CHAPTER XI A WINTER HIKE
A long cherished wish of the Winnebagos came true that winter, for theyall got snowshoes for Christmas. So did the Sandwiches. They brought themdown to the Open Door Lodge to show to the girls. "See what we've got,"said the Captain, with a slightly superior air as becomes the owner of apair of snowshoes in the presence of a mere girl.
"Wait until you see ours," returned the girls merrily, producing their"slush walkers," as Katherine had dubbed them.
"You didn't all get them, did you?" asked the Sandwiches, in comicalsurprise. It was hard for them to realize that the Winnebagos were asadept at outdoor sports as they were.
"We surely did," answered Sahwah. "What good would it do us for some tohave them and some not? We always travel together."
The Captain had Hinpoha's in his hand and was examining them critically."You girls haven't the right kind of harness on your snowshoes," he said,with the air of an expert. "Straps like yours, that buckle over the toesand around the heel are 'tenderfoot' harness. They don't give enough toyour motions and you are likely to freeze your feet. See our bindings.They are made of lamp wicking and calfskin thongs. By putting your footon the shoe so that your toes come just under the bridle and binding itfast with the wick, making a half-hitch on each side and tying a knot atthe back of your shoe you can make a fastening that will hold tightly aslong as you want it too, but will permit you to free your foot with asingle twist in an emergency."
"Did you learn all that down at Tech?" asked Hinpoha, with just a touchof sarcasm. It seemed to her that the Captain was trying to show off hisknowledge.
"He won't admit that we know as much as they do about some things," shewas saying to herself. "They couldn't get ahead of us by gettingsnowshoes, so now they must claim that theirs are right and ours arewrong. Ours are more expensive, that's the whole trouble."
"My uncle told me about it," said the Captain earnestly. "He's been upnorth and he knows all about snowshoes. Wait a minute, and I'll show youwhat I mean." He bound his snowshoes on his feet in the approved fashion,and then, by stepping on one shoe with the other foot, skilfully wriggledhis toe free without injuring the binding. "You couldn't do that if itwere buckled," he said simply, turning to Nyoda for approval.
"You're right," said Nyoda. "We never thought of that side of it before.Don't you think, girls, we'd better change ours?" They all agreed, allexcept Hinpoha. For some odd reason she still fancied that the Captainwas crowing over her, and she was determined to show him that his opinionmeant nothing to her.
"I like the straps much better," she declared. "And the buckles look sopretty flashing in the sunlight. Much prettier than your old lamp wicks.They'll be dirty in no time." And they could not induce her to change thebindings.
Followed days of learning how to run on snowshoes. It was not so verydifficult, after all, not nearly so hard as the skiing Sahwah had triedthe winter before. There were tumbles, of course, when they struckunexpected snags, but the snow was soft and no one was hurt. Hinpoha wasglad she didn't change her smart buckle binding for the wicking-thongaffair of the others, because hers looked much nicer, and there was nooccasion for getting out of them suddenly. The first day everybodyreturned home full of enthusiasm for the new sport. Sahwah in particularwas so anxious for the morrow to come when she could be at it again, thatshe could hardly go to sleep. But when she woke up in the morning shefelt a strange disinclination to get up. Her limbs ached so fiercely thatshe could hardly stand. Her muscles were so cramped and sore that she wasready to shriek with the pain. She limped stiffly into the class roomhalf an hour late, to see Gladys going in just ahead of her, travelingwith a sidewise motion like a crab, and stumbling as though her feet weremade of wood. Poor Hinpoha never appeared in school at all that day."What's the matter with us?" they groaned, dropping into Nyoda's classroom at lunch hour. "We're ruined for life." Nyoda could not conceal asmile of amusement. "I knew you'd get it," she said, with gentleraillery. "That's why I advised you not to stay out more than fifteenminutes the first day. But you were bound to stick to it all afternoon."
"What did you know we'd get?" they asked in tones of concern. "Are welamed for life?"
"Hardly as bad as that," laughed Nyoda. "I have good hopes of yourultimate recovery. You have what the French call 'mal de racquette'--thesnowshoe sickness. You use a different set of muscles when snowshoeingthan you do ordinarily, and these muscles become very stiff and sore. Allyou need is a little limbering oil. Little Sisters of the Snow, you arelearning by experience!"
It was fully a week before either the Winnebagos or Sandwiches wentsnowshoeing again, although they made excellent excuses. Neither groupwould admit to the other that they had become stiff, and would not limpfor worlds when in the sight of the others, although it nearly killedthem to walk naturally. Nevertheless, they understood each otherperfectly.
In February came a three days' snow storm that covered the earth with ablanket several feet thick, and a slight thaw followed by a zero snapproduced an excellent crust. The Winnebagos were having a solemnceremonial meeting in the Open Door Lodge when without warning there wasa sound of scrambling up the ladder and the Captain burst in among them.
"Oh, I say," he shouted, and then stopped suddenly as he became awarethat the girls were engaged in singing some kind of a motion song."Excuse me," he stammered in confusion, "I didn't know you were having apow-wow. I heard you singing up here and thought you were just having agood time."
"What news can you be bringing that made you burst in on us in such afashion?" said Nyoda sternly, but with a twinkle in her eye. "Speak sir,the queen commands."
The Captain seemed ready to burst with his message and fired his wordslike bullets from an automatic pistol. "My Uncle Theodore's here, youknow, the one I said had been up north, and he knows a dandy place in thecountry where there are some log cabins and he wants us all to go downthere on our snowshoes for a winter hike and stay three days over theWashington's Birthday holiday. Oh, please, can you girls come?"
"But----" began Nyoda.
"Oh, I forgot," went on the Captain, "my aunt's here, too, and she's justas good on snowshoes as Uncle Theodore is, and she's going along, too,and will see that you girls don't take cold or anything. Please sayyou'll come."
There never was such sport as a winter hike. The preliminaries werearranged with much reassuring of parents and relatives; buying ofall-wool clothing and blankets; selecting of cooking utensils and whatthe boys elegantly referred to as "grub." "Uncle Theodore" was a realwoodsman, who had spent most of his life in lumber camps; bluff, hale andhearty; a man to whom you would be perfectly willing to entrust your lifeafter the first meeting. "Aunt Clara" was a little round dumpling of awoman, who radiated smiles like sunshine, and declared the Winnebagoswere the handiest girls she had ever seen. It was their skilful way ofpacking supplies that called forth this praise.
Food and blankets were sent down by automobile a day ahead, so that thehikers would have to carry nothing but their cameras and notebooks. Themorning of Washington's Birthday found them all assembled on the stationplatform, for they were to go by cars to a certain town down state andfrom there to strike across the open country on their snowshoes.
"What are you going to do with the torpedo?" shouted the Captain, as Slimappeared carrying a strange looking package.
Slim smiled mysteriously. "Shoot rabbits," he replied evasively.
"It isn't a torpedo," said quick-witted Sahwah, after one look at thepackage. "It's a thermos bottle."
A chorus of derision went up. "Better Baby has to have his bottle!" "Oh,Slim! Are you afraid you'll starve before we get our dinner?" "What's init, Slim, let's see!"
Slim turned fiery red and shot a dark look at Sahwah.
"It's hot chocolate, I know," continued his red-cheeked tormentor. "Slimhas to have a dose every hour or he feels faint." Sahwah had long agodiscovered Slim's pet weakness.
"Where's Katherine?" said someb
ody suddenly.
"Why, isn't she here?" said Nyoda, counting over the group. "I thought Isaw her here."
"She hasn't come yet," declared Hinpoha and Gladys.
"Oh, I hope she hasn't had an absent-minded fit and forgotten this isWashington's Birthday," said Sahwah, clasping her hands in distress.
Uncle Teddy pulled out his watch. "It's too late to go and look for her,"he said, "just five minutes until train time."
Consternation reigned in the group. The Captain gallantly offered to missthe train and hunt her up, but the others would not hear of it. Hastytelephoning to her house brought the news that Katherine had left half anhour ago for the station.
"Then she'll be here," said Nyoda, eyeing the clock nervously. "If shedoesn't make it she'll have to miss it, that's all." There were timeswhen she would have liked to shake Katherine for her unbusiness-likeways.
But eight twenty-five came and no Katherine. The long train pulled in andUncle Teddy swung them all aboard, and with a great cheering and wavingof snowshoes they were off. Other passengers looked with interest at thelively group that occupied one whole end of the car, singing, laughing,shouting nonsense at one another.
"Time for the Better Baby to have his bottle!" said the Bottomless Pitt,gaining possession of the thermos bottle. He unscrewed the lid and heldit to Slim's lips, making him drink willy-nilly. It was hot chocolate, asSahwah had guessed. Slim choked and sputtered and had to be patted on theback.
"Do behave, children," said Nyoda, as the fun threatened to block theaisle, "that magazine man can't get through."
The man stood in the midst of the scufflers, patiently trying to cry hiswares above the din.
"Buy a maggyzine," he chanted. "All the latest maggyzines!"
"Good ones for the ladies, Bad ones for the gents; All the latest maggyzines For fifteen cents!"
Amused, they stopped talking to listen to his ridiculous singsong.
"Buy a maggyzine, lady?" he said, holding one out to Nyoda. On the lastsentence his voice cracked in three directions and leaped up the scale afull octave, so the word "lady" was uttered in a high falsetto squeak.
"Katherine!" exclaimed Nyoda, seizing the magazine seller by the arm inamazement.
"At yer service, mum," replied that worthy, with a low bow.
Then, amid the hubbub that ensued she calmly proceeded to remove thefuzzy little black mustache that had adorned her upper lip, took off thefur cap that had covered her hair and threw back the long ulster thatcovered her from neck to heels, and stood smiling wickedly at them.
"Katherine, you awful, awful, wonderful, wonderful girl, how did youmanage to do it?" gasped Gladys, breathless with astonishment.
"And when did you get on the train?" cried Hinpoha in the same breath."You didn't get on with us."
"I got into the wrong street car this morning," replied Katherine,producing her glasses from her sweater pocket and polishing them on theend of her muffler, "and got carried east instead of west. When I foundit out there wasn't time to come back to the Union Station, so I went onout to the Lakeside Station and go on the train there. I had planned tobe waiting for you on the step when we got into the Union, but on the wayout I met a magazine seller and had an inspiration. I bribed him to letme take his cap and books and coat for ten minutes. The mustache I hadwith me. I thought it might be useful in case I should be called up toperform a 'stunt' at Lonesome Creek. The rest you already know, as theysay in the novels." She tossed the borrowed plumage into an empty seatand settled herself beside Slim.
"By the way," she said quizzically, looking at the boys, "what was it Iheard you declaring a while ago, that no girl could masquerade as a boyand really fool a boy?"
"Pooh, you didn't really fool us," said Slim.
"Oh, no, I didn't," jeered Katherine.
"Well, we'd have found you out before long," said the Captain.
"Maybe you would and maybe you wouldn't," said Katherine. "The only thingI noticed you doing was looking with envy at my little mustache."
The Captain blushed furiously and the rest shouted with laughter.
"Anyway, Nyoda knew me first," she continued, "and that shows that girlsare smarter than boys. I can just see us being fooled by one of youdressed as a girl."
"I bet I could do it," said the Captain.
"Maybe _you_ could, Cicero," said Hinpoha sweetly. Relations between herand the Captain were somewhat strained these days, but how it began orwhat it was all about, no one could tell.
The Captain turned angrily at the taunting use of his name. He knew itwas meant to imply that he was "Cissy" enough to pass off for a girl. "Soyou think I'm a Cissy, do you?" he said hotly. If Hinpoha had been a boythere would have been a scuffle right there, but as it was he washelpless.
"Tell them how you trailed the fox up in Ontario, father," interruptedAunt Clara hastily, and Uncle Teddy began a thrilling tale of adventurein the backwoods that held them spellbound until they reached theirstation.
"Now for the long white trail!" cried Uncle Teddy cheerily, when allsnowshoes were adjusted to their owners' satisfaction. "Nine o'clock andall's well! Catertown and dinner at twelve o'clock, ten miles due southas the crow flies! Here, Captain, you be the first pathfinder. Here is amap of the way we are to take. You may be leader until you get us off thetrack, and then we'll let one of the girls try her hand. Forward, march!"
Whole new worlds lie before the hiker on snowshoes. All the ugliness inNature is concealed by the soft white mantle of snow, like a scratchedand stained old table covered with a spotless cloth, and everything isglistening and wonderful and beautiful. The snowshoes are seven leagueboots in very truth. On them you go right over stumps and fences andhummocks and stones and little hollows. You do not need to keep to theroad or to the beaten track. Dame Frost, like Sir Walter Raleigh, hasspread her mantle over the unpleasant places and over it you may pass insafety.
"Where are we now?" asked the Bottomless Pitt.
"Casey's Woods," replied the Captain, referring to his map.
"Oh," cried Sahwah, "don't you remember how we wanted to come here to apicnic once in the summer, but we couldn't go into the woods at all,because the mosquitoes were just terrible? Why didn't we ever think ofholding a picnic in the winter? There are no ants to crawl into yourshoes and no spiders to get into your cocoa."
"And no poison ivy," said Gladys. "Why, winter is the very best time tohold a picnic!"
And they made up a hiking song to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia,"and sang it until the woods echoed:
"Hurrah, hurrah, said the possum to the 'coon, Hurrah, hurrah, what makes you come so soon? We started in the morning, and we'll get there before noon, As we go hiking on our snowshoes!"
"Doesn't Aunt Clara look just like a Teddy Bear in that brown fur coat?"whispered Gladys to Sahwah. Aunt Clara was nearly as broad as she waslong, and, wrapped in furs as she was, seemed rounder yet.
"Halt!" cried Uncle Teddy, as the company came out on the edge of a deepravine. "Oh, I say, Captain, what's this? It doesn't seem to me Iincluded this in my order."
Much confused, the Captain spread his road map on a log and set thecompass on it, trying to find out where he had gone wrong. "Shucks," hesaid disgustedly, after a moment's study. "We should have gone at rightangles to that hundred-foot pine tree instead of in a line with it.Everybody back up--I mean, right about face. Shucks!" And he handed themap and the compass to Sahwah with as good grace as he could and took theend of the line, as became an officer who had been reduced to the ranks.
Sahwah led them back to the pine tree and in the right direction from it,as indicated on the map, and they soon came to the bridge which spannedthe gorge a mile below the spot where the Captain had reached it. Detourand all they reached Catertown at twelve o'clock, where their ravenousappetites worked fearful havoc with the good dinner set before them.Uncle Teddy insisted upon having Slim's thermos bottle filled with milk,to guard against his getting faint on the way, although Slim blushed andproteste
d. Ten more miles to make in the afternoon. But to thesepractised hikers the distance before and behind them seemed nothingwonderful and they declared the going was so good on snowshoes that theycould keep on forever. Sahwah followed the map accurately, and broughtthem out at the right crossroads at the end of five miles, where sherelinquished her office as pathfinder to Bottomless Pitt, who was next inline. It had been decided en route that five miles should be the lengthof any leader's service.
"Honorable discharge," said Uncle Teddy, patting Sahwah on the head."I'll wager there aren't many girls who could have done that."
"All of us could," answered Sahwah, eager to sing the praises of thegroup as a whole.
The Captain said nothing. He felt that he had disgraced the Sandwiches byletting a girl get ahead of him. It did not help him any to note thatHinpoha was looking at him and evidently thinking the same thing. TheCaptain was very sore at heart. He liked and admired Hinpoha more thanany of the other Winnebagos, and they had always been the best of friendsuntil suddenly, for some reason which he could not explain, she hadturned against him. And she had done the one thing to him that he couldnever forgive. She had called him "Cicero." All was over between them.Winter hikes weren't such a lot of fun after all, he told himself.
"Hi, look at the rabbit," shouted Pitt, pointing out an inquisitive bunnythat sat upon his haunches under a tree, "to see the parade go by."
"Don't hurt him, don't hurt him," cried Sahwah, dancing up and down andtrying to focus her camera on him.
"Who's hurting him?" said the Captain. "We haven't anything to hurt himwith, unless Slim steps on him." Sahwah clicked her camera and at theclick Br'er Bunny vanished into space.
"Let's see what kind of tracks he made," said Sahwah, and they allwillingly detoured a trifle to examine the footprints in the snow.
"There are some others beside his," said Bottomless Pitt. "What kind ofan animal is that, Uncle Teddy?"
Uncle Teddy examined the tracks and nodded his head with a satisfied air."You boys ought to know those tracks," he said provokingly. "What kind ofscouts are you, anyway? Here, Captain, quit your scowling like athundercloud and tell us what animal has been taking a walk. I certainlyhave taught you enough about woodcraft to know that."
The Captain looked at the tracks closely. "I think it's a 'coon," he saidfinally.
"Think so!" scoffed Uncle Teddy. "Don't you know so? Pitt, what do yousay?"
"Looks like a 'coon to me," answered Pitt.
"And what do you say, Redbird?" asked Uncle Teddy, pulling Sahwah's hair.
"There's where you boys have us beaten," said Sahwah frankly. "We neverhave had a chance to learn animal tracks."
"I'm sure it's a 'coon," said the Captain, his spirits rising with thechance to crow over the girls.
"All right, if you're sure of it, we'll follow the trail awhile and seewhere he is," said Uncle Teddy. "But you always want to be sure of whatyou see, after you've learned it once. A good woodsman always fixes athing in his mind so he'll know it the next time he sees it."
"I'm sure it's a 'coon," repeated the Captain. "May we follow the trailawhile?" Eagerly they trotted along beside the footprints in the snow,impatient to have a sight of the animal. This was a new sport to theWinnebagos and they were greatly excited about it. The Captain hadforgotten his low spirits and was in the lead now.
"I say, the fellow that spies him first ought to be pathfinder for therest of the way," he said.
"What does a 'coon look like?" panted Sahwah, trying to keep up with him.
"He has a short, thick, striped tail," said the Captain, "and a---- Oh,goodness gracious! Oh, Methuselah's great grandmother!" For just then thewind began to blow strongly from the direction in which they were going,carrying with it an unmistakable odor. With one accord they took to theirheels.
"O Uncle Teddy," said the Captain, furious at himself, "you knew what itwas all the while! Why didn't you tell us?"
"Well," said Uncle Teddy dryly, "you were so blooming sure it was a 'coonthat I couldn't contradict you very well without being impolite. 'There'snothing like being dead sure,' I says to myself. And I knew you wouldnever be satisfied until you had found out for yourself."
The Captain, permanently abashed, retired to the rear of the line andventured no more opinions about anything they saw, and took not theslightest interest when Hinpoha discovered a rare little moosewood mapleand identified it by its beautiful green bark.
"Last lap!" shouted Pitt, consulting the map for the hundred and fortiethtime. "Turn east by the twin oaks and approach the camp from the rear!Company, forward march!"
"There are the cabins now," cried the Monkey, throwing his cap into theair. "Maybe I won't sit down and hold my feet up, though!"
"Maybe you won't jump around and get some firewood, though!" remarkedUncle Teddy. "End of the hike, messmates," he shouted, executing a drolldance on his snowshoes and waving his long arms like windmills. "Alltogether, now, three cheers and a tiger for the end of the hike!" Andthey gave them with a will.
The place where they were to spend that night and the next was anabandoned sugar camp. It had once been a fine grove of trees, but so manyhad been killed by the boring worms that it was no longer profitable. Twocabins remained standing and were used on and off by hunters during theseason.
"Oh-h-h, ours is a real log cabin," cried Sahwah, dancing around inecstasy when quarters had been assigned. "It's lots nicer than the oldboard shack the boys are going to have. I'll feel just like AbrahamLincoln to-night, only so much more elegant, because Abraham Lincoln hadto split his own rails, and we can sit at ease and let the boys tote ourwood for us."
"But--where are the beds?" cried Hinpoha, in perplexity, as they wentinside.
"Why, _those_," said Aunt Clara, pointing to some bin-like things rangedin a double tier along one wall. "Those are our bunks."
"Bunks!" echoed the girls in rather a dismayed tone. "We didn't thinkwe'd have to sleep in bunks. We expected camp beds, at least."
"They're quite comfortable," said Aunt Clara reassuringly, "when they'refilled with clean straw. Our blankets are in that big box and we'd betterget our beds made the first thing, so we can roll into them as soon as weget tired." She bustled around, smoothing out the straw in the bunks witha practised hand and showing the girls how to fold their blankets to thebest advantage. "Be sure you have just as much under you as over you,"she advised them again and again. "Camping in winter is a very differentproposition from sleeping out in summer."
Now that the girls had gotten used to the idea of the bunks, they beganto think it was a jolly good lark to sleep in them. "If bunks it must be,bunks it is," said Katherine, in a lugubrious tone that sent them allinto gales of laughter, "but I never thought I'd live to see the day!"
"Me for the upper berth," said Sahwah, standing on a table to accomplishthe spreading of her blankets. It was not long before they were allsinging:
"Oh, we're bunking tonight on the side of the wall, Give us a ladder, please, We've slept in many beds, both hard and soft, But never in bunks like these!"
"Bunking tonight, Bunking tonight, Bunking on the side of the wall!"
And they raised such a din with the chorus that the boys came streamingover to see what the fun was about and to inquire casually if supperwasn't nearly ready.
"Goodness, no," answered Nyoda; "we've just got our beds made. Gooverpower Slim, if you are hungry, and take his bottle away from him. Bythe way, which cabin is to be honored by the smell of the cooking?"
"The log cabin is the largest," said Uncle Teddy, "and it has both thefireplace and the little stove. The other is just a sleeping cabin. Iguess the honor is yours. All aboard for the dining car! Where's thatcanned soup? Bring in the wood, boys, and make a cooking fire in thestove. You know what a cooking fire is, I suppose. Everybody get to work.Too many cooks can't spoil this broth."
They flew around, getting in each other's way dreadfully, but under UncleTeddy's and Aunt Clara's able management they did contri
ve to accomplishthe things they were trying to do, and in less than no time the supperwas steaming on the table.
"Maybe I won't do anything to that soup and that creamed fish!" sighedSlim, his face beaming at the sight of the banquet spread before him.
"Maybe it won't do anything to him!" said Katherine in an aside toSahwah. "I got a whole teaspoonful of Hinpoha's old talcum powder in thecream sauce before I discovered it wasn't flour, and then it was too lateto take it out again."
"Never mind," Sahwah giggled back, "it's so hot you can't taste it, andit won't last long enough to get cold. Your secret is safe in ourstomachs!"
The paper plates made a grand glare in the fireplace after supper wasover and in its light Katherine and Slim gave a Punch and Judy show untilSlim showed symptoms of bursting from want of breath, whereupon the playcame to an end and it was discovered that Bottomless Pitt had fallenasleep in a corner.
"Hide his shoes!" suggested the Monkey, and promptly took them off andtied them by strings to a tack in the ceiling.
"Let's enchant him altogether," said the gifted Katherine, and fastenedthe little mustache to his lip. Then they stuck his head full of papercurls and powdered his face with flour. The effect when he woke up wasall they had hoped for. They had set a small wall mirror on the floorbeside him, so he got the full benefit of his altered appearance on hisfirst glance around. Uttering a startled yell, he sprang to his feet,looking wildly around. Brought to himself by the laughter on all sides,he shook his fist fiercely at Slim and the Captain, declaring that hewould make the fellow who did that eat soap. As Katherine was the"fellow" in question this only increased the merriment at his expense.Slim leaned against the wall so helpless from laughter that he didn'teven resist when Pitt climbed on his shoulders to haul down his shoes,but went on chuckling violently until he sagged to one side and down cameboth boys in a heap, shoes, tack and all.
"I wish you boys would go home," said Katherine primly. "You'realtogether too rough for us little girls to play with. I think it'shorrid and nasty to play tricks on people when they're asleep." From hergently shocked and disapproving expression you never would have guessedthat she was the one who had started it all.
"Come on home, fellows, we're invited out," said Uncle Teddy, with apretended injured air. "It's time we little gentlemen were in the hay--Imean the straw. Come on, Pitt, never mind looking for the tack; Motherwill find it when she gets up in her stocking feet to see if she lockedthe door!" With which shot he retired in haste through the doorway andover to the other cabin, and just in time, for Aunt Clara sent a snowballflying after him that fell short by a bare inch.
Then she closed and barred the door, fixed the fire with hardwood whichwould last the rest of the night, plastered adhesive strips over thevarious blisters which the Winnebago feet had acquired on the long march,and tucked them all in warmly with a motherly pat and a goodnight kiss.After a twenty-mile walk in the open air a hard plank would be acomfortable resting place, and the straw filled and blanket padded bunkswere far from the hard plank class. For the first time in the history ofWinnebago sleeping parties there was strictly "nothing doing" after theywere tucked in. Most of them fell asleep during the process of tucking.
Thus it was that when the first thump came at the door nobody stirred. Asecond thump followed like a blow from a battering ram. Aunt Clara satup.
"Who's there?" she called. No answer save a series of blows and thumpsthat threatened to break the door down. The rest were awake by this time,trembling in their beds.
"Theodore, is that you?" shrieked Aunt Clara above the noise. "What doyou want?" Again came a shower of blows, as if somebody were trying toforce their way in with an axe. This time the bars gave way and the doorswung inward. There was a loud bellowing, roaring sound, which seemed totheir startled ears like a deep-throated whistle, and into the cabinthere walked a cow. The girls shrieked and disappeared under thebed-clothes, for to their excited fancy she looked like a wild animal.
"Shoo, get out!" shouted Aunt Clara, throwing her slipper with neat aiminto the cow's face. Bossy looked reproachfully at her and walked fartherinto the cabin, standing close beside the row of bunks.
Katherine raised her head from the blanket to see what was going on andlooked right into the open mouth of the creature as it stood over her."Murder! It's going to eat me up!" she shrieked, diving under the coverswith a prolonged howl.
By this time Aunt Clara had found the whistle with which she alwayssummoned her husband when she needed him and blew a long, shrill blast. Afew minutes later Uncle Teddy appeared at the door, with a string ofstartled boys running out of their cabin behind him, and at a word ofcommand from him, accompanied by several emphatic pokes and proddings,Mrs. Bossy meekly turned and walked out through the doorway, which wasconsiderably the worse for her entrance. She had probably strayed fromthe nearest farmhouse and was suffering from the intense cold. Attractedby the light streaming from the little window of the cabin she had cometo find shelter, and when nobody answered her first gentle knocks withher horns, she had taken matters into her own hands and becomehousebreaker. She was stabled in a lean-to shelter for the rest of thenight and made comfortable with straw and a blanket.
"Isn't it funny how all the suffering critters come to our hospitabledoor for shelter?" said Katherine at the breakfast table. "Just likeSandhelo. He came of his own accord, also."
"They must know that we keep the Fire Law," answered Hinpoha. "'Whosehouse is bare and dark and cold, whose house is cold, this is his own'!"
"Isn't it strange that she came to our door, and not to the boys'," saidGladys. "They had a light shining, too, but her footprints show that shecame past their door to stop at ours."
"That's because she was a lady," replied Uncle Teddy, helping himself tohis fifth slice of fried bacon, "and no lady would come bustling into agentleman's apartment like that. Hurry up and get your chores done, youhousekeepers and wood-gatherers, and let's go out and make a snow man."
"Let's make a totem-pole," suggested Katherine, when they were all outplaying in the snow. "It's lots more epic than making a snow man."
"You mean a 'snowtem pole,'" observed Uncle Teddy.
So they set to work and made a marvellous totem-pole, higher than thecabin, with figures carved into its sides such as were never on land orsea. Then Uncle Teddy and the boys, who had done less carving on theirsections and consequently were finished first, set up a barber pole onthe other side of the doorway, containing the stripes with a crimson oftheir own concocting, which was a secret, but which involved severaltrips to the kitchen and the food supply box. All this time the Captainhad never spoken one word to Hinpoha. Whenever he would have relentedunder the spell of the jolly larks they were having, something whisperedto him, "She called me Cicero! I won't stand that from anyone!"
"Who's ripe for a trifling sprint of five miles this afternoon?" askedUncle Teddy at the dinner table, taking three scones at once from theplate.
"I! I! I!" cried a chorus of voices, and a dozen hands waved franticallyabove the table.
"Have you any special place in mind?" asked Aunt Clara, pretending not tosee Uncle Teddy stealing yet another buttered scone from her plate.
"Well," said Uncle Teddy, "I happen to know that there's a real sugarcamp in action somewhere about here, and I think five miles covers it,there and back. It might not be the worst idea in the world to look inand see how they are getting on. I dare say most of these folks here havenever seen maple syrup outside of a can."
A sigh of delight ran around the table. "Hurry up, everybody, and puteverything you have left into your mouths, so I can collect the plates,"said Sahwah, impatient to start at once.
But when the time came to start Hinpoha had developed such a dizzyheadache that going along was out of the question. "It's nothingserious," she stoutly maintained, in reply to anxious inquiries. "Toomuch noise, that's all. We might call it 'Mal de racket'!" She would nothear of any of them staying at home with her, however, although AuntClara and Nyoda both i
nsisted. "Go on, all of you," she begged, pressingher hand to her throbbing temples. "It would make it so much worse if Ithought I had kept you away from the fun. All I want is to lie downquietly. I'll be perfectly all right here. If I feel better soon I'llfollow your tracks and either catch up with you or meet you there andcome back home with you. Please go." And so insistent was she that theywent without her.
"Be sure you lock the door carefully," called Aunt Clara.
"And be sure you put out a sign, NO COWS ADMITTED," said Sahwah. Andlaughing they set out, leaving her tucked in her bunk. With the cessationof the noise that had almost lifted the roof of the cabin during thedinner hour, the headache gradually disappeared, and in an hour Hinpohawas herself again. Swiftly buckling on her snowshoes she ran out into thestinging air, which seemed like a cool hand laid on her forehead.
She found the trail of the others easily, for the crust was slightlydented in by every step. The way led through a thick strip of woods.Hinpoha noticed that there were many tracks of animals here and wishedwith all her heart that she knew what they were. "It would be such agrand thing to say to the folks at home, 'I followed the trail of a'coon,' and be sure it was a 'coon," she said to herself, and thenlaughed aloud at the ridiculous mistake of the Captain. Then she stoodstill in delight, for just before her a dark, furry body was slippingalong over the snow. "I believe that really is one," she said to herselfjoyfully. "I can't catch him, of course, but maybe he'll run up atree--people always talk about 'coons being treed--and then I can seewhat he looks like." And she sped after the little animal, who took alarmat her first step and disappeared between the trunks of the trees.
Hinpoha looked for him for a while and then realized it was a hopelesssearch and with a sigh turned to resume her own way through the woods.Then she stopped in dismay. The broad trail she had been following soeasily had vanished from the earth! The only marks on the white groundwere those of her own snowshoes. "Of course," she said, coming to herselfwith a shake, "I got off the trail when I followed that 'coon. I'llfollow my own tracks back." But her own tracks led her round and round ina circle, in and out among the tree trunks, and did not end up in whatshe sought. It took her some minutes to realize that she was actuallylost in the woods. Then, of course, the first thing she did was to gointo a panic, and run wildly back and forth. "Come, this will never do,"she told herself severely, standing still. "I must stop and think beforeI do anything else. Let me see, what was it Migwan did the time she waslost up in the Maine woods? She sat down on the ground and wrote poetry,and waited until we came and found her! I can't write poetry, that's outof the question, and I can't sit on the ground, either, it's too cold.I'll have to stand up and wait." But that proved a dreary amusement. Itwas getting bitterly cold, and a strong wind whistled through the barebranches till it made her flesh creep. To make things worse, an earlytwilight was setting in and the light was rapidly fading. To keep fromtaking cold she walked up and down bravely among the trees, growing moreterrified every minute. She tried to sing, to call, to shout, to make hervoice carry across the snow, but it was lost in the moaning of the wind.Her feet grew numb with the cold and she stamped them vigorously to startup the blood. The crust broke through, and down she went through severalfeet of snow to her waist. She braced herself with her hands and tried todraw her feet out, but they went through also and she floundered with herface in the icy snowflakes. Then with a growing sense of horror sherealized what had happened. The ends of her snowshoes had become firmlywedged under the roots of a tree, and she was unable to pull them out.And her feet, tightly bound to the snowshoes by the pretty straps andbuckles, were trapped. She struggled furiously, and only sank deeper inthe snow.
As the "syrup party," as they called themselves, were just ready to cooloff the bit of boiled sap that had been given them to taste, the Captainsuddenly sprang to his feet and smote his forehead. "Daggers and dirks!"he exclaimed, "I left my sweater hanging right in front of the fire whenwe came away--you remember it got all wet in the snowball fight thismorning--and I bet it's scorched to cinders by this time. Do you folksmind if I go back to the cabin in a hurry? I got that sweater forChristmas and I hate to lose it so soon. I'm all right, uncle, I can findthe way, even if it is getting dark. Don't hurry yourselves. Give myshare of the syrup to Slim. He's getting thin." And adjusting hissnowshoes with a skilled "jiffy twist," he was off down the trail.
Now the Captain, although he had been mistaken about the tracks the daybefore, was nevertheless an observant lad, and when he came to the placewhere Hinpoha had left the trail, he noticed the marks going off inanother direction and stood still and looked at them. He knew that theymost likely belonged to Hinpoha, and he knew also that she had notarrived at the sugar camp and he had not met her on the trail cominghome, so, putting two and two together, he decided that she must be inthe woods somewhere. A mean little instinct whispered to him to go on hisway and let her be wherever she was, and get a good fright until the restfound her; then his better nature rose to the top and he decided to hunther up and show her the trail to meet the others.
"Glory, she certainly did mess up the trail some," he said to himself, ashe followed the marks which wandered up and down and doubled back onthemselves and crisscrossed everywhere. It was slow going, for thedarkness was hiding the footprints and he had to bend down to the groundto see them clearly. He almost stepped on her at last when he did findher. She was numb from the cold and very nearly asleep and he thought shewas dead. The imprisoned snowshoes held her down and he could not pullher out of the snow at first. Finally he suspected what had happened anddug down in and loosened the buckles. It took a good deal of workingafter she was freed to get life back into the numb feet and ankles, butit was accomplished at last and Hinpoha was ready to walk home.
Then a moment of embarrassment fell between them. Hinpoha flushed andlooked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I called you Cicero," she said, with asneeze between every word. "You aren't a Cissy at all. You're a hero!"And then for no reason at all, except that the afternoon's strenuousadventure had unstrung her nerves, she burst into tears.
"Here," said the Captain, entirely light-hearted again, and holding upthe little bucket he had carried away from the sugar camp, "cry into thepail. Evaporate the water. Save the salt. It's worth money."
And Hinpoha giggled foolishly and dried her tears and raced back to thecabin as fast as she could go, to stave off pneumonia on her arrival withhot blankets and steaming drinks.
"He _is_ a hero," she murmured dreamily to Gladys, who hovered around herlike an anxious grandmother, after the others were satisfied that she wasall right, and had set to work getting supper; "he never once said, 'Itold you so'!"
The Camp Fire Girls' Larks and Pranks; Or, The House of the Open Door Page 11
