Bury those antlers, and that hide? What are you thinking of?”

“I forgot,” said Hinpoha meekly. “I was only thinking of the poor moose himself, not his antlers or his hide.”

“Have we a right to take him?” asked Gladys. “This isn’t the hunting season, you know.”

“Well, your Calydonian Hunt was more successful than you expected,” said Uncle Teddy, “for now you will really have the antlers as a trophy instead of just seeing the moose. If only all big game hunting were so easy!”

The Argonautic Expedition seemed very argonautic, indeed, when Mrs. Evans welcomed it back into camp and heard the news about the moose. Of course, they could not bring it back with them in the war canoe, for it weighed twelve hundred pounds if it weighed an ounce. Uncle Teddy and Mr. Evans, with the Captain and a few more of the Sandwiches, went directly back in the big launch to bring in the carcass while the Winnebagos prepared a second supper to celebrate the triumphant outcome of the Calydonian Hunt.

“It is peaceful,” drawled Katherine, tracing designs in the sand with her forefinger. “One of those days when everything seems in tune and nothing happens to disturb the quiet. By the way, where’s Sahwah?”

“Gone to St. Pierre with Mr. Evans for the mail,” answered Hinpoha.

Katherine drew a few more designs in the sand and then rose and sauntered leisurely up the path. The rest lay still.

“Ouch, my neck’s getting sunburned,” said Slim about five minutes later, and picking up Hinpoha’s hat he set it on his head and panted across the beach toward the hill.

The Captain sent a pebble flying after him, and carried the hat from his head. Slim went on his way without stopping to pick it up.

“Slim is absolutely the laziest mortal on the face of this earth,” said the Captain, strolling down to the water’s edge and wading out to wash the sand off before he, too, started on the upward climb.

Migwan and Gladys obligingly rowed out as he directed and rested their oars, waiting for him to come. The Captain made a clean leap from the rock and disappeared beneath the surface of the water.

“I believe he’s going clear under the boat and coming out the other side,” said Hinpoha.

The interval was growing long and the Captain had not risen to the surface yet.

“He’s been under almost a minute,” said Uncle Teddy, springing up and watching the water keenly. “Where can he be?”

He sprang into a boat and hurried along the line the Captain had taken, peering down into the depths. The girls and boys on the beach all hastened down into the water and swam or waded after him. When he was half way out to the rowboat where Migwan and Gladys sat waiting, the Captain’s feet suddenly shot out of the water right beside him. Dropping the oars he caught hold of the feet and pulled the Captain into the boat.

“What’s the matter? What happened?” they all asked as the Captain shook the water out of his eyes and looked around with a relieved expression.

“Are you sure that was the place, where I pulled you out?” asked Uncle Teddy.

“Quite sure,” replied the Captain. “I came up right beside the boat.”

“We’ll have to mark the spot in some way,” said Uncle Teddy, “so we will know how to avoid it when we are swimming. Let’s see, it’s right about in line with those twin pines on the bank and about thirty feet from the shore. We’ll rig up some sort of a floating buoy there and then give the place a wide berth. It’s a good thing it’s out of line with our sandy beach, so it won’t interfere with any water sports we may want to have there.”

“Don’t look so scared, I’m not drowned,” said the Captain to Hinpoha, who was as pale as a ghost.

“But you might have been,” said Hinpoha in an agitated voice. “I thought I should die until I saw you coming up. I never was so scared.”

“I’m sorry I scared you,” he said, “but it really wasn’t so terrible after all. I wasn’t very much frightened.” Boylike, he must begin to boast of his exploit in the presence of his feminine friends.

“Please be careful after this,” begged Hinpoha. “Those suck holes are dreadful things. Why, once my cousin—”

But the incident she intended to relate was never told, for just then a cascade of earth shot by the group on the beach like an express train, carrying with it something that looked like a pinwheel of waving hands and feet, all of which grew out of the head of a donkey. The cascade landed in the water with a mighty splash and from it emerged the forms of Slim, Katherine and Sandhelo, all looking decidedly astonished and not quite sure yet what had happened. A fresh hollow at the top of the hill and a ploughed-up trail of sand all the way down told the story. The earth had given way up there just as it had with the moose in the woods, and the three had tobogganed down the steep hillside into the lake.

“And down there came rockabye baby and all,” sang Migwan, amid the general laughter.

“Such a peaceful day,” said Hinpoha.

Nobody was hurt by the fall, as the sand was soft and the last landing had been in the water, and, as they had all been so frightened at the Captain’s adventure a moment before, they became hysterical in their laughter over this last ridiculous accident.

“That soft sand track down the hillside looks as if it would make a fine toboggan,” remarked the Captain. “Believe I’ll try coasting down into the lake.”

And, suiting the action to the word, he climbed the hill and slid down the sandy cut, landing with a fine splash. The others immediately swarmed up the hill to try the new sport, which was as good as the chute-the-chutes at the big amusement park at home.

That night was Council Meeting on the big rock on the bluff. It was the end of Uncle Teddy’s and Aunt Clara’s Chiefhood, and the reins of government were to fall into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Evans. After much beating of the tom-tom, Uncle Teddy presented Mr. Evans with a pine branch and Aunt Clara gave Mrs. Evans one, to hang over the door of their tents as a symbol of Chiefhood, “because pine was the chief thing to be found on Ellen’s Isle.” Mr. and Mrs. Evans accepted the branches gravely, and took their places at the end of the rock reserved for the Chiefs.

Then Mr. Evans announced that there was something special to be brought before the Council. He held a letter in his hand and the giggles and whispers came to an abrupt end, and all eyes were turned inquiringly toward him.

From all sides there rose a storm of protest. “We wouldn’t have those twins up here for anything,” said Gladys emphatically. “We had just as much as we could stand of them in two days. Have you forgotten what a cry-baby Antha was?”

“Our whole summer up here would be ruined,” continued Gladys. “Why can’t we let well enough alone? This isn’t a reform camp for spoiled children. We came up here to rest and play; not to wear ourselves out with people of that kind.”

Everywhere her sentiments were echoed. Mr. Evans gave no sign of his secret wish that the Council would take the twins. The others did not know the details of the failure of the spring water company, nor the judge’s connection with it.

“Then the Council decides that we shall turn down the judge’s proposition?” asked Mr. Evans. “Let each one register his or her vote, for or against. If you want them to come, say yes, if not, no. Gladys.”

“No.”

“Slim.”

“No.”

“Migwan.”

“No.”

“Dan.”

“No.”

“Sahwah.”

“Nosiree!”

“Peter.”

“No.”

“Katherine.”

“Certainly,” said Mr. Evans, leaning forward a little.

Katherine rose and stood in her favorite attitude, with her toes turned in and her shoulders drooped forward. “When the twins were here,” she began, “I disliked them as much as the rest of you, and when the Council was asked to decide whether or not they should come I decided to vote no. But I just happened to think what Nyoda said to us at our last Winnebago Council Meeting up in the House of the Open Door, the night she went away forever. She gave the Winnebago fire into our keeping, and said that from it we must light new fires, and that we must begin in earnest to ‘pass on the light that has been given us.’ She said we should gain an influence over younger girls and show them how to have a good time as we had learned so well ourselves. Now I think the time has come. I think that Antha has been dropped at our door as a special opportunity, and I think that we should take it.

“If you folks decide that Antha and her brother may come I will appoint myself her special ‘big sister,’ and will devote my time to her improvement. So instead of voting ‘no,’ I wish to vote ‘yes.’”

“I speak for her,” said the quiet Nakwisi unexpectedly. Nakwisi admired Katherine intensely, and desired to follow her lead in all things.

“Two have spoken for her,” said Mr. Evans judiciously. “Will there be another?”

“I will speak for her,” said Hinpoha decidedly. Katherine’s words had brought back the scene in the House of the Open Door vividly, and again she heard Nyoda’s gentle voice urging them to “pass on the light.” Completely melted, she also promised to be a big sister to Antha. Then Gladys and Sahwah and Migwan all spoke up and wanted to know if they could not take back their “no,” because they had reconsidered the matter and now agreed with Katherine.

“Does anyone speak for the boy, Anthony?” continued Mr. Evans.

“I do,” said the Captain promptly, who was anxious to find favor in Hinpoha’s eyes.

“I’ll be a big sister, or a grandfather or a Dutch uncle to the kid if I have the right to punch his head when he gets too fresh,” he said naïvely, and the solemn meeting was stirred by a ripple of laughter.

Then the Bottomless Pitt fell into line and said he felt the same about it as Slim did, and that settled the question. Of course, after that there was nothing for the Monkey and Peter and Dan to do but fall into line.

Then after their decision had been made entirely by themselves, Mr. Evans rose and told them in a few words why he had been anxious to accommodate the judge, and how glad he was that they were honestly willing to do it. They all blushed under his praise, but all knew down in their hearts that if it hadn’t been for Katherine they never would have done it.

“How soon will they be here?” asked Gladys.

“They are awaiting our answer in St. Pierre,” said her father. “And if we are favorably disposed we are to go over with the launch tomorrow and fetch them back.”

“The die is cast,” said Uncle Teddy gravely. “Now for the fireworks!”

“The person who invented tan khaki,” remarked Katherine, “ought to have a place in the hall of fame along with the other benefactors of humanity. It’s as strong as sheet iron, so it doesn’t tear even on a barbed wire fence; it doesn’t show the mud; grass stains and green paint are positively ornamental. What more could be desired?”

Slim tactfully agreed that the grass stains added to the artistic effect of the dress, and added that he thought tan and green were Katherine’s special colors. It had just occurred to Slim that Katherine might be persuaded to make a pan of fudge while they waited for the others to return. He leaned back at a comfortable angle and waited for her to digest the compliment. The lake seemed enchanted today, an iridescent pool where fairies bathed. The water had a pale, silvery green tinge, with here and there a great bed of deepest purple encircling a center of bright blue–those contrasts of color which are the marvel of our northern lakes.

“Where do those purple places come from?” asked Katherine, with a rapturous sigh for the sheer loveliness of it. “There isn’t a cloud in the sky to throw a shadow.” To Katherine’s eyes, accustomed to unending stretches of prairie, browning under a scorching sun, this blue, cool lake was like a dream of Eden.

“It was an acorn,” corrected Katherine serenely.

“Wouldn’t I have a grand sleep, though,” continued Slim, not heeding her interruption. “I’d stay there a week; maybe a month.”

“Yes,” said Katherine, “and come up all covered with moss and with binnacles hanging all over you.”

Slim suddenly sat upright and shouted. “Binnacles!” he repeated. “That’s good. You mean barnacles, don’t you? Glory! Wouldn’t I look great with binnacles hanging all over me!” And Slim leaned against the tree at his back and laughed until he was red in the face.

“Well, take whichever you please,” said Katherine with dignity, and turned her back on his mirth.

Slim saw his dream of fudge fading and realized that he had made a misstep in laughing so loudly. “Don’t get mad,” he said pleadingly to the back of her head, “I won’t tell any of the others what you said. But it was so funny I had to laugh,” he said in self-defense.

“What’s that floating out there in the lake?” she said abruptly.

“Where?” asked Slim, sitting up.

“Out there.” Katherine pointed her finger.

Slim looked in the direction she pointed. “I don’t see anything.”

“It seems to have gone under,” said Katherine, searching the surface for the thing she had seen the moment before.

“There it is again,” she said excitedly. “It just came up again.

“Slim!” she shrieked, springing to her feet and dragging him up with her. “It’s–it’s a person, and it looks like a woman. It’s red. A woman in a red dress. She’s drowning. She went down when she disappeared and now she’s come up again. Hurry! The little launch! Come on! Hurry!”

“She’s got one arm thrown up for help,” he cried above the thumping of the engine. Slim was so softhearted he could not bear to see a creature in distress, and the sight of that arm thrown up in a wild gesture filled him with a quivering horror. He could not bear to look at it and turned his eyes away.

Fairly leaping through the water, the launch came on the scene and Katherine stopped the engine. “Don’t give up, we’re coming,” she shouted at a distance of fifteen feet.

Slim stood up and prepared to drag the woman over the side. Then he and Katherine began to stare hard. Then they looked at each other. Then they quietly folded up in the bottom of the launch and went into spasms of mirth.

“It’s–it’s—” began Slim, and then choked, while tears of laughter ran down his face.

“It’s–it’s—” began Katherine, and choked, likewise.

“It’s a wooden lady!” they both shrieked together, with a final successful effort at breath.

“Oh, oh, doesn’t she look real?” giggled Katherine. “With her arm sticking up like that!”

Slim remembered how that arm had nearly given him heart failure a minute ago and shook anew.

“She’s an Indian lady,” said Katherine, leaning over the side to inspect the floating damsel.

“But she certainly did look real,” said Katherine, “bobbing around out here and going under the way she did. Look at her one foot sticking up, too. She certainly had me fooled.”

“We ought to rescue her, anyway,” said Slim gallantly. “It isn’t right to let a lady drown under your eyes if she is only a wooden cigar store Indian.”

In a moment they had her on board and were speeding back to Ellen’s Isle. She lay out stiffly in the boat, her painted eyes open in a fixed stare. They carried her up the path and set her against a tree.

“She must be having a chill after being drowned,” said Slim. “We ought to build a fire and set her beside it.” Slim’s mind was still on its first idea. It was only a step from fire to fudge.

Katherine took up the ridiculous play with alacrity. “You build the fire while I get the blankets,” she ordered.

A few minutes later Mrs. Evans, who had been spending the afternoon on her bed with a sick headache, opened her eyes to see Katherine standing beside her with an excited, anxious face. “What is it?” she asked quickly.

Mrs. Evans sprang to her feet and followed Katherine out of the tent at top speed. Sure enough, in the “kitchen” there was a big fire built, and beside it on the ground lay a figure rolled in blankets.

“I’ll get some brandy,” said Mrs. Evans, turning and running into the tent. She reappeared in a minute with a bottle from the First Aid chest and a spoon.

“Here, hold up her head,” she commanded Katherine.

Katherine lifted up one end of the still figure and turned back the blanket.

Mrs. Evans, stooping with the spoonful of brandy in her hand, recoiled with a little scream and sat down heavily, spilling the brandy all over herself. Then Katherine introduced the rescued lady and Mrs. Evans laughed till she cried and declared that her headache had been completely scared out of her. She stood the figure upright and called the others to witness the lifelike attitude.

“With her hand stretched out like that, she looks just as though she was counting ‘Eeny, meeny, miny, mo,’” she said.

“That’s just what she does!” exclaimed Katherine. “I’ve been wondering all the while what that gesture reminded me of. Wouldn’t it be great fun to name her Eeny-Meeny?”

“After such a strenuous experience I think Eeny-Meeny ought to be put to bed,” remarked Slim artfully. He was trying to get the decks cleared for action with pan and spoon.

“Of course,” replied Katherine. “How thoughtless of me not to offer to do it sooner! Come on, poor dear, and have a nice nap. You carry her feet, Slim, and I’ll carry her head. Put her in on Hinpoha’s bed for a gentle surprise party. Here, hold her head while I slip the pillow underneath.”

Then she covered Eeny-Meeny carefully with the blanket so that only her outline showed and returned to the fire, which Slim was rapidly reducing to the proportions of a “kettle boiler.”

“Don’t you think,” said Slim, as she came up, “that Eeny-Meeny would like some fudge when she wakes up? There’s nothing like fudge to restore you after you’ve been drowned.”

Katherine agreed with this idea also and soon had the ingredients bubbling in the kettle, while Slim glowed with satisfaction toward the world at large.

“Here come the folks!” cried Katherine half an hour later, when the fudge was cool and most of it inside of Slim. “We must run down and tell them the great news.”

“What’s up?” asked Gladys. “Is mother’s headache much worse?”

“Sh-h!” said Katherine again.

“There’s a lady here who’s very sick,” continued Katherine in a low, grave voice. “She was getting drowned in the lake and Slim and I brought her in in the launch and revived her, and now she’s in our tent asleep.”

A murmur of excitement rose up from the crowd, which Katherine stilled with uplifted hand.

“Oh, the poor thing!” said Gladys in a whisper. “How dreadful it must be! Will she be all right now, do you think?”

“She’s out of danger,” replied Katherine, “but she hasn’t spoken yet. We worked for more than an hour over her.”

“Oh, why did I have to miss it?” wailed Sahwah. “After all the drill we’ve had reviving drowned persons, to think that when a real chance came you should be the only ones on hand!”

“May we see her?” asked Gladys.

“You may take a peep at her if you will be very quiet,” replied Katherine in the tones of a trained nurse.

“Which tent is she in?” asked Gladys.

“Ours,” replied Katherine. “I laid her on Hinpoha’s bed, because I think it’s the softest, and, anyhow, it’s the only one that doesn’t sag in the middle. You don’t mind, do you, Hinpoha?”

“I mind?” asked Hinpoha reproachfully. “I’m only too glad to let her have it, the poor thing.”

“Are you perfectly sure we won’t disturb her by going in?” asked Gladys again, at the door of the tent. The flaps were down all around.

“I think the girls had better go in first,” said Katherine. “The boys can wait awhile.”

The boys fell back at this, and the girls passed into the tent as Katherine held the flap back. They were on tiptoe with excitement, and not a little embarrassed as they saw the long figure on the bed completely wrapped in blankets. A moment later the boys outside, standing around uncertainly, had their nerves shattered by a sudden loud scream of laughter which grew in volume until the tent shook. Then the girls came out, clinging to each other weakly, and doubled up on the ground.

“It’s–it’s—” giggled Hinpoha.

In another minute there was a second great roar of laughter, and out came the Sandwiches, dragging Eeny-Meeny with them. Katherine told over and over again the story of the thrilling rescue of Eeny-Meeny and how she had received her name.

“What a peach of a mascot she’ll make,” said the Captain, when Eeny-Meeny’s charms had all been inspected. “Sandhelo’s too temperamental for the position.”

“It’s too bad we didn’t have her for the Argonautic Expedition,” said Migwan. “Wouldn’t she have looked great fastened on the front of the war canoe for a figurehead? Why, we could set her up on that high bluff like Liberty lighting the world–you could nail a torch to that outstretched hand beautifully.”

“And we can put her in a canoe filled with flowers and send her over the falls in the St. Pierre River like the Legend of Niagara,” said Hinpoha.

“Or float her down that little woods on the opposite shore like Elaine,” said Gladys.

“Elaine didn’t go floating along with one arm stuck out like that,” objected Sahwah.

“Well, we could cover her with a robe of white samite,” said Hinpoha, “and she wouldn’t look so much as if she were kicking.”

After supper, with much ceremony and speechifying, Eeny-Meeny was raised up on a flat rock for a platform, with her back to a slender pine, where she stood facing the Council Rock, with one foot forward to preserve her balance and her right arm extended toward the councilors, looking for all the world as if she were separating the sheep from the goats, and counting “Eeny, meeny, miny, mo!”

When Katherine and the Captain became Chiefs the following Monday night, they announced that the Principal Diversion for that week would be a canoe trip up the river they had followed on foot in their search for the moose. This little river flowed into the lake at a point just opposite Ellen’s Isle, running between high, frowning cliffs at its mouth.

“It’s to be a sure enough ‘exploraging’ party,” continued Katherine, “and we won’t come back the same day.” A cheer greeted her words.

“We won’t be able to take this trip in the war canoe,” spoke up Uncle Teddy. “From what I have seen of that little river it is too shallow in places to float a canoe. If we made the trip in the small canoes we could get out and carry them along the shore when we came to the shallow places, which we couldn’t do with the war canoe very easily.”

“Oh, I’m so glad we’re going in the small canoes,” said Sahwah, delighted. “It’s lots more epic. Of course,” she added hastily, “it’s heavenly in the war canoe, all paddling together, but it isn’t nearly so exciting. There one person does the steering and it’s always Uncle Teddy, but in a small canoe you can do your own steering. And, besides,” she continued in a heartfelt tone, “there’s no chance of the war canoe’s tipping, and there always is in a little one.”

“I take it that upsetting a canoe is one of the chief joys in life for you,” remarked Uncle Teddy. “No trip complete for you without an upset, eh? I must make a note of that, and pack all the valuable cargo in the other canoes. And I shall order the crew of your vessel to wear full dress uniform all the time, namely, your bathing suits.”

“Don’t tell Antha we’re going to sleep on the ground,” Gladys warned the others diplomatically, “or she’ll make a fuss before we start.”

“We’ll save that for a pleasant surprise,” said Sahwah, with a grin over her shoulder.

No special time had been set for the return of the “exploraging” party. They were simply going to paddle up the river as far as they could go and then turn back.

The camp looked like an army preparing to move that Tuesday morning. Blankets were being stripped from beds and spread out on ponchos while their owners raced around hunting for the rest of their belongings which should go in.

“Where’s my toothbrush?” demanded Gladys, having turned the tent upside down in her search for the missing article. “Katherine, if you’ve borrowed it to stir that villainous paint mixture you were daubing Eeny-Meeny with I’ll—”

“What’s that sticking out of the hole in the floor?” interrupted Katherine, pointing to the corner behind the bed.

“Why, that’s it,” said Gladys. “I remember now, I poked it into that hole last night.”

“Why, after I was in bed,” answered Gladys, “I got to thinking about that hole and how spiders and things could come crawling through and walk right into my bed, and I had no peace of mind until I got up and stuffed it. And the only thing I could find to stuff it with was the handle of my toothbrush. Then I went to sleep in peace.”

“As if all the spiders in the world couldn’t walk in at the side of the tent,” jeered Hinpoha.

“I know it,” said Gladys, laughing shamefacedly, “but somehow the spiders that might be coming in at the sides didn’t bother me a bit, while those that might be coming through the hole did.”

“‘Consistency, thou art a jewel,’” quoted Katherine, laughing.

“What are the boys doing?” asked Hinpoha, hearing a commotion outside.

The Captain was running toward the path, waving something over his head, and Slim was hot after him trying to get it away.

“What’s going to be the order of procession?” asked Aunt Clara when they had finally got all their impedimenta down on the dock.

“You and Uncle Teddy will be in the first canoe,” said Katherine. Since she and the Captain were the Chiefs they had the right to be commanders of the trip, but they willingly agreed to let Uncle Teddy have that responsibility, as he was able to engineer a canoe party and they were not.

“Let Katherine and the Captain go in the canoe with you,” suggested Mr. Evans. “Then they can pretend they are commanding the expedition.” Mr. and Mrs. Evans were not going on this trip.

“No,” said Uncle Teddy, “I would rather have my first aids in the last boat. Then they can watch the whole line of canoes ahead of them and see that everything is all right.”

So Katherine and the Captain had the place of honor at the tail of the line.

“You’re the Chief this week,” said Uncle Teddy, throwing up his hands in a helpless gesture. “You have the right to say whether she shall go or not. If you agree to tow her yourself I certainly have no objections to her going along. But remember, towing her will include carrying her overland when we come to the shallow places.”

“Now lie still and be good,” admonished Katherine, when Eeny-Meeny had been laid in the canoe, looking ridiculously undignified with her one arm and foot sticking up in the air.

“All ready there?” shouted Uncle Teddy from up front. “All right, cast off.”

The lake was smooth and paddling was easy. They sang as they bent to their paddles, as voyageurs of old. Soon they came to the mouth of the narrow river and ran in between the high banks. The current was strong and the paddling immediately became harder work.

“I bet Slim loses five pounds on this trip,” called out the Captain. “See him perspire!”

“I’ll bet he gains five,” answered Katherine. “Working hard will give him such an appetite that he’ll eat twice as much as he usually does. Too bad we didn’t bring that thermos bottle; he will be wanting some nourishment very soon if he keeps up at that rate.”

Slim heard the jokes at his expense being tossed back and forth over his head, but his exertions had rendered him too breathless to say a word of protest.

They passed the place where Uncle Teddy had called the moose with the birchbark trumpet on the occasion of the Calydonian Hunt. “Why don’t you call another moose, Uncle Teddy?” asked Sahwah. “I should think there would be lots of them around.”