Page 11 of The Carter Girls


  CHAPTER XI.

  THE CAMP.

  The lunch did not go begging. Even Cousin Lizzie forgot her disgustingsurroundings and deigned to partake of Helen's very good lettucesandwiches. She even pronounced the coffee from the thermos bottle aboutthe best she had tasted for many a day.

  "My cook doesn't make very good coffee. I don't know what she does toit. When we go back to Richmond I think I shall get you to show her howyou make it, Helen."

  Helen smiled and had not the heart to tell her cousin that her own cookhad made the coffee, after all. Of all the young Carters, MissSomerville was fondest of Helen. She had infinite patience with herfoibles and thought her regard for dress and style just as it should be.

  "A woman's appearance is a very important factor and too much thoughtcannot be given it," she would say. Miss Somerville had boasted muchbeauty in her youth and still was a very handsome old lady, with aquantity of silver white hair and the complexion of a debutante."Gentlemen are more attracted by becoming clothes than anything else,"she declared, "and of course it is nothing but hypocrisy that makeswomen say they do not wish to attract the opposite sex." MissSomerville, having had many opportunities to marry, and having chosensingle blessedness of her own free will, always spoke with greatauthority of the male sex. She always called them gentlemen, however,and the way she said "gentlemen" made you think of dignified persons inlong-tailed coats and high stocks who paid their addresses on bendedknees.

  "Only one more station before we get to Greendale!" exclaimed Douglas."I feel real rested."

  "That's cause I'se been so good," said the angel Bobby. "I ain't asingle time had my head an' arm chopped off. I tell you, I don't doshover's work for the C. & O. for nothin'. My boss don't 'low me to workfor nobody but jest him."

  "You have been as good as gold," said Douglas, "and now I am going tobuy you some candy," she added, as the train boy came through crying hiswares.

  "Choclid?"

  "Suppose you have marshmallows instead. They are so much less evident onyour countenance," suggested Helen.

  "All right! I'd jest as soon 'cause that nice dirty boy in the mountingskin milk me some choclid out'n the cow whenever I gits hungry."

  "What a filthy trip it has been!" said Cousin Lizzie as she shook thecinders from her black taffeta suit.

  "Yes, it is grimy," declared Helen, "and I came off without my Dorine. Ihad just got a new one. I do hate to arrive anywhere with a shiny nose.Lend me your vanity box, Douglas, please."

  "Vanity box! I never thought about bringing it. It is packed with theother extra, useless things in Cousin Lizzie's trunk room. It neverentered my head that we would want a vanity box at a mountain camp."

  "Well, I don't intend to have a shiny nose in a mountain camp any morethan any other place. I hate to look greasy."

  "Have a marshmallow," drawled Nan. "They are great beautifiers."

  So Helen powdered her nose with some of Bobby's candy, much to theamusement of that infant.

  Lewis and Bill were waiting for the travelers at the station atGreendale with the ramshackle little car, which they had christened theMountain Goat because of its hill climbing proclivities. Josh was alsothere, with the faithful Josephus hitched to an old cart to carry theluggage up to the camp.

  The porter from the summer hotel of Greendale was on the platform as thetrain stopped and he immediately came forward, thinking these stylishpassengers were for his hostelry; but the little mountain boy stepped infront of him and said:

  "We uns is you allses baggage man," and he seized their grips andparcels and won their hearts as well with his merry blue eyes and softvoice.

  "Oh, you must be the dirty boy what's got a choclid cow!" exclaimedBobby. "I'm a dirty boy, too, now I'm come to live in the mountings an'I'm goin' to be a baggage man, too, if Dr. Wright will let me off frombeing a shover up here where th' ain't no traffic cops to 'rest you if'nyou don't stick out yo' arm goin' round the cornders. I'd most ruther bea baggage man than a shover if'n I can sit in front with you and drivethe mule." All this poured forth in one breath while the young men weregreeting the ladies.

  "All aboard!" shouted the brakeman and the signal was given for theengineer to start.

  "Oh, where are Oscar and Susan?" from a distracted Douglas. "Stop,please stop!"

  Oscar was discovered peacefully sleeping and Susan so deep in herbeloved dream book that she was oblivious to the passing of time andmiles. They were dragged from the colored coach by the amused brakemanand dumped on the platform as the train made its second rumbling startupgrade.

  The bringing of these two servants had been a problem to our girls. Theywere both of them kind and faithful but were strictly urban in theirraising, and how the real rough country would affect them remained to beseen. They sniffed scornfully at the small station with its stuffywaiting-rooms, one for coloreds and one, whites, and looked at the greatmountains that closed them in with distrust and scorn.

  "Uncle Oscar, this place jes' ain't no place at all," grumbled Susan."Look at that shack over yonder what passes fer a sto', and this herelittle po' white boy settin' up yonder on the seat with our Bobby! Heneedn't think he is goin' ter 'sociate with the quality. You, Bobby, gitdown from thar an' come hol' my han'!"

  "Hol' your grandmother's han'! I ain't no baby. I'm a 'spressman an' ama gointer hol' the mule. That was pretty near a joke," he said, lookingconfidingly into the eyes of his new friend. "One reason I was so gooda-comin' up here was because we let Susan go in the Jim Crow coach tokeep Uncle Oscar comp'ny, 'cause when she is ridin' anywhere near meshe's all time wantin' me to hol' her han.'"

  "We thought we'd make two loads of you," said Lewis, when the greetingswere over. "Bill can go ahead with Aunt Lizzie and some of you while therest of us walk, and when he puts you out at the camp he can come backand meet us half way."

  "Douglas must ride," declared Helen. "She is so tired."

  "I'm a lot rested now."

  "Yes, sure, you must ride," said Lewis, a shade of disappointment in histone as he had been rather counting on having a nice little walk andtalk with his favorite cousin.

  "Say, Lewis, you run the jitney first. Legs stiff and tired sittingstill," said Bill magnanimously.

  So while Lewis was cheated out of a walk with Douglas, he had thesatisfaction of having her sit beside him as he drove the rickety car upthe winding mountain road. Miss Somerville was packed in the back withNan and Lucy, but when Lucy found that Helen was to walk, she decided towalk, too. Susan was put in her place, and so her feelings were somewhatmollified.

  "Josephus ain't above totin' one of the niggers 'long with the trunks,"said Josh, determined to get even for the remarks he had heard Oscar andSusan make in regard to "po' white trash." The antagonism that existsbetween the mountaineer and darkey is hard to overcome.

  So Oscar, the proud butler of "nothin' but fust famblies," was forcedeither to walk up the mountain, something he dreaded, or climb up on theseat of the cart by the despised "po' white trash." He determined on thelatter course and took his seat in dignified silence with the expressionof one who says: "My head is bloody but unbowed."

  "The freight came and we have hauled it up and unpacked the best wecould. I am afraid it is going to be mighty rough for you girls and forpoor Aunt Lizzie, who is certainly a brick for coming, but we have doneour best," said Lewis to Douglas.

  "Rough, indeed! Who would expect divans and Turkish rugs at a camp? Weare sure to like it and we are so grateful to you and Mr. Tinsley. Butlook at the view! Oh, Cousin Lizzie, just look at the view!"

  "Now see here, Douglas, I said I would come and chaperone Cousin RobertCarter's granddaughters if no one would make me look at views. Views donot appeal to me." She couldn't help looking at the view, though, asthere was nothing else to look at.

  "I's jes' lak you, Miss Lizzie. I don' think a thing er views. I ain'tnever seed one befo' but I heard tell of 'em. Looks lak a view ain'tnothin' but jes' seem' fur, an' if'n th'ain't nothin' ter see, what'sthe use in it?"

>   Wordsworth's lines came to Nan and she whispered them to herself as shelooked off across the wonderful valley:

  "'The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I'd rather be A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.'"

  She intended to whisper it to herself but as the march of the lines tookpossession of her, she spoke them out loud without knowing it. On theninth line she came out strong with, "'Great God! I'd rather be--'" MissSomerville and Susan looked at her in amazement. Her dark eyes werefixed on the despised view with a look of a somnambulist.

  "Lawd a mussy! Miss Nan done got a tech er heat!"

  "Blow your horn, Lewis. Didn't you hear Nan?" from Miss Somerville."She must see something coming."

  Nan went off into such a peal of laughter that Bill Tinsley himselfcould not have vied with her. She blushingly admitted it was just somepoetry she was repeating to herself, which made Miss Somerville agreewith Susan that Miss Nan had a "tech er heat."

  "You had better have a dose of that aromatic ammonia and lie down for awhile when we get to the top," suggested Miss Lizzie dryly.

  The road stopped at the cabin some distance from the pavilion, so theyalighted and Lewis turned the car on a seemingly impossible place andcareened down the mountain to pick up the others before they wereexhausted with the climb.

  The cabin was in perfect order and so clean that even Miss Lizzie wasdestined to find it difficult to discover germs. Gwen had rubbed andscrubbed and then beautified to the best of her ability. She hadpurchased a few yards of coarse scrim at the store and fresh curtainswere at the windows. The white iron bed was made up in spotlesscounterpane and pillows, and on the freshly scrubbed pine floor was anew rag rug of her own weave. The open fireplace was filled withfragrant spruce boughs, and on the high mantel and little deal table shehad put cans of honeysuckle and Cherokee roses. She had longed for somevases but had not liked to ask the young men to buy them. She felt thatthe curtains were all the expense she should plunge them into.

  When Gwen had seen the car approaching she had shyly gone behind thecabin. She dreaded in a measure meeting these girls and their cousin.She had become accustomed to the presence of the young gentlemen, butwhat would the girls think of her? Wouldn't they think she was oddand funny looking? She was quite aware of the fact that she was verydifferent in appearance from the girls in cities. She had pored overtoo many illustrated papers not to know how other girls her age dressedand looked. Her scant blue dress was made after a pattern sent to theMission School by some interested ladies. It was supposed to be the bestpattern for children to use where the cloth must be economically cut.So it was and singularly picturesque in its straight lines, but Gwen wasbut human and now that fashion sheets plainly said wider skirts andflaring, here she was in her narrow little dress! She hated it. Barelegs and feet, too!

  Her instinct was to turn and flee around the mountain to the arms ofAunt Mandy, who thought she was the most wonderful little girl in allthe world. But there was the kind of fighting blood in her that couldnot run. The spirit of a grandfather who had been one of the heroes ofBalaclava made her hold up her proud little head and go boldly around tothe front of the cabin to face the dreadful ladies.

  "Oh, you must be Gwen!" exclaimed Douglas, coming forward with bothhands to greet the girl. "Mr. Somerville has told us how splendidly youhave taken care of them and I know you must have arranged this room forCousin Lizzie. It is lovely."

  Gwen no longer felt like one of the Light Brigade. This was not the jawsof Death and the mouth of Hell. This sweet young lady didn't evennotice her bare feet, and the scanty skirt made no difference at all.She introduced her to Miss Somerville and to her sister, Nan, who wasalso graciousness itself. Miss Somerville was a little stiff, remindingGwen of the old ladies on the hotel piazza who bought the lace andtatting that she and Aunt Mandy made on the long winter evenings whenthe sun went down behind the mountains so early.

  "Yes, the room will do very well."

  It was rather faint praise and took very little time to say when oneconsidered that Gwen had spent days on her task. But Nan and Douglasmade up to her for their cousin's seeming coldness by going intoraptures over the cabin.

  "Lewis did not tell us he was going to whitewash the room for CousinLizzie," said Nan.

  "I whitewashed it myself. The young gentlemen were so occupied withconstructing the pavilion that I could not bear to interrupt them." Nanand Douglas could not help smiling at the little English girl's stiltedlanguage but they hid their amusement. "I prepared the attic room forthe negro maid. Would you like to go up and see that?"

  "Yes, indeed! Come on, Susan, and see your room. It is to be right upover Cousin Lizzie's."

  "Well, praise be to my Maker that I ain't goin' to have to sleep in theair. My lungs is weak at best an' no doubt the air would be the death ofme."

  Susan's figure belied her words, as she was an exceedingly buxom girlwith a chest expansion that Sandow might have envied her.

  The attic was entered by a trap door from the room below and in lieu ofstairs there was nothing but a ladder made chicken-steps style: smallcross pieces nailed on a board.

  The attic room was scrubbed as clean as Miss Lizzie's. The low ceilingand very small windows certainly suited Susan's idea of sanitation, asvery little air could find its way into the chamber. A rough wooden bedwas built against the wall, as is often the way in mountain cabins, morelike a low, deep shelf than a bed. Gwen had stuffed a new tick withnice clean straw and Susan bid fair to have pleasant dreams on her freshbed. A night spent without dreams of some kind was one wasted in theeyes of the colored girl who consulted her dream book constantly.

  Josh had railed at Gwen for putting a bunch of black-eyed Susans in theattic room.

  "Waitin' on a nigger! Humph! You uns ain't called on to lower yo'sefthat a way. Niggers is niggers an' we uns would ruther to bust thanfetch an' carry fer 'em."

  "This seems a very small thing to do," Gwen had answered. She did notshare the mountaineer's prejudice against the black race. "I have nodoubt this girl will like flowers just as much as Miss Somerville."

  So she did and a great deal more, as she expressed her appreciation ofthe tomato can of posies, and Miss Somerville had not even noticed thebouquets in her room. As Susan followed the girls up the funny steps andher head emerged through the trap door, her eyes immediately fell on theflowers.

  "Well, Gawd be praised! My dream is out! I done fell asleep in the cyarsan' dream I see little chillun picking flowers in a fiel'. My book saythat is one er two interpretations: you is either goin' ter have freshflowers laid on yer grabe er some one is goin' ter make you a prisint erflowers. I thank yer, little miss, fer the bowkay."

  "Indeed, you are welcome," and Gwen gave her a grave smile.

  Susan had been quite doubtful at first what her attitude should be withthis white girl who went barefooted and whitewashed cabins herself. Sheknew very well how to treat po' white trash: like the dust under herfeet. There was no other way for a self-respecting colored girl to treatthem. But this white girl was different, somehow.

  "She got a high steppin' way that is mo' like quality," she declared toOscar later. "She calls that slab-sided, shanty-boat 'ooman Aunt Mandy,but I 'low they ain't no kin. Now that there Josh is low flung. I thinkMiss Douglas is crazy to let Bobby run around with him as much as shedo. I bet his maw would stop it fast enough."

  The Carter girls' enthusiasm and praise for the camp fully repaid theyoung men for their untiring labor. The pavilion was really a thing ofbeauty, b
uilt right up in the trees, as it were, like a great nest. Ithad no walls, but the roof projected far enough to keep out anythingshort of horizontal rain. An artistic rustic seat encircled the greatpoplar trunk in the centre and rough benches were built around threesides of the hall. Stairs went down on the fourth side to the kitchen inthe basement, and outside, steps gave entrance to the pavilion. Thewhole building was screened. This was to be dining-room, living-room,dance hall and everything and anything they chose to make of it. Thegirls had reserved their victrola in renting the house and it now hadthe place of honor near the circular seat.

  "We just unpacked it this morning," said Lewis. "There was no use inmusic with no girls to dance with."

  "Aren't men strange creatures?" laughed Helen. "Now girls love to danceso, they dance with each other, but two men would just as soon do fancywork as dance with one another."

  "Sooner," muttered Bill. "Let's have a spin!"

  So a spirited "one-step" was put on and then the youths felt themselvesto be overpaid for their work as they danced over the floor that hadbeen the cause of many an aching joint and mashed thumb. Joints were notaching now and mashed thumbs were miraculously cured by clasping thehands of these pretty girls.

  That first supper in the mountains was a very merry one. Miss Elizabethwas much refreshed by a nap and came to the pavilion quite resigned tolife. She had nothing but praise for the handiwork of her belovednephew, and even included the laconic Bill in her compliments. Shewished, however, he would not be so sudden in his laughter as she wasafraid it betrayed the vacant mind.

  Gwen had made a delicious fricassee of chicken in the fireless cooker,the mysteries of which she had been taught at the mission school. Hotbiscuit and honey from Aunt Mandy's hive completed the feast.

  "What delicious biscuit!" exclaimed Douglas. "Isn't Gwen a wonder?"

  "'Scuse me, Miss Douglas, but I made them biscuit," said Susan, who waswaiting on the table.

  "But, Susan, I thought you said you couldn't cook a thing!"

  "That was in Richmond. I ain't boun' by no regulations of no club whinI leaves the city. You see in my club, which is called the LoyalHousemaids, we swars never to 'tend to two 'fessions at onct. When we ishousemaids, we is housemaids, but out here where th'ain't ter say nohouse, I kin do as I's a mind, and I sho' did want ter make some biscuitter go with that there fricassy. Uncle Oscar an' I is goin' ter sharethe cookin'. An' Miss Gwen is goin' ter do the haid wuck. We ain'tconversant with the fi'less cooker an' we don't know nothin' 'tall 'boutlightin' kerosene stoves."

  Our girls were much gratified by Susan's willingness to turn in and beof some real assistance. The work when only the family were there wouldbe light, but if the many week-enders who had announced their intentionof coming to their camp materialized, they well knew that it would takethe combined efforts of them all to feed the hungry hordes and to washthe many dishes and make up the many cots. The laundering of the bedlinen and towels would amount to more than they could cope with, so theyhad decided to patronize a laundry in Charlottesville, for all the flatwork.

  Bobby was in a state of extreme bliss. He had been allowed to help Joshfeed Josephus and now he was permitted to come to supper without doingmore towards purifying himself than just "renching the Germans" off hishands and face. He was to sleep in the tent with his Cousin Lewis, too.

  The girls' tent was pitched just behind the Englishman's cabin, whilethe masculine quarters were nearer the pavilion.

  "We will put up other tents as we need them," said Lewis. "We havechopped down enough trees and cleared enough ground to camp the whole ofRichmond."

  "Thank goodness, our boarders won't come for a week yet and we can havetime to enjoy ourselves for a while," sighed Douglas.

  She was very tired but it was not the miserable fatigue she had felt intown. It was a good healthy tired that meant a night's rest with nothingto think about but how good life was and how kind people were.Everything was certainly working out well. Cousin Lizzie was behaving ina wonderful way for an old lady who thought much of her ease and had nolove of Nature. Helen and Lucy were too interested to squabble at alland so were getting on splendidly. Bobby was behaving himselfbeautifully, and even the servants were rising to the occasion andevidently intending to do their best. The only fly in the ointment wastheir attitude towards Josh and his towards them. He openly called them"niggers," and they called him "po' white" right to his face. Gwen, theyseemed to have accepted at her face value and not judged by her barefeet and scanty frock.

  "Niggers, an' min' you, Miss Douglas, we don't 'low nobody but us tocall us out of our names that way," said Oscar. "Niggers is reg'larbloodhoun's an' they kin smell out quality same as geologists kin. Me'nSusan knows that that there little Miss Gwen is a lady bawn."

  "I believe she is, Oscar, and I hope you and Susan will be just as niceto her as you can be."

  "We'll do our best, but land's sake, Miss Douglas, don' arsk us to begentle with that there Josh. He is low flung and mischeevous to thatextent."

  "All right, Oscar," laughed Douglas, "but don't be too hard on him."Lewis had told her that Josh was fully capable of taking care of himselfand in the trial of wits Josh would certainly come out ahead.

  "He already done scart Susan to death, tellin' her about hants in themountings. He says that Miss Gwen's paw was pestered by a ringin' an'buzzin' in his haid that drove him 'stracted, and he used to roam themountings trying to git shet of the sound, til bynby he couldn't stan'it no mo an' up'n jumped off'n a place called the Devil's Gorge andbrack ev'y bone in his body. An' he sayed the Englishman still hantsthese here parts an' you can hear the buzzin' an' ringin' sometimes jes'as plain as the po' man uster hear it in his life time. He say he won'tcome over here arfter nightfall to save yo neck."

  "What nonsense!" declared Douglas. "Well, all the buzzing on earth won'tkeep me awake," but before she went to sleep, she recounted theridiculous tale to her three sisters, who shared the tent with her.

  They agreed that they would have to ask Lewis to speak to Josh abouttelling such things to poor Susan, who was already eaten up withsuperstition.

  "Ain't it grand to sleep in a----?" but Lucy was asleep before she saidwhat it was grand to sleep in. Nan tried to recall some lines ofWordsworth that Gwen reminded her of, but "The sweetest thing that evergrew," was all she could think of before sleep got her, too. Helenforgot to put olive oil on her eyebrows, a darkening process she wasmuch interested in, and went off into happy, dreamless slumber. Douglasshut her tired eyes and sleep claimed her for its own before she couldcount ten.