The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong; Or, Peg of Tamarack Hills

by Lilian Garis

  Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from images made available by the HathiTrustDigital Library.)

  "LOOK, GIRLS! UP ON THE ROCK! THERE'S PEG!"]

  The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong

  Lilian Garis

  1921

  CONTENTS: CHAPTER I--THE ACORN CHAPTER II--PETE'S PROLOGUE CHAPTER III--SHIPSHAPING CHAPTER IV--AN ANGEL UNAWARES CHAPTER V--A STOLEN LOOK AROUND CHAPTER VI--OPENING DAY CHAPTER VII--THE LOVING BANDIT CHAPTER VIII--GLOW OF THE CAMPFIRE'S GLEAM CHAPTER IX--A DAY WITH THE BOBBIES CHAPTER X--MEET BUZZ AND FUSS CHAPTER XI--THE FOOD SHOWER CHAPTER XII--A RECORD BREAKER CHAPTER XIII--DANGER SIGNALS CHAPTER XIV--THE ALGONQUIN EPISODE CHAPTER XV--A PADDLE, A SWIM AND A SUN DIAL CHAPTER XVI--A DARING INTRUDER CHAPTER XVII--THE GRANITE STAR CLUE CHAPTER XVIII--A CALL IN THE NIGHT CHAPTER XIX--SHAG: THE ALARM CLOCK CHAPTER XX--THE ROOM OF MYSTERY CHAPTER XXI--A SURPRISE INDEED CHAPTER XXII--PEG OF TAMARACK HILLS

  CHAPTER I

  THE ACORN

  It was Corene's idea. She had just returned from a glorious two weeksspent in a real Girl Scouts' Camp, and the brief time acted like awhiff of something good, and it tasted like more and Corene wanted it.

  "Two weeks!" she repeated moodily.

  "What can you expect?" queried Louise. "Everyone must have a turn."

  "And two weeks make a real vacation for many girls," insisted Cleo.

  "Two weeks spent right in one spot--in the ocean, for instance, wouldseem an awful long time to me," said fun-making Grace.

  "Besides all that, you went away to camp early on account of havingfinished your school work," Cleo reminded her, "and consequently thosevery two weeks are so much extra. We haven't gone away at all yet."

  "I know," agreed the abused one, "and please don't slap me, or doanything like that, girls. I have just been thinking of thosewonderful days----" She slid down and thrust her feet out so suddenlyand determinedly that she upset a harmless little vase, water, flowersand all, right on the floor of the recreation room.

  It was one of the many "last days" of school. The group of girls inthe Essveay School made the usual vacation plans, remade them and thenamiably agreed to those made by home and mother; but all this in noway affected the present outburst of enthusiasm.

  By rare good fortune many of the girls were privileged to spend theirsummers along the Jersey coast, or in the mountains between New York,New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the intimacy of their school days wasthus uninterrupted.

  "Then, Corene," returned Cleo, "what do you intend to do about it? Youcan't hope to go back again to the big camp?"

  "Oh, no; I suppose not. But everything will seem so tame," lamentedthe bobbed-haired girl.

  "Tame!" repeated Louise. "You always have a livelier time out inLlynardo than we do at Sea Crest. At least you don't have to changeyour costume three or four times a day."

  "I wouldn't do it," returned Corene. "What's the sense in going awayfor a good time and spending it amusing other folks?"

  "How so, amusing other folks?" repeated Julia.

  "Surely no one dresses to amuse herself," retorted the practicalCorene. "I like pretty things, and all that, but I hate summersimping. Buddie calls it 'simping,' although he probably meansprimping."

  "When we put on our Scout uniform last year we saved a lot of that,"reflected Cleo.

  "Which was it, Scout uniform or riding-habit, Cleo? It seems to me youspent a lot of time on horseback," Julia reminded her.

  "And I intend to do the same this year as well," declared Cleo."That's the reason we are going to the mountains."

  "Same here," agreed Louise. "We had a good time riding last year, butthere were days when the sun was too hot. Now, under the trees in themountains----" A sudden breeze blew in and sent layers of papers flyingabout.

  "There you are!" commented Corene. "There's your mountain breeze,girls. No use bothering going any further."

  "Oh, h-h--!" sighed a chorus.

  "If it would only stay," continued Cleo. "What is so hot as a day inJune?" she misquoted.

  "The first hot day in September, after school opens," answered Louise,fanning her flushed cheeks with Julia's latest story. "At any rate,let's go into classroom and try that science puzzle again. I'm notsure whether I made a bug or a bird for the seven-year locust."

  It was that evening, when these girls as neighbors had gathered onJulia's porch, that the subject of a summer camp was taken up withadded interest.

  "I've been talking to mother about it," said Julia, "and she agrees wecould have a much healthier and even happier time if we went to themountains. We might miss the bathing----"

  "But we will have the lake--the wonderful, pretty, friendly old LakeHocomo!" enthused Cleo. "The ocean is lovely, of course, but don't youthink it's awfully samey?"

  "Samey? Oh, you mean similarly," joked Louise.

  "No, she means monotonously," ventured Grace.

  "Or synonymously," added Corene.

  "Say, girls!" asked Cleo, "were we talking about the ocean or falsesyntax? I've sort of strayed off a little. I think I recall, however,that the lake was said to be lovely, and I'm willing to stick to that.Who votes for the lake?"

  "I do!"

  "I do!"

  "I do!" everyone voted for it, so it was agreed again that all wouldgo to the lake, if their folks went with them, of course. And thenCorene returned to her story of the wonders of camp life.

  "But didn't you have to wash a lot of horrid dishes?" asked Grace.

  "We washed dishes, certainly," replied the favored one, "but it wasfun doing it. We had races at it and prizes, and when one does thingsthat way it's fun, you know."

  "I'm going to try that with Benny," declared Grace. "Our folks areagain maidless, so Benny and I help. I'll race Benny and offer myclass pin as prize," she decided.

  "Your class pin for Benny? Why, Grace! You dishonor the Essveays. Makeit a buckle or a barrette. Either would be just as useful to Benny.He's sure to win, we all know that, for boys always win at anythingthey try out," declared Julia.

  "Yes, by dumping dishes in, and dumping them out, and putting themover the gas oven to dry," retorted Grace. "That's the way a boy is sosure to win in a dish-washing contest. But never mind that. Tell us,Corey, what do you propose for camp?"

  "Make one, build one, run one," she proposed simply.

  "Just like that!" added Cleo, with a chuckle. "Do you mean on paper orin the woods, Corey?"

  "In the woods, certainly," again came the measured reply, and itdidn't measure very much at that.

  "Oh, be a dear and tell us how," begged Louise, settling herself inthe cushions of the porch swing for a real story. "I want to dreamabout something other than school to-night, and I'd just love it to becamp."

  "A nice, wild, grizzly bear camp," added Grace. She skidded over tothe swing and squirmed in beside Louise.

  "There are no bears at Lake Hocomo," said Cleo, "that is, there arenone there now; although to hear dad talk of his boyhood vacationsthere, one might think the zoo was originally stocked from thatregion. At any rate, Corey, splutter along with the plan, but don'tmake me wash dishes. Leave them to the prize contestants," with a shotof rose-ball at Grace.

  "Very well," decided Corene, "and this is my idea." They all settledback comfortably now, for Corene did not usually give out her "ideas"until they had been very carefully formulated. She was theacknowledged leader in athletics among her group, she would rather goto the gym than to a party, she took toe dancing long after herfriends gave up the "ch
ildish art," and she had aspirations towardsphysical culture as a profession, to be adopted by her after she hadacquired a thorough knowledge of everything pertaining to it. That wasCorene's way.

  "We are all to go to Lake Hocomo this year," she began in preliminaryargument for the camp idea.

  "Yes'm," chirped Julia.

  "And we are going to have our own riding club," suggested Cleo, whowould agree to anything that included horseback riding.

  "All right, Cleo, that can be arranged, of course," said Corene. "Butit is not a--what do you call it?"

  "Fundamental!" offered Louise.

  "That's it. We will decide first on our fundamentals. The very firstis a camp. For that we must organize a patrol consisting of eightgirls," said the capable Corene.

  "We can have those we had last year, and all of them have beenattending Scout meetings this winter," put in Julia.

  "Yes, we won't have any trouble with our eight, but we may havetrouble not making it eighteen," said Cleo. "We always have a lot ofcalls from girls who want to come in, you know."

  "Yes, but we must be efficient," insisted the logical leader. "Wecouldn't take in girls and let them call themselves Scouts if they hadnot gone through all the tests."

  "Of course not," agreed Louise. She was always apt to agree onlimitations. Louise was a bit conservative that way.

  "But we may find other girls at the lake who are qualified--who areregular Scouts, you know," put in Cleo the democrat.

  "A patrol should be composed of eight," insisted Corene, "and when arule of that kind is decided by the organization we may be sure it isthe best. So let it be eight."

  "Remember those famous lines, 'We Are Seven'?" recalled Cleo. "We maytranspose them to 'We Are Eight' and I'll get brother Jerry to put atune to them. Oh, really, girls, I can see the camp all ready. Shallwe have to build it, Corey?"

  "If you don't run over me in the telling I may get something told,bye-and-bye," complained Corene. "We may have to build our camp if wewant one far enough away from the cottages, and I don't think anyother kind is worth while."

  "No, of course it isn't," agreed Julia. "We don't want to put up a fewcurtains in a garage and pay ten dollars to have an artistic sign madefor it, then call that combination a camp."

  This brought out the rollicking spirits for which the little group wasjustly famous, and the cushion fight that followed was a spasm of puremirth. Little girls they were, indeed; although each of them hadearned a grammar grade certificate that opened to her the doors of"High," yet the spirit of care-free little-girlishness was stillhappily theirs, and it was a matter of complete congeniality thatbound them together, year after year, from Primary to Grammar, and nowfrom Grammar to High.

  "If we are always going to end up with some silly nonsense," saidJulia sagely, although she was personally more responsible for pillowtossing than were the others, "I don't see how we will ever getanything planned."

  "We don't really have to make plans now," Grace qualified. "All wehave to do is just to talk about them."

  "That's about all we can do," said Corene, "but we have all voted fora camp, haven't we?"

  A shout of enthusiastic assent followed the question.

  "Then, just remember you have all promised to do your part towardmaking and keeping that camp," warned the instigator.

  "Do we take guns for big woozy wolves?" asked Grace, growlingdescriptively.

  "And axes to cut down our timber with?" put in Cleo.

  "Remember Buddie's sling shot? I'll be sure to take that for hootyowls," added Louise.

  "Please don't get the idea that we may shoot things, or injure birds,or do any such cruel things," counselled Corene. "Of course I know youwouldn't hurt a spider, Louise," she hurried to explain, "but I amstill so filled with real camp rules I sort of blow them off now andagain."

  "We will give you plenty of time and opportunity to apply your rules,Corey," said Julia, "and just think, only three days more!"

  "Oh, h--h--h!" came the chorus common to every school grade thatactually faces the final "three days."

  But they were too care-free to even anticipate what the camp prospectmight hold for them.

  Not all the adventures of the woods are limited to "woozy bears andhooty owls."

  Which recalls something of their experiences as told in the othervolumes of this series. It was in "The Girl Scout Pioneers, or WinningThe First B. C." that this same group of girls went through someinteresting Scouting in a Pennsylvania mill town. Two foreign girls,Dagmar and Tessie, "wandered far afield" but were finally broughtunder the influence of the Scout movement through a most dramaticclimax. The second volume, "The Girl Scouts at Bellaire," is the storyof the lost orchid. The precious bulb was brought from Central Americabut lost _en route_, and when Maid Mary, the queer little flower girl,was eventually won over to trust the Scouts, they came upon thepriceless orchid as it struggled to grow through the arm of a saw-dustdoll.

  "The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest" has a very queer girl, Kitty Scuttle,for its heroine. This girl lives on a mysterious island upon which noone is allowed to land. But the Girl Scouts find a way, and when theydo so they also find out how to rescue Kitty and the millionairechild, Royal. This little Peter Panish boy has been hidden on LooneyIsland by an unscrupulous nurse.

  So it happens that the summer opening and for which the girls areplanning must indeed be a time replete with adventure, if thereputation of this group of Girl Scouts is to be maintained.