A few days later Mary Lee received a letter from Tom Marshall. He had replied at once to her letter. He told her that he had instructed Mr. Saunders to arrange with her to buy his share of Liberty Bonds. Things were going along well and the mine was a great success. He also told her that he had forwarded his name for registration so that he could be conscripted when the time came.
"What do you hear of Jim Lee?" he inquired.
Lee had written only once to her, as the girl suddenly realized. It was over ten days since she had heard from him.
But the afternoon brought a short note in which he announced that he had been transferred to the Artillery Division. He was going to see more active service, he wrote.
When Mr. Saunders came home both Letty and Mary Lee were waiting for him.
"How many bonds did Mr. Marshall tell you to buy, dad?" asked Letty.
"Why should he tell me to buy any bonds?" her father replied.
"Why, he wrote Mary Lee that he had communicated with you; and we must get four thousand dollars' worth sold," she added.
"Must?" Mr. Saunders repeated.
"Otherwise—so we have pledged—we cannot go on the Decoration Day party with Mrs. Anderson," Mary Lee added.
"You mean that you have set a mark which you must attain in order to allow yourselves to go?"
The girls nodded their heads very vigorously.
"Well, I call that a fine thing," replied Letty's father. "You may put Marshall down for fifteen hundred dollars, and I want to add that if you don't make the mark, come to me. I won't buy any more, but I'll see that you get a chance to sell some. Now, be off with you, while I dress for dinner," and Mr. Saunders chuckled to himself.
"And they worry about this country, when even the little girls are so serious-minded," he remarked to himself.
Mary Lee, together with Letty, called on the Camerons the next day.
"Now," said Mary Lee, "to business, for that is what we came for."
"Has Mr. Cameron bought any Liberty Bonds? Have you? Will Bob buy any?"
"My goodness," replied Mrs. Cameron, "I don't know whether Mr. Cameron did or didn't. I know I did not. I never even thought of it. I don't think Bob did, either."
"Well, you should buy some," Mary Lee advised. "You see, the country needs the money. Uncle Sam is behind these bonds and he pays three and one-half per cent."
"Three and one-half per cent?" repeated Mrs. Cameron. "My bank and my other bonds pay only three per cent."
"And better than that," added Letty, "you don't have to pay taxes on Liberty Bonds."
"It sounds so attractive," said Mrs. Cameron. "But I know very little of such things. I'll leave it to Mr. Cameron. If I buy any, part of them will be bought through you."
"Thank you," the girls replied. They told her about their pledge.
"Better write to Bob and ask him to telegraph you if he will buy two shares. I think he can buy that many," suggested Mrs. Cameron.
"I'll do it at once," said Mary Lee, and proceeded to suit action to words.
"Here comes Mr. Cameron's car," Letty called.
Mr. Cameron came in almost at once and greeted Mary Lee warmly.
"It's good to see you again," he remarked as he removed his gloves.
Mary Lee did not allow much time to elapse before she stated the purpose of their call.
"I'm sorry, girls. Of course, I've already bought the bonds. They are too good an investment to let pass."
"What's more, I've bought some for Mrs. Cameron, too. However," and he paused, "between us we should be able to buy forty or fifty bonds. Don't you think so, mother?"
Mrs. Cameron smiling assented.
"Will that do?" he asked.
"Do? Do? Why, you're a dear," Mary Lee replied.
They stayed for tea and had a pleasant visit. The girls promised to call when they returned from Mount Hope.
"If we go," said Letty. "We may not be successful in getting the subscriptions."
"We simply must," replied Mary Lee.
"Tell you what I'll do," said Mary Lee. "I feel as if I should go out to see the Quinns. I owe them a call. Perhaps I can make Mr. Quinn understand how good these bonds are and if he has any savings he might want to buy some of them."
"I'll go with you," Letty replied.
The call on the Quinns was made the next day. The girls took the train and walked to the home from the station. Mary Lee was delighted with the farm; it showed great improvement over the year before.
Mrs. Quinn came to the door, one hand shading her eyes and the other partly lifting the apron which she wore while busy in the kitchen.
"Well, if it isn't Mary Lee and Miss Saunders!" she exclaimed.
Hearing the exclamation, two sturdy boys rushed past her and were shaking hands with the girls before the mother had a chance.
"Hello, Mary Lee," they greeted her joyfully. "Have you come to stay?"
"No, but I'm glad I'm here."
Mrs. Quinn took Mary Lee in her arms. "I'm so glad to see you, dear, so glad."
"I'm going for father," announced Tom. He was off with a rush, the other boy close at his heels.
The girls sat on the porch during the entire afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Quinn were with them.
"It is so comfortable and cheerful out here," Mary Lee remarked.
"It's a wonderful place, isn't it?" added Letty as she looked about.
"Yes, and it will always seem like home to me," Mary Lee replied.
"We had a great summer last year. The farm did very well. This year promises to be much better. I tell you, it's a great place," and Mr. Quinn beamed.
"Mr. Quinn has been waiting for Dr. Anderson to come out. He has saved considerable money and he wants Dr. Anderson to deposit it for him," volunteered Mrs. Quinn.
Letty looked at Mary Lee who in turn looked at her.
"That's a queer coincidence," said the girl. "One reason why we came out was to find out if you and Mr. Quinn didn't want to buy some Liberty Bonds." Mary Lee then went on to explain about them and also told about the investments everyone she knew had made. "It pays fairly well, you see."
"More than that," replied Mr. Quinn, "it's for Uncle Sam. I know something about it, but just hadn't decided that it applied to me. When you get back, Mary Lee," he continued, "will you get Dr. Anderson's consent? I have seven hundred dollars I can put into these bonds."
"I will ask Dr. Anderson to write you about this investment," Mary Lee readily replied. "He'll probably buy yours with his own."
The important business completed, the girls reluctantly disturbed their own comfort to follow the boys about the entire farm. The baby, over three years old now, was awake by this time.
Mary Lee was quite disappointed over the fact that the child did not remember her, but she made friends very quickly with both of them.
When the girls reached home it was close to eight. The next two days were hurried ones.
A telegram came for Mary Lee Monday night. At first she was greatly alarmed.
"It's from Bob, of course," Letty reminded her.
"Why, to be sure." She tore open the envelope as she spoke.
"He is going to buy three bonds," she cried delightedly as she handed the telegram to Letty.
"That gives us $850 over," Mary Lee announced after a few seconds' calculation.
"Some of the other girls may not have enough," Letty remarked. "At any rate, we'll know tomorrow whether we go or not."
The meeting was in the afternoon. Some of the girls had fallen short in the number they sold, but Edith, alone, had sold four thousand dollars' worth. The total amount—the girls held their breath while it was being figured—was nineteen thousand.
"So we can all go?" asked Ruth.
"Yes, you can go," replied Aunt Madge. "And to show you how much faith I had in you, I've gotten everything ready. We shall leave tomorrow morning at ten, from the Grand Central Station."
"Let's not take any more things than we need," said Mary Lee.
"Very well," answered Letty. "We'll use a steamer trunk for both of us. We simply can't use anything smaller, can we?"
"I thought perhaps we could," replied Mary Lee rather meekly. "But we'll compromise on a small trunk, as you say."
The girls were all ready by dinner time. After dinner they visited Ruth, who lived close by.
"I'm so glad you came, for you can help me decide what to take with me."
"Well, if you'll take our advice," said Mary Lee, "you won't take much."
"I don't expect to," replied Ruth.
"You don't?" exclaimed the other two girls in amazement. "Look what you already have laid out and I suppose you'll declare that you haven't half your things," said Mary Lee.
"Here, let's show you," added Letty, who forgot that Mary Lee had earlier in the day urged her to cut down her own luggage.
Despite the excited exclamations of Ruth over things she insisted she must have, the two other girls determinedly had their way.
"Now, isn't this better?" asked Mary Lee, when they were through packing, and her trunk, but half the size of the original, still had room for more things. "You mustn't forget you are only going for a few days."
"Very well," replied Ruth, "I suppose you're right. But please," she begged, "just let me include these shoes—just these."
"Shall we, Letty?" asked Mary Lee, pretending to be stern, but the least bit undecided.
"If it's only these shoes, we will," replied her chum.
"Thank you," Ruth said with mock humility. "Thank you very much."
Spring was late in the year 1917. The trees were just beginning to show in full foliage and the grass had the freshness and fragrance that only the early mornings of spring can give to it.
Mary Lee, Letty and Ruth had awakened and dressed at four o'clock that morning. Mary Lee had suggested the night before that they do this and the two girls had loyally but sleepily carried out the plan.
The party bound for Mount Hope had left on the seven o'clock Adirondack Express, the night before. When the three girls reached the observation platform, after going through a long line of sleeping coaches, the train was running parallel with Champlain and was nearing Plattsburg.
It was a gorgeous sight and the three stood for several minutes enwrapped in its splendor.
The lake, with the woods running close to its shore, presented a picture of crystal-like clearness. On the other side of it, the White and Green mountains were beginning to show in more definite outline. The sun, too, began to herald the dawn of the new day, forming a rosy pink in the eastern sky, just over the mountain ranges.
"My," said Letty. "I'm glad we did get up."
"We never really saw the Adirondacks before, did we?" added Ruth.
"If Mary Lee had ever been up here before," Letty further remarked, "I'm sure she never would have missed doing this kind of thing. It took her to get us to do it now; without her, I think we would have come up here again and again and never have summoned sufficient energy to get up so early."
On Mary Lee, the clearing outlines of the towering mountains on both sides of her, the magnificance of the lake, had all made a tremendous impression. Never had sunrise meant so much to her.
The girl had never, from that first day, when she was brought to the city, ever been further away from it than the farm. The beauty of this new environment dazzled her. Her two friends, though not nearly so impressionable, yet found themselves stilled by the majesty of the quiet everywhere.
So engrossed were the girls that they did not notice that Dr. Anderson had stopped just inside the door and was watching them as well as the dawning day.
He stood there for ten minutes, then came out and joined them.
Mary Lee gave him a brilliant smile. The three girls looked very pretty and attractive in their blouses.
"Isn't it perfect?" she offered with a sigh of pure joy in the splendor all about her.
The doctor nodded smilingly.
"It certainly is that," he answered.
A little later the train entered Plattsburg.
"There's a two hour wait here, girls," Dr. Anderson informed them. "While the sleepy-heads are getting up, let's go up to see the famous Plattsburg camp. Shall we?"
"Splendid," replied Letty enthusiastically, "let's."
"Of course," added the doctor, "we have but little time and so shall not be able to see very much. But even that little should prove interesting. Many of our officers for the war will be turned out here and some of our great men have come here for training."
As the doctor had remarked there was but little time to spend at the camp. The sergeant on guard showed them all that could be seen at that hour. Both Dr. Anderson and Mary Lee were specially interested in the first aid equipment. Although they had to make a hurried departure they were glad to have had this closer view of a camp destined to make history.
It was almost six-thirty when they returned to the train which was scheduled to leave in twenty minutes. They found Mrs. Anderson and one or two of the girls already awake.
"We've had a heavenly morning, Aunt Madge," said Mary Lee.
"And I suppose you called the rest of us sleepy-heads for not being with you?" Aunt Madge answered.
"I never had any idea it could be so beautiful," Mary Lee said in reply to a question of Mrs. Anderson's.
"Well, dear, you will find it even more so as we climb the Adirondacks. We are to do that from now until we reach our point. Let's all have breakfast, at least all of us who are awake and ready for it. I suppose you early risers must be starved."
The three chums suddenly realized how hungry they were. It had not occurred to them until the subject was mentioned.
It was almost nine o'clock when the party reached their station. The Anderson camp was twelve miles away and the two automobiles waiting for them took almost an hour to climb to it.
Mary Lee as well as the rest of the girls found the whole trip a panorama of delights.
The country was wild and seemed to have escaped civilization.
"To think," said one of the girls, "that a place as wild as this should be so near so big a city. It's hard to imagine, isn't it?"
The camp picked by Dr. Anderson was truly in a wonderful spot. Far from human habitation it was hidden from the narrow road up which the automobiles had come. It was three-quarters of the way to the top of Mount Hope. Nearby Lake Ormond, a small body of water was almost hidden by trees and bushes all about it.
The girls quickly changed to clothes that were comfortable and suitable. Some of them found hammocks, some walked down to the lake.
Dr. Anderson had told them that there were no fixed plans and that each one could do the thing that seemed most desirable.
When he went into the house to interview the caretakers, Mrs. Anderson and several of the girls found a comfortable nook. Irma and Clara who were not inclined to be as strenuous as the rest of the girls joined her. Mrs. Anderson was doing some sewing. Clara welcomed the opportunity to finish some beautiful tatting and Irma was equally anxious to finish a story she had begun on the train.
Mary Lee, Letty, Ruth and Edith had decided on following one of the narrow foot-paths to the top of Mt. Hope. They stopped for a few minutes and added to the group about Aunt Madge.
"I'm so glad I came," said Edith. "There never was such a place."
"How did you ever find it?" asked Clara, looking up from her yoke.
"It must have been a wonderful place for your honeymoon," said the sentimental Irma.
"Yes, we think it rather pleasant," replied the hostess. "It would not have been easy to find, you may be sure. But Dr. Anderson knows this part of the Adirondacks well and he claims that he picked this spot long ago for just such a purpose."
"Wasn't that lovely?" Irma remarked, delighted at any promise of romance.
"It's going to be very dear to us, always," Aunt Madge added. "And if our dear friends get half the fun and joy out of being here that we do we shall indeed think they are having a happy visit."
"Well, I for my part feel that I've already had an awful lot crowded into my holiday," said Mary Lee. "All the pleasure that's coming is so much added."
"Be sure to get back for lunch," Aunt Madge cautioned the four girls as they started off.
"We wouldn't miss it for the world," Letty called back.
Letty and Edith were soon considerably ahead of Ruth and Mary Lee who stopped often at the many pretty spots along the way.
"Isn't it lovely the way the path trails and yet continues ever upward?" said Mary Lee as the two made their way slowly ahead.
"It seems so far from the city and war and Liberty Bonds," replied Ruth dreamily.
"But it's our country and it simply adds to our reason for being proud of it," the other girl answered. "But you are right, it is far away from things."
At first the voices ahead were clearly distinct but now they were no longer heard. The road, too, in one or two places trailed into the woods and Mary Lee and Ruth found that it was necessary to keep a sharp lookout not to wander off on one of these side trails.
"Here's how we can tell," the former suddenly called to Ruth. "See these trees. Someone must have marked them so as to show how to go."
"It's what they call a blazed trail, I guess," Ruth replied. "I've often heard my brother tell how he and his guide had found it necessary to blaze trails as they go."
"I wonder where Letty and Edith are," Mary Lee suddenly remarked. "We haven't heard their voices for a long time."
The two girls called for their friends. But there was no answer.
"Let's hurry," said Ruth beginning to be alarmed.
They hurried out but found no sign of their friends nor any answer to their calls.
"I wonder where they can be," said Mary Lee. "Do you suppose they wandered off on one of these trails? I suppose that's what they have done," she added, answering her own question.
"Let's turn back, Mary Lee," Ruth advised.
They did this at once. Mary Lee felt certain that the two girls could not have gone much further ahead.
They came across one or two of the side trails but there was no sign of footprints. At one of these narrow paths they did see the mark of feet but after cutting into the woods for several hundred yards, they decided it was the point where they had found themselves branching off on their way up.
They did not cease their calls but were unable to get a response.
By this time it was midday and they were far from the camp. They had lost considerable time in zagzaging uncertainly from one point to another in their anxiety to locate their friends.
"I wonder, Ruth," Mary Lee questioned her friend, "whether you could find your way back and get help. It's only about two miles from here."
"What will you do in the meantime?" Ruth replied. "I hate to leave you alone."
"I shall try to locate them. But I shall be always coming back to this point, so that you will know where to find me. See, I shall put this branch in the middle of the trail so that you will know."
Ruth hurried off. Mary Lee tied her handkerchief on a small branch of another tree so that there would be no mistake. She realized that Ruth would not be able to bring help in less than an hour and so decided she was going to study the number of trails within a half mile and follow the one that seemed the most likely.
A little further up the mountain she found a path that seemed almost as wide as the main trail and decided to follow it. She had gone but a little way when she noticed that it cut directly to her right and began to go down hill.
Now she hurried and began to call again. She received no answer but decided to continue on her way.
The woods became thicker. The thorns and trailing branches scratched her arms and her face but she was unmindful of this. She made sure, however, of her way back. She had no wish to join the lost.
She had cut into the woods about a mile by now and had ceased her calls. The woods were thick about her and almost inaccessible.
"I must turn back," she thought dejectedly. "They're not this way." Her dress was torn, her hair too, was not in its usual neat order.
"Letty, oh Letty," she called with a last forlorn hope.
There was silence for a few seconds. Then from a considerable distance, she heard an answering voice.
A little uncertain as to the location and inclined to believe that the hail might come from Dr. Anderson and the rescue party, she called again.
The answer was clearer and seemed to come from about a quarter of a mile ahead of her.
She hurried forward. Soon she heard someone tearing through the brush and finally Letty and Edith appeared.
As soon as the two girls saw Mary Lee they sat down and began to cry.
"Aren't we the sillies?" said Edith tearfully. "We didn't think of crying until you found us."
"We're certainly glad you did find us," Letty added.
The two girls presented a sorry picture. Their faces and arms were scratched even more than Mary Lee's. Their dresses, too, were torn and one of Letty's stockings had a big hole in it.
The three hurried back to the point Mary Lee had marked. As well as the two girls could, they explained how they had wandered off on a side trail without being aware of it. Then they had suddenly realized they were in the thick of the woods. They had halloaed, but could not hear any answer.
Dr. Anderson and Aunt Madge were already waiting for them. The girls could hear them calling their names and Mary Lee shouted in response that she found the two.
When the party reached the camp, there were three girls who could not decide whether they were too hungry to be tired or too tired to be hungry.
After luncheon had been finished and the girls' scratches dressed, Dr. Anderson joined his wife.
"Better not tell those children what a narrow escape they had. It is best for them not to know that there have been people lost in these woods who have starved to death."
"I think, too, we had better not let them go off by themselves again," replied Mrs. Anderson. "They're not all Mary Lees, you know."
So the Andersons made light of the fact that Letty and Edith had strayed off.
By the next day, the girls had almost forgotten the incident in the excitement of the pleasures and enjoyment of the vacation.
The stay at Mount Hope came to a close much too swiftly for the girls, who had never enjoyed any outing so much. Bob had come on Saturday for the two days and after the first half hour of stiffness and shyness over being in the company of so many girls he found himself thoroughly at home.
The boy had grown more manly. Mary Lee soon found that he preferred the company of boys now. She was glad of that, even though she knew that it took something from their own close friendship. She wanted Bob to be a boy's boy and he was certainly proving himself that.
He was greatly interested in the success of the girls' "Liberty" sale. Mary Lee told him of the plans for the Red Cross week which was to begin on June 18th. The boy knew of that for his mother had written to him about it and he told Mary Lee of the plans his school had made to help during the same week.
"I'm one of the committee, too," he told her with great pride.
It was a still bright day when the party started for the station in the automobiles after waving a farewell to the caretakers. The train was due at the station at five o'clock. Aunt Madge had no wish to rush things and so had decided on an early start.
Bob left them at Plattsburg. He was to cross Champlain to Burlington and from there take a train for the school.
It was the idea of the girls that they would stay awake until late in the evening. But ten o'clock found most of them in their berths. At seven o'clock the following morning, the train arrived at the Grand Central. Letty, Edith and Mary Lee still showed traces of the scratches they had received in the woods. But they were not in the least disturbed by this for they carried the pleasantest recollections of a delightful party. If the truth were told, the incident of being lost, now that it was a thing of the past, carried a certain zest.
Letty had been quite vexed at herself for having cried when Mary Lee found them. She would have liked to pretend that she had not been at all frightened.
Edith, however, made an outright admission of how frightened she had been.
"And Letty," she rebuked the latter, "you know how scared you were. You needn't try to pretend you weren't."
"Well, I was, and so was Ruth," Mary Lee admitted.
"I suppose I must admit that I was, too," Letty ruefully added. "Though I would have liked to pretend that I was brave."
"Letty," said Aunt Madge very gravely as she put her arm about her and gave her a hug, "it's the brave people who are scared and frightened. It's people who are able to overcome their fear who are truly brave."
The girls gathered together at the station and surrounded the Andersons. Aunt Madge, happy, somewhat embarrassed, was the center of the group and received the evidence of the good time the girls had had with flushed face and genuine pleasure. People passing by stopped to watch the pretty party.
"Now for school," said Edith, as the girls began to separate to get ready for the same. "Another month and our real vacation time begins."
"Yes," replied Mary Lee, "but we mustn't, in the meantime, forget the things we must plan and do for the Red Cross before that vacation time comes. Remember our promise, don't you, for the week of June 18th?"
"We certainly do," replied the other girls enthusiastically.
"Oh, what a long week this is!" cried Letty, a few days later as she walked home from school with Mary Lee and Edith.
"Yes, school is certainly dragging along at a slow pace these last few weeks," added Edith.
"I suppose it's because our thoughts are more on our coming vacation than on our studies," said Mary Lee. "We ought to feel bright and perfectly willing to work hard after our delightful outing, but somehow I must confess I don't."
"Neither do I. The taste of fun we had was so good we want more. I wish some one would invite us to another week-end party or something," said Letty.
"Oh, wouldn't that be great! Mother has some friends who are at their lovely country home over on Long Island. If they would only invite us over," said Edith.
They had just reached Letty's home when they spied the postman coming out.
"Did you leave a letter for me?" cried Letty.
"Yes, indeed," replied the postman, "a nice big fat one, too."
"Oh, come on in, girls, till I see if there's anything worth while in it," cried Letty bounding up the front steps.
The girls were glad to stop in for awhile, for the house was cool and delightful, while the heat outside was intense for a June day.
Letty tore the letter open hurriedly, and glanced first of all at the signature.
"Oh, girls, it's from Cousin Edna! What do you suppose she wants?"
"Why not read it and see?" asked Edith, who was quite consumed with curiosity.
Letty did. A smile lighted up her face as she turned over the first page. By the time she finished the letter she was ready to dance, she was so excited.
"Calm yourself, child, calm yourself, till we know what it's all about," cried Mary Lee.
"Talk about luck!" exclaimed Letty. "Just think, Cousin Edna's Camp Fire Group is off on a camping expedition. She thinks it would be a 'lark' if some of our girls could come over and visit them for a day or so at their camp."
"Can we?" cried Edith, "well, I should say we could. Tomorrow is Friday, so why not go this week? I'm sure my mother will consent to let me go. Whom else shall we ask beside us three?"
"Nobody," said Letty. "We can have a better time if we go by ourselves. Cousin Edna says they are living in tents about five miles out from the railroad station. Of course we shall have to 'hike' all the way over from the station, but won't it be fun? We can wear our khaki suits and carry our blankets strapped around us. The camp is on the beach and we can take our swimming suits along."
"And we can sleep on the beach," cried Mary Lee, "and watch the stars. I've always wanted to do that."
"Come on home," cried Edith to Mary Lee, "and see what mother has to say. I'm sure she will think it a lovely plan. Letty, you find your mother and get her consent."
"When shall we start?" cried Letty.
"Tomorrow afternoon, right after school," said Mary Lee. "We can go by train to Port Washington and 'hike' over to the camp."
"Yes," said Letty, "I'll have father look up the time-table and see how late a train we can get, so that we can do our walking as the sun is setting. The woods will be so pretty then."
"But suppose it gets dark before we reach camp," said Edith.
"All the more fun. We can take along a flash-light. Father has one that gives out a big light. He bought it when he went fishing not long ago. I'll ask him to lend it to us," said Letty, "and mother has some regular U. S. Army blankets that she takes when we go to the mountains every summer. She'll let us each take one. They will be just the thing if we want to sleep on the beach."
When the three girls started on their expedition the next day, they were the center of attention at the depot. Each wore a khaki suit, consisting of a middy blouse and bloomers, heavy leggings and soft felt hat. Their blankets were thrown over their shoulders and strapped at the side. Inside the rolled blanket each had a sweater, a bathing suit and a cap. One girl carried a camera, one a box of lunch and the other a flash light.
"Aren't we loaded though?" cried Letty as they seated themselves in the train.
"I should say so. I feel like Tartarin when he started to climb the Alps," said Edith.
"I never heard of Tartarin," said Mary Lee. "Who was he?"
"Didn't you ever read 'Tartarin of Tarascon,' by Alphonse Daudet?" asked Letty.
"No, but I've heard of Daudet. He was a celebrated Frenchman, wasn't he?"
"Yes, and Tartarin was the dearest old fellow. He started out to climb the Alps—loaded himself with rope, woolen clothing, Alpine stick, etc. We had to read the book last year in our French class," said Letty.
"Wasn't it the hardest French you ever read?" asked Edith. "It seemed to me I had to use my dictionary for every other word. But dear me, why talk about school and studies when we're off on a 'lark'?"
"That's what I say," said Mary Lee. "Let's make up a song that we can sing as we trudge along the road."
"How about using the tune of 'The Bear Went Over the Mountain'?" asked Edith.
"Just the thing," cried Letty. "How's this?—
"We took our beds on our ba-acks—"
"Oh, no," said Mary Lee. "It's better to say 'we took our beds on our shoulders.'"
The girls were so busy working on their song that they were surprised when the conductor called "Port Washington."
How the townspeople did stare as the three girls set out down the road! Several soldiers, standing on a corner smiled as they whistled the song:
"Oh here she comes, there she goes
All dressed up in her Sunday clothes."
"Don't you feel like a freak?" asked Edith, rather sorry now she had worn her bloomer suit.
"Indeed I don't," answered Letty. "These khaki bloomer suits are the latest fad for 'hikers.' I had a letter from my aunt who is at a fashionable summer resort in Michigan. She said that there was a party of young people spending the week end at the same hotel and that all the young women of the party wore bloomer suits and looked just too cute for anything. They are university students and had walked all the way from Chicago. They were making a study of the sand dunes, lake currents and change of river beds. A professor was with them."
"How delightful," said Mary Lee. "I'd love to join a party like that, only I'd rather study Botany."
By this time the road led into a deep wood where the setting sun flashed its red light through the verdant foliage.
"Isn't this ideal?" exclaimed Edith. "Look at those noble looking trees!"
"What kind are they?" asked Letty. "I never could tell one tree from another."
"Those are red oak and those over there are white," explained Mary Lee.
"They look just alike to me," said Letty. "How can you tell which is which?"
"The red oak has pointed leaves and its acorns ripen every year. But the white oak's leaves are rounded and it takes two years for its acorns to ripen," explained Mary Lee.
"Oh, look here," cried Edith, bending over a bed of dry leaves. "Here's an Indian pipe growing. I haven't seen one for years."
"Why, it's pure white," said Letty. "Not a bit of green on it. Even the root and the stem are white. It is like a regular miniature white clay pipe, isn't it?"
"One could almost blow soap bubbles through it," added Edith. "But come, girls, we must hurry on. It will be dark before we know it."
"Who is afraid?" said Mary Lee, "we have a flash light."
"How would you like to have a cup of sassafras tea?" asked Edith, examining a small shrub.
"Where would you get the sassafras?" asked Letty.
"Come over here and help me pull up this baby tree and I'll show you," said Edith.
All three girls pulled and up came the little tree, roots and all. Then Edith took her jack knife which hung on a chain from her belt and peeled off bits of the bark down around the roots, and gave each of the girls a taste.
"It's sassafras all right," said Edith, "but it doesn't look like the kind the women sell on the street corners in town. That's more reddish looking. Why is that, I wonder?"
"Don't ask me," said Edith. "I think I'm smart enough in knowing it's sassafras. Why worry over its color?"
"Oh, here's a snail in its shell," said Mary Lee, picking up a round, brownish shell from the sandy path. "Come out here, Mr. Snail and show yourself," she said, holding the end of a long stick at the opening of the shell.
After a few minutes, there was a movement within, and out came a head.
"Look at its horns," said Letty. "Aren't they long?"
"Those aren't horns, those are its eyes at the very end of what appear to be horns. Watch, it is crawling entirely out of its shell. Isn't it funny looking, as it crawls along, carrying its shell on its back?" said Mary Lee.
"And to think people eat the horrid little things," said Letty.
"They do?" exclaimed Mary Lee. "Whoever would eat them?"
"The French are very fond of them," explained Letty. "Haven't you ever seen the word 'escargots' on the menu cards?"
"I have," said Edith, "but I must confess that my French is so limited I never dreamed it meant snails, though."
By this time the road led again into the open, with woods on one side and farm lands on the other. The sun had now disappeared and night would soon settle down, so the girls quickened their pace.
"Do you think we can make it before it's pitch dark?" asked Edith, the most timid of the crowd. "It seems to me we have walked about five miles already."
"Oh, no, we haven't, but I do think we are within two miles or so of our destination. Cousin Edna and the Camp Fire Guardian are going to walk out and meet us. I suppose they have started by this time," said Letty.
"I'm glad we don't have to go through any more woods. This road is fine and hard," said Edith.
It was now quite dark, so Mary Lee walked ahead and flashed on the light.
Suddenly they heard a strange noise.
"Oh, what is that?" cried Edith, rushing on ahead, not waiting to find out from which direction the sound came.
Suddenly there was a dreadful scream from Edith, on ahead. "Help, help!" she cried. "Oh, girls, where am I?"
Mary Lee and Letty rushed on ahead, flashing the light. In the middle of the road sat Edith and near her was stretched a big cow, half asleep.
Edith, in trying to run from the mooing cow, had run upon it instead. It had evidently strolled away from a nearby farmhouse.
"The big boob," said Edith, "to stretch itself out in the middle of the road. It was a dreadful sensation to fall against that big hot animal, and not know what it was," she laughingly said, now beginning to see the funny side of the incident.
"Listen," said Letty, "what's that whistle?"
"It's the Campfire Guardian's whistle," exclaimed Mary Lee. "They must be near us now."
"What a relief," sighed Edith, picking herself up, and trudging on after the others.
When Cousin Edna and the Camp Fire Guardian met the girls, there was great rejoicing and before long all five arrived at camp.
The "hikers" were pretty tired, so they soon unstrapped their blankets and made ready to sleep.
"I'm so glad Cousin Edna could manage to get us cots to sleep on up here in the tents. I'm too tired to try it on the beach tonight," said Letty.
"Me too," said Edith. "Falling over that cow in the pitch dark was sensation enough for one night."
"Perhaps we'll feel more like it tomorrow night. I'd hate to go back to town without sleeping down on the beach one night," said Mary Lee, unrolling her blanket.
"Isn't this a scheme to sleep in our bathing suits, so as to be all ready to run down and take a dip at sunrise tomorrow morning!" exclaimed Letty.
"I should say so. I do so love to take an early morning plunge," said Mary Lee, jumping into bed.
"My! doesn't this bacon taste delicious!" exclaimed Mary Lee, the next morning as the Campfire Girls were gathered for breakfast in the mess tent.
"And this corn bread and the cantaloupe," added Letty. "That early plunge surely gives one a great appetite, doesn't it?"
"Yes, indeed, but don't eat so slow. Remember we have to wash our dishes and clear up our own tents before we can do what we like."
"That's so," said Mary Lee, "see, some of the girls are through already."
As each girl finished, she gathered up her own dishes, walked to the end of the big table and washed and rinsed them in the big pans, placed there for that purpose.
After breakfast the tents were put in order, and when everything was ready the guardian inspected them all, to see which tent should be awarded first honors for the day.
The Guardian was about to select the tent in which Letty's cousin Edna slept when she discovered a hair pin sticking up between the boards in front of the tent.
"My, isn't she a strict Campfire Guardian?" whispered Edith to Letty.
"I should say so! Weren't we lucky to have Aunt Madge for our Guardian?" said Letty, "instead of one like her?"
Cousin Edna came up just then to tell the girls that she wanted them to come over and meet her friend Josephine.
"She's the dearest little French girl. Her father was killed two years ago over in France. Immediately afterwards she and her mother came to this country to raise funds for the French Red Cross. The mother can't think of anything but the war. She's a regular fanatic on the subject. She gives lectures around at the houses of the 'four hundred' and has made no end of big money for the good cause."
"But how did the daughter get to be a Campfire Girl?" asked Edith.
"The Guardian of our camp met her several times at lectures and felt sorry for her. She seemed to be growing melancholy from so much war talk. She never went anywhere except with her mother, so our Guardian took her under her wing, asked her to join our camp and now she's the favorite everywhere. She's getting her color back and is almost jolly at times."
"I suppose she can tell blood-curdling stories about the war scenes she saw before coming to this country."
"Yes, indeed; but we try to get her mind off the war because it has such a depressing effect on her. But she can tell you the most fascinating things about 'gay Paree' before the war. Her father was a member of President Poincaire's cabinet before he enlisted, and she used to attend all the state balls at the Elysee Palace."
"How thrilling!" exclaimed Letty. "Do introduce us."
"Isn't she a perfect darling?" whispered Edith to Mary Lee, after the introduction was over.
The girls then passed a delightful hour, playing their ukuleles and telling stories.
At eleven o'clock all went down to the beach for a swim. What fun they had diving from the spring board and learning the "Australian Crawl."
After dinner they had rest-hour till 2:30. They had to keep pretty quiet, so our three "hikers," Cousin Edna and the French girl decided to sit outside their tent and read.
"But whatever shall we read?" asked Letty.
"We have some books here," said Cousin Edna, rummaging around in an empty soap box, which stood on end, and took the place of a wash-stand in the tent.
"How are these titles: 'Woodland Nymphs,' 'Oh Jerry, Be Careful,' 'Mr. Ripling Sees it Too,' 'The Baby and the Bachelor'?"
"That's the one," cried all the girls in chorus as the last title was called out.
The book proved to be an interesting one. In fact, it made them laugh so, that it was not long before the Guardian came to hush them up and to remind them that it was "rest hour."
"Are we going to have our beach supper tonight?" asked Cousin Edna.
"Yes, and if you like," replied the Guardian, "we can take our blankets and sleep all night on the beach."
"Lovely," cried all the girls at once. "Let's get ready at once, shall we?"
Soon the picnic basket was packed and off they started to a pretty point two miles down the sandy beach.
The first thing they did upon arriving was to gather enough wood to make a fire.
Then they hunted up a large clean-looking stone and put it in the fire to heat.
While this was heating some of the girls gathered long blades of strong grass and wove two mats the size of the top of the stone.
As soon as the stone was heated, they pulled it out of the fire and dug a big hole in the sand in which they placed it. Around and over it they put hot ashes. They had brought a supply of nice fresh fish already cleaned and seasoned. These they placed between the grass mats and then covered the mats over with more ashes.
"Do you mean to say that the fish will cook like that?" asked Mary Lee.
"Indeed they will," said Cousin Edna, "and they will be so delicious you will wish you could have them cooked like that all the time."
"How long will it take to cook them that way?" asked Letty.
"About an hour," replied Cousin Edna. "In the meantime, we can all gather wood for our big fire tonight. We are going to roast corn and toast marshmallows this evening."
"We have a lot of wood already," said Letty. "See the big pile over there!"
"Bless you, child, that's nothing. We have to have enough to keep the fire going all night."
"All night?" exclaimed Edith. "Whoever has to sit up and tend it all night? I'd certainly hate that job."
"Oh, no one has to tend the fire all night. A number of us are chosen and each one has to keep watch an hour at a time," explained Cousin Edna.
"It must be hard to sit up a whole hour; I'm sure I'd go off to sleep," said Letty.
"You can doze if you like, but you have to keep one eye on the fire. You see, it gets very chilly on the beach before morning and the fire helps a lot. Besides, it keeps away the mosquitoes."
What a delicious beach supper they had and what a delightful evening they passed afterwards, telling stories, etc.
When nine o'clock came each girl put on her sweater and rolled herself in her blanket.
"Here's where I sleep," said Letty, throwing herself down on the beach and piling sand into a heap for a pillow.
"Good idea," said Edith, "let's all make pillows out of sand."
The night on the beach proved to be a delightful one, to all but one of the girls. She woke up next morning with a stiff neck from sleeping in a cramped position, and could not go in bathing.
Thanks, however, to Mary Lee's training under Dr. Payson, and her Red Cross first aid lessons, she knew just how to massage the girl's neck and thus relieved the pain in a short time.
After bathing, the girls all walked back to camp, where the cook had prepared a good substantial breakfast for them. They then passed the day quietly as it was Sunday. Late that afternoon, Letty, Mary Lee and Edith said good-bye and started on their homeward journey.
"Wasn't it a delightful trip?" said Mary Lee, as they finally reached the railroad station.
"Just splendid," answered the two other girls in one breath.
"I have some good news for you, too," said Letty.
"Oh, don't keep us in suspense," cried Edith.
"I have invited Cousin Edna and her little French friend Josephine to come and spend a week with us when we go up to our log cabin in the Catskills in July," said Letty. "Mother said I could invite a party of girls for a week, before she begins to fill the house with her company. You see, there will be five of us."
"Oh, Letty, you darling," cried Edith, leaning over and giving her a hug.
"That's the best plan of any," said Mary Lee. "I'd love to go if you will let me devote a part of the time to making those 'housewives' that we have to make. You know, Uncle Sam only provides one housewife for each four soldiers and that is not enough. Each soldier must have his own."
"Indeed he should," said Letty. "Now that brother Ted's number was chosen in the draft, I am going to get right down to serious work and do everything I can to help. We can devote a certain part of each day to our Red Cross work and in that way set a good example to all the nearby summer colonies. You ought to see the quantity of yarn that mother is laying away to take up there for knitting wristlets and scarves."
"It won't be like work up there, either," said Mary Lee. "I've heard it's just wonderful up in the Catskill mountains."
"It is," answered Letty, "and our cabin is immense. It has a porch screened in on three sides, a wonderful fireplace, and the most fragrant pillows of pine needles. You'll just love it, I know."
"Here we are at the station, already," cried Edith. "After we ferry over, let's take a taxi up home. It's Sunday, you know, and I'd hate to meet anyone in these togs."
"I don't particularly care about how we look, but a taxi would be just the thing," exclaimed Letty. "I'm beginning to feel tired."
"The next few weeks of school won't drag a particle," said Edith, "now that we have our mountain trip to look forward to."
"Indeed not, thanks to Letty," said Mary Lee, giving her hand an affectionate squeeze