“I’ll save him a plate,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Is he coming soon?”
“Harold is my late husband,” said Mrs. Evans.
“How late is he going to be?” asked Amelia Bedelia. “Maybe the kitchen will keep his dinner warm.”
“Really late, Amelia Bedelia,” said Alice. She opened her eyes wide and held up her glass. “Juice, please.”
As Amelia Bedelia was filling Alice’s glass, Peggy whispered so that only Amelia Bedelia could hear. “Her husband expired.”
“Expired?” said Amelia Bedelia loudly. “Like milk?”
“Yes, I would,” said Amy, holding up her glass.
“Years ago, Harold bought Echo Lake and all the land around it,” said Mrs. Evans. “He wanted to share this beautiful spot with future generations, so we built Camp Echo Woods. My Harold was always ahead of his time.”
Amelia Bedelia went back to the kitchen confused. If Harold was ahead of his time, why was he so late now? She returned to the table with full pitchers of water and juice, and some good news.
“I asked the cook to save a plate for your late husband,” she said to Mrs. Evans.
“Pssst . . . Amelia Bedelia,” whispered Peggy. “Her husband is no longer with us. He has departed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I must have just missed him!” said Amelia Bedelia.
“I still miss my Harold,” said Mrs. Evans. “Even though I lost him more than twenty years ago.”
“Gosh,” said Amelia Bedelia. “If he’s been lost for that long, he may never get here.”
“Amelia Bedelia,” said Mrs. Evans. “Do you understand that my husband died?”
“Oh,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I’m sorry.” She went back to the kitchen to cancel his spaghetti dinner. When she returned, they were still talking about him.
“Did your husband linger long?” asked Peggy.
“No, thank goodness,” said Mrs. Evans. “Harold was a great outdoorsman. He didn’t want to be a vegetable.”
“Me neither,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I’d hate to be a carrot. How would you like to be buried up to your forehead in dirt?”
Mrs. Evans laughed loudly.
“Remember the rules,” said Peggy. “It’s not kind to call a sick person a vegetable.”
“But if you had to be a vegetable in a play or for Halloween,” said Mrs. Evans, “what vegetable would you hate to be?”
“Cauliflower!” said Amy. “It looks like a brain. Gross!”
“Brussels sprouts,” said Alisha. “Or cabbage. Yucko!”
“String beans,” said Alice. “Because everyone calls me that because I’m tall.”
It was Peggy’s turn. “Okra,” she said. “The stuff that runs out when you cut it open looks like someone sneezed.”
“Eeeeeeewww!” sang the Straight As, in a chorus.
“Your turn, Mrs. Evans,” said Peggy.
Mrs. Evans squinted her eyes and said, “Kohlrabi.”
“Coalwhatee?” said Amy. “Is that a real vegetable?”
“Kohlrabi looks like a small mutant cabbage from Mars,” said Mrs. Evans. “And it tastes worse.”
Campers at other tables were turning around to see what all the laughing was about. Amelia Bedelia noticed that when Mrs. Evans was having fun, her wrinkles weren’t so noticeable. She seemed younger when she was laughing, not like a fossil at all. The only problem was that now she was laughing so hard she started coughing.
“Would you like something to drink?” asked Amelia Bedelia.
“Yes, thank you,” said Mrs. Evans, raising her glass. “Would you give me a splash of juice?”
So that was exactly what Amelia Bedelia did.
The next night the Polaris girls stopped by Mrs. Evans’s house so Amelia Bedelia could leave a note on her door apologizing for the juice bath. Amelia Bedelia still felt terrible about it. She was hoping that the night hike would take her mind off it.
The landscape was mysterious and dim, lit by a tiny crescent moon. They followed Peggy down a road that soon turned into a trail and then became a narrow winding path through the trees.
“Lucky us,” said Peggy. “When the moon sets . . .”
“Why do we need blankets?” asked Alice. “Are we spending the night out here?”
“We’re just going to veg out for a while,” said Peggy.
Everyone laughed. Oh no, not more vegetables!
“Actually,” said Peggy, “we’ve got a date with the Milky Way.”
“Yum!” said Amelia Bedelia.
The moon was beginning to set when they came to a big clearing covered in grass and clover. Peggy spread out her blanket, then plopped down on her back. Everyone copied her, including Amelia Bedelia, who turned around and around, flattening the grass before spreading out her blanket and lying down on it.
She felt just like Finally, circling around before lying down, even on the rug. Now Amelia Bedelia was sure that she must have animal instincts herself! She barked, and the other girls started howling at the moon, too.
When the moon had finally set and everyone had stopped giggling, they couldn’t see Peggy or one another.
“It’s so dark,” said Annette.
“Dark with a capital D,” added Amy.
“At least the stars are getting brighter,” said Alice.
“No, they’re the same,” said Peggy. “They just seem brighter because there is no light pollution.”
“There’s no heavy pollution, either,” said Amelia Bedelia.
“Light pollution is caused by the light in our homes and cities—like lights from office buildings, shopping malls, and streetlamps,” said Peggy. “Out here at Camp Echo Woods there is much less light pollution.”
“Is that smoke?” asked Alisha, pointing overhead.
“Or maybe fog?” asked Alice. “Or mist?”
“That?” asked Peggy, turning on her flashlight and pointing it at a speckled band of light stretching across the sky.
“Are those stars?” asked Amelia Bedelia.
“Meet the Milky Way, our galaxy,” said Peggy. “The Milky Way contains our solar system. We’re looking at its edge. It circles around to the other side of the earth too, where it’s daytime.”
Peggy pointed her light straight up.
“There are hundreds of billions of stars up there. Trillions of planets.”
“Scary!” said Amy.
“I like that,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Maybe a bunch of friends are up there, pointing a flashlight at us, wondering who we are.”
No one said a word for a while.
“Look!” said Peggy, wiggling her light on a star. “That’s Polaris, the North Star. It stays almost motionless all year. If you know where north is, you can find south, east, and . . .”
“What was that?” shouted Alisha, pointing at a thin white streak fading overhead.
“A shooting star,” said Peggy. “Those happen all the time, at night and during the day. Only now, out here, you can actually see them.”
“Très jolie,” said Annette.
“Polaris is easy to find,” said Peggy. “See those stars shaped like a dipper, like for scooping water? That’s the Big Dipper. It points to the handle of the Little Dipper. That star at the handle’s tip, the brightest, is Polaris, the North Star.”
“Are we brighter than Sirius?” asked Alisha.
“Nope,” said Peggy. “Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. We can’t see it here at night until fall or winter. It’s called the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis Major, which stands for ‘big dog.’ Long ago, people started seeing groups of stars as pictures in the sky, and those pictures are the constellations.”
Amelia Bedelia squinted her eyes and studied the stars above. She concentrated on drawing an imaginary line from one star to the next. She was making her own constellation, and she was going to name it Finally.
It was super late when they got back to their cabin. “Now you are truly Polaris girls,” said Peggy. “Sleep in tomorrow! We’ll skip
exercising, and I’ve arranged for us to have brunch instead of breakfast.”
Amelia Bedelia put on her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and climbed into her bunk. She looked at her countdown calendar on the cabin wall and realized that she had only seven more days to go before her parents visited. The days were flying by. One last week to go, and then . . .
The next week zoomed by. The weather had turned hot and humid. Dragonflies filled the air, and the crickets were chirping like crazy.
“It’s too early to be so hot,” said Peggy, glancing at her watch.
“I’m already sweating,” said Alisha.
“Even my sweat is sweating,” said Amy.
“Oh, charmant,” said Annette.
“At least the lake will be warmer,” said Amelia Bedelia.
“Hey, Amy, how hot is it?” asked Alice.
Amy wore a watch that told the time as well as the temperature. She pressed a button. “Time: eight eighteen a.m.,” said the watch.
“And it’s eighty-two degrees,” said Peggy.
“Temperature: eighty-two degrees,” said the watch.
The girls stared at Peggy.
“Okay, we give up,” said Alice. “How did you know the temperature?”
Peggy told them her secret while they waited for Mrs. Evans and the morning announcements.
At eight thirty sharp, Mrs. Evans arrived. “Wakey, wakey campers!” she said. “We are celebrating the halfway point of our summer with our traditional scavenger hunt. Your counselor has your marching orders! Be back by twelve thirty or be square. The cabin that finds the most, wins—and, remember, if you find the tenth thing on your list, you are the immediate champion. Break a leg! Today will be a scorcher, but don’t get hot and bothered. If you start feeling queasy, see the nurse pronto!”
“Lots of luck, ladies,” said Peggy, handing Alice the list of items. “You’re on your own without me, but stick together. Like glue, please.”
Alice read the list out loud. “An ice cube . . . a thermometer . . . a Popsicle stick . . .”
“Seriously? Everything makes me think about being hot,” said Alisha.
“Let’s think cool thoughts,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Icy-cold ideas.”
The Straight As waded through the shimmering heat and humidity.
“I’m on a silver sled and I’m sliding down a mountain,” said Alice.
“Cool,” said Annette, shutting her eyes as though she were imagining that.
“I’m making a snow angel,” said Alice, doing jumping jacks.
“I’m making snow angels in my bathing suit,” said Alisha.
A shiver ran through Amy. “Brrrr! I’m feeling frosty!”
Amelia Bedelia couldn’t think of anything cool to say. But she loved how they sang a lot of songs at Camp Echo Woods. Tilting her head back, Amelia Bedelia belted out a song that celebrated the cold.
“Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the Feast of Stephen.
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even.”
As soon as they stopped laughing, the other girls joined in at the top of their lungs. They sang about cold and frosty weather. They sang about sleighs and snowmen and skating. Holding up her hand for silence, Alisha said, “Quiet, I’m taking the temperature.” Fourteen seconds and forty-five chirps later, she announced, “Eighty-five degrees.”
All morning, the Polaris girls dragged themselves from one end of the camp to the other. Soon, it was almost time for the scavenger hunt to end. They paused at the big map of the camp, on their way back to the dining hall, and Alice took stock of what they’d found.
“Okay, we have the ice cube, a thermometer, a Popsicle stick, a piece of moss . . .”
“We shouldn’t have gotten the ice cube first,” said Annette, pouring water onto the ground.
“We’re not doing so hot,” said Alice.
“And we’re getting hotter and hotter,” said Amelia Bedelia, swaying a little bit.
“Uh-oh,” said Alice. “Sit down before you fall down.”
Amelia Bedelia sat in the shade. She leaned against the trash can painted with daisies. She closed her eyes and began counting chirps. Then she did the math. Eighty-eight degrees!
“What’s the tenth thing on the list?” asked Annette. “Maybe we can still find that.”
“A litterbug,” said Alice. “Which is super weird.”
Sweat was streaming down Amelia Bedelia’s cheeks, almost as if she was crying. “Be cool, be cool,” she whispered, wishing that snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
“Well, someone has it made in the shade!”
Amelia Bedelia looked up. Mrs. Evans was towering over her, with the camp nurse next to her.
“We got reports that you Polaris girls were delirious,” said Mrs. Evans. “And singing about snowmen in ninety-degree heat.”
“Eighty-eight degrees, actually,” said Amelia Bedelia.
“I stand corrected,” said Mrs. Evans.
“I sit sweating,” said Amelia Bedelia. She stood up, but she was still wobbly.
“Feeling dizzy?” asked the nurse. “Try lowering your head.”
Amelia Bedelia did. When she opened her eyes, she was looking at the world upside down. The first thing she saw was the trash can.
“Gotcha,” said Amelia Bedelia. She went over to the trash can and turned it upside down. Litter spilled onto the ground.
“She’s delirious!” said the nurse.
“Number ten. Litterbug,” said Amelia Bedelia.
“Hats off to you, Amelia Bedelia,” said Mrs. Evans. “No one, in all the years of Camp Echo Woods, has ever found it before, although your mother came close. You caught the litterbug!”
The Straight As gathered around the upside-down trash can. The daisies did not look like daisies anymore. They looked like a creepy-crawly spidery thing with yellow eyes and spiky hair.
“Hooray!” shouted Alice.
“Incroyable!” said Annette.
Just then, something furry and fast ran past the girls and dove into the pile of litter.
“Finally!” Amelia Bedelia shouted, grabbing her collar and burying her face in Finally’s soft fur.
“Why, welcome back,” said Mrs. Evans, turning to greet Amelia Bedelia’s parents. She gave Amelia Bedelia’s mother a big welcome-home hug, then led everyone up to the dining hall.
After lunch and an awesome scavenger hunt awards ceremony, Amelia Bedelia and the Polaris girls returned to their usual routine while Mrs. Evans took Amelia Bedelia’s parents on a tour of the camp. They met up at the archery range to see Alisha shooting the last arrow of the day.
“Archery was always my favorite,” said Amelia Bedelia’s mother.
“And I recall that you were very good at it,” said Mrs. Evans.
“Give it a go,” said Peggy, offering Amelia Bedelia’s mother a bow.
“Go ahead, Mom,” said Amelia Bedelia.
Peggy pulled an arrow from her quiver for Amelia Bedelia’s mother. Fitting the bowstring into the nock of the arrow, her mother planted her feet firmly on the ground, then drew the bowstring back in one swift but steady motion. For the second or two that her mother held that pose, Amelia Bedelia gazed at her, wondering if she was really the goddess Artemis she’d studied about in school.
TWANNNNG! went the bowstring.
ZINNNNNNG! went the arrow.
THWACKKK! went the target.
There was a second of silence. Then
“HOORAY!” went the Polaris girls.
“Bull’s-eye!” shouted Alisha.
“Yay, Mom!” shouted Amelia Bedelia, glancing over her shoulder, looking for the bull.
“Nice job, sweetie,” said Amelia Bedelia’s father. “But I think I can top that.” He was patting his pants pockets, searching for something. “I thought I had an apple to put on top of Amelia Bedelia’s head.”
Annette’s eyes grew large. “Does he think he’s William Tell?”
“H
oney,” said Amelia Bedelia’s mother. “These girls may not realize you’re kidding.”
“In that case, I’ll do what Robin Hood did in this situation,” he said.
“My arrow will split your arrow in half.”
TWOUNNG! went his bowstring.
ZWANNNG! went the arrow.
KLATTTER! went the arrow after it sailed clear over the target and hit the dirt wall behind it.
“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!” went Finally, chasing after the arrow.
“She thinks you’re playing fetch,” said Amelia Bedelia’s mother.
“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!” Finally kept barking at something behind the targets.
“Amelia Bedelia, please go get Finally,” said her mother. “It’s time to gather your things and head home.”
“Home?” said Alice.
“Amelia Bedelia can’t go home,” said Annette.
“Well, it’s up to Amelia Bedelia,” said her mother, and she explained to the Polaris girls how they’d agreed to meet Amelia Bedelia halfway.
“No way!” said Alisha.
When Amelia Bedelia returned, she looked surprised, too. “Finally found something,” she said.
“Not a skunk, I hope,” said her father.
“Come look,” said Amelia Bedelia.
Everyone followed Amelia Bedelia into the tall grass behind the row of targets, where Finally was still barking and racing back and forth in the weeds.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Evans.
Amelia Bedelia Camps Out Page 4
