CHAPTER VIII
TELLS HOW TOM WAS VISITED BY AUNT LOUISA--AND SOME OTHERS
Saturdays at Chicora were by way of being fête-days. Relatives andfriends were given the freedom of the camp, and the visitors’ tablein the dining-hall was usually full. Frequently the father of one ofthe boys stayed over until Monday morning, sleeping in one of thedormitories and getting a genuine taste of camp life. On the dayfollowing the adventure at the cliff the visitors began to reach campearly, and among the first to put in an appearance was Tom’s AuntLouisa, from Boston. Her arrival was so unexpected, and Tom became soexcited over it, that he started at the landing to tell her how glad tosee her he was and only finished at the flag-pole, having been set backtwice in his stuttering by stubbing his toe on the way up. With parentsand friends appeared simultaneously baskets and boxes of fruit, candy,and cake. Sunday morning found many absent from the breakfast table,and Dr. Smith made the rounds of the dormitories with what he calledhis “Sunday Specific.” But Aunt Louisa wasn’t the sort to bring troubleto a boy’s digestion; she said so herself in the presence of Nelson andDan and Bob and Tom, the first three having been formally introduced byTom as “my special friends.”
“I don’t believe in candy, Tom,” said Aunt Louisa, “and you know it.So don’t expect any. You’re looking so well, my dear, that I wouldn’tthink of bringing you anything that might upset you. I did considerfruit, but I’m always afraid of fruit; in hot weather--aren’t you, sir?”
Dan, finding the question put to him, answered with alacrity.
“Yes’m,” said Dan soberly.
“Yes, that’s what I think,” continued Aunt Louisa. “And so I said tomyself, ‘If it must be something sweet’--for Tom’s got the sweetesttooth of any boy I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a good many in mytime--‘if it must be something sweet,’ I said, ‘why, it will besomething healthful.’ And so, Tom, I’ve brought you two of those lemonpies and a dozen cream-puffs from that nice store on Temple Place.There’s nothing about a good honest pie can hurt any one--is there?”
“No, indeed,” answered Dan with enthusiasm. Tom murmured his thanks,but withal looked a trifle dissatisfied. Aunt Louisa saw it.
“I do believe he’s disappointed at not getting candy!” she said.
“No, really, aunt,” Tom answered, striving to put conviction into histones. “I’m awfully fond of cream-puffs--and pie.”
But Aunt Louisa shook her head, unconvinced. “I’m afraid you are,though,” she said. “I kind of felt you would be. That’s why I saidto myself, ‘Now, there’s mighty little use in being in good healthif you’re unhappy. If the boy’s going to get more enjoyment out ofhaving a stomach-ache than by not having one, why, he shall have it.Boys aren’t real happy, anyhow,’ I said to myself, ‘unless they’re introuble, and I guess a stomach-ache’s about as harmless a trouble as hecould have.’ And so I just went down to Sage & Paw’s and----”
“Hooray for you, Aunt Louisa!” shouted Tom. “What d’you get?”
“Mixed chocolates,” said Aunt Louisa, her eyes dancing, adding grimly,“I guess they’ll do the work as quick as anything!”
Candy never tastes so good as when a chap has been subsisting on whatthe school catalogues call “a plain, wholesome diet with a sufficiencyof pure milk and butter and fresh eggs.” The box, a generousfour-pound affair, was quickly obtained, and the five--Aunt Louisareminding one of a valuable transport under the protection of fourmen-o’-war--sought a quiet spot in the forest above the clearing wherethey, or at least four of them, could do the matter full justice. AuntLouisa sat on a fallen tree, with her neat gray traveling-gown welltucked up around her, and encouraged them to eat all they could.
“You might just as well have it over with,” she declared. “You’re allbound to be ill, and the sooner you’re ill the sooner you’ll be wellagain. Mr. Hurry, you mustn’t let Tom get ahead of you.”
“Dan’s name’s Speede, auntie,” corrected Tom.
“Speede, is it? Well, he’s real slow compared to you, Tom, when itcomes to candy.”
They unanimously voted Aunt Louisa a “brick,” and hospitably pressedher to come again. And in the afternoon, when the camp turned out in abody and traveled to the ball field for the first game of the season,Aunt Louisa was escorted in state. The box of candy didn’t go alonghowever; they had lost the edge of their appetite. So Tom bore thedepleted box to Maple Hall, and, because his locker no longer locked,and because the sign artistically done on the door with a hot poker,which sign surrounded a grinning skull and cross-bones and read,“DANGER! KEEP OUT!” had no meaning for the other occupants of the hall,he secreted it at the head of his bunk under the mattress.
Chicora’s adversary that day was Camp Trescott. Trescott was situateddirectly across the lake in Joy’s Cove. It was a small camp, and thedozen and a half fellows inhabiting it were all from one school.Trescott rather prided itself on being select. But select or not, itwasn’t much at baseball, and Chicora had little difficulty in winningas she pleased. But despite a very one-sided score--17 to 3--therewere some good plays, and the spectators were well repaid for theirhalf-mile walk through the woods. Bob found plenty of things thatneeded remedying, but on the whole the Chicora team played very wellfor a first game.
There was quite a gallery of spectators at the evening plunge, andDan excelled himself at diving, bringing forth screams of terrifiedprotest from Aunt Louisa, who “just knew that Mr. Hurry would drownhimself, if he didn’t break his neck first!” Even Nelson, who of latehad been profiting by Dan’s instruction, did some very respectablestunts in the line of what Tom called “high and lofty tumbling.” AuntLouisa, together with nearly a dozen other guests, stayed to supper andcamp-fire, being taken back to Chicora Inn at nine in the steam-launch.A dozen or so of the boys went along with the guests, the Four amongthem. There was a jolly big white moon that made a wide sparkling pathacross the water, and there was a nice nippy little breeze from theeast that rendered the seats about the boiler very popular. Mr. Clintonran the launch, and coming back he made no protest when Bob, who was atthe wheel, turned the head of the Chicora across the lake and huggedthe opposite shore all the way back, explaining _sotto voce_ to Nelsonthat “the longest way around was the shortest way home.”
It was after ten when they finally made the landing, and nearly halfpast when, having helped the Chief make fast the boat for the nightand partaken of a lunch of milk and crackers in the dining-hall, theFour tumbled into bed and put out their lanterns. And it was just aboutmidnight when a heartrending shriek broke out on the stillness andbrought every fellow into a sitting position in his bunk with visionsof murder. In the momentary silence ensuing there was a loud _thump_ ofa body striking the floor, the building shook on its foundations, andMr. Verder’s alarmed voice rang out:
“What’s the matter? Who yelled, fellows?”
“_Wha-wha-wha-what’s the mu-mu-mu-matter?_” shrieked a voice midwaydown the hall. “I du-du-dunno what’s the mu-mu-mu--what’s themu-mu-mu-matter! I only know I’m bu-bu-bu-being eat-tu-tu-eaten alive!”
A howl of laughter rewarded the explanation, and lanterns were quicklylighted. Dan was one of the first on the scene. Tom, his blanketsscattered around him, stood in his pajamas with staring eyes and busyhands. First he rubbed and slapped one part of his body, then another,and all the time he kept up an indignant stuttering.
“Tu-tu-talk about pu-pu-pu-pins an’ nu-nu-needles! Gu-gu-gee!Su-su-somebody’s put a whole pu-pu-pu-package of ’em in mu-mu-my bed!”
“Shut up your howling,” said Dan with a grin. “What’s the fun?”
“_Fu-fu-fun!_” yelled Tom. “I wish you had it!”
“Had what?”
“Wha-wha-whatever it is, you bu-bu-bu-blamed idiot!” answered Tomwrathfully. Then, with a sudden shriek, he leaped a foot into the air,grabbed his pajamas above his left knee, and danced nimbly about thefloor, at last becoming entangled in the blankets and tumbling headlongat the feet of Mr. Verder, who came hurrying up. E
very fellow was onhand by that time, and Tom was pulled sputtering to his feet. Mr.Verder took the nearest lantern and investigated. The cause of Tom’sunhappiness wasn’t far to seek. Over the bed and blankets swarmed averitable army of big black ants!
“Ants!” said Mr. Verder, laughing. “What are you doing, Ferris,studying entomology?”
“Probably _ant_omology,” hazarded Nelson.
“Ants?” exclaimed Tom, still rubbing himself busily. “Ants! Gee,I thought they were bu-bu-bu-bees at least! They haven’t done ath-th-th-thing tu-tu-tu-to me, sir!”
“Well, I’m sorry, Ferris,” said the councilor. “The Doctor will get yousomething to put on the bites. But what are they doing on your bed?”
“I gu-gu-guess it’s the cu-cu-cu-candy, sir,” said Tom sheepishly.
“Candy? What candy?”
For answer Tom raised the mattress, revealing a box about which theants were crawling excitedly to and fro.
“Well,” said Mr. Verder when the laughter had somewhat subsided, “afterthis you had better keep your candy somewhere else.”
For answer Tom seized the box gingerly and hurled it out the nearestwindow. Dr. Smith appeared with a bottle of witch-hazel, and Tom,dispensing with his pajamas, received medical assistance. After thatorder and quiet were restored only with much difficulty. Tom wentelsewhere to continue his interrupted slumber, hugging the bottle ofwitch-hazel to his breast, but he couldn’t get beyond the gibes ofhis companions. They sat on the edge of his new bunk and pointed outthe moral to him, which, according to them, was to the effect thatselfishness had been justly rewarded. And Tom, rubbing and grimacing,had no spirit left with which to defend himself.
“It proves,” declared Dan, “that a fellow can have too many ants!”
Tom only groaned, whether at the pun or at his pain they didn’t know.
Four in Camp: A Story of Summer Adventures in the New Hampshire Woods Page 10
